Monkey Trial Project: Overview

Students at Napa New Technology high School in Napa, CA conduct a "mock" trial project regarding whether or not science classes should be able to teach theories of intelligent design in classrooms. Students jigsaw past legal cases to prepare and present their cases to an audience.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Project-Based Learning
• Project Based Learning
• PBL
• Projects
• Project Learning
• Learning
• Education
• Educate
• Teach
• Teacher
• Student
• 21st Century Skills

[BIEPBL]

The teacher aligns the project with standards they are accountable for.

[noxus158]

how come its only american studies class? Why not interview more people?

[BIEPBL]

Hopefully you got my first response. There is a character count limit :-) It's great to have the students publicly present, especially to an authentic audience. Having a school board member would be great. It also would be cool if the student presented in the room where the board meetings actually took place.

[BIEPBL]

Thanks for the comment. Regarding the science teacher, the teaching team mentioned ancillary tasks that the students worked on during the main project, which was an opportunity for the science teacher to take part. For example, the students were attempting to prove that Intelligent Design is a Scientific Theory. The science teacher could give examples of standards/content that help define what that analytic structure is.  The science teacher could also have been called in as an expert.

[mkoetke]

I absolutely love this approach to learning. I was wondering though when/how the science teacher could have been instrumental in the project. I also wonder if a school board member could have been a part of the trial to give the experience a more real-world application.