Presentation Practice

Hello bloggers! This is Amir Sheffield from the mock trial here to give you a report on what we did this week. On Tuesday July 21, 2009, we split up and one group researched O.J. Simpson's life, and the other group researched the Dust Bowl. I was in the second group, reserching the Dust Bowl. I had a lot of fun learning about the Dust Bowl. I found out a lot of interesting facts about it, like that it killed a lot of people, and a lot of crops were destroyed. After gathering information, we did power point presentations in the USB building. Our mentors tought us what to do and what not to do in a presentions, and gave us the feedback on how our presentations went. We all learned new information about each topic, in fact, nobody from the entire group had even heard of the Dust Bowl before this. A couple of thing we learned about O.J is that he was a really good football player, but made some bad chocies in his life.



Here are some links to sources that we used to learn about our topics and used in our presentation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTRIALS/Simpson/simpson.htm

http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html

Mock Trial: Shaping Up

Hi everyone, this is Kendall from the mock trial group. Yesterday, our group had a practice mock trial. The defense didn't have many questions for the witnesses, and some of the witnesses didn't have answers, but it was practice and we only just received our packets of information yesterdat morning. The defense is preparing new and better questions for the plantiff witnesses. I think that when we start the mock trial, we will be more prepared. I will be playing the role of Jamie Billard, a lawyer for the defendant and I think this will be a challenging case. I've never been in a mock trial before, so this will be a new expireance for me. The plantiff side is working just as hard as we are, so I know that our showcase will be great. The defendant group is excited to start the trial.



On another note, we learned a little about autism this morning, because one of the characters in the trial is a little girl who is autistic. We learned that even with autism, you can still be a functioning member of the cummuinity. Just because you're autistic, doesn't always mean that your handicapped. Here is a link with more interesting information that we found: http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_home.



Next week we plan on having a few guest speakers come in to talk to us. One will show us how to present ourselves non-verbally, like our posture and eye contact. Another is going to talk to us about the basics of law and the legal system. In our portfolio training, Zack is going to teach us how to present ourselves when in an interview. Even though some of the workers do know how this is done, it will be good to have a chance to practice this.

4 weeks and counting

My name is Quisha and today I will be writing about what happened during the week from Monday July13th to Friday July 17th. On Wednesday, we had portfolio training with Zack, discussing jobs and professional and unprofessional attire to wear to work. We learned that how we will greet our co-workers is different from how we would greet our friends, and also brought in awards and something that we received from school or our work so that we have a better portfolio to show a future employer. Then, on Thursday, we had a site visit from our program director Kelly George. She was one of the judges when we were having a debate and was also very polite. Today, Friday the 17th, we watched a movie on global warming called An Inconvenient. There will be pictures to come soon so keep visiting!!

Our First Week: Finished!

Today we, Anthony and Darien, are going to post to our blog about a fun thing we did last week. Last Friday we watched a movie called Erin Brockovich, which is based on a true story. For many of us, it was our first time seeing this movie. We watched it because it is about a legal case that is similar to what we will be doing in our mock trial. In our case there is a company named Badger Aeromechanical Corp. that is dumping chemicals irresponsibly, similar to PG&E in the movie. In our case, these chemicals are affecting the ground water near the factory. It is belived that those chemicals are causing health issues in the immediate community near the plant. Our case presents an ethical obligation because Badger Aeromechanical Corp. makes windmill turbines that will be used in third-world countries. Although they are helping other countries, they are not disposing of chemicals properly here in the U.S. Our entire team is split into two sides, Plaintiff and Defendant. It will be our jobs to play the roles of certain characters in our fictional case.

The entire team learned interesting new things from watching this movie. I, Darien, didn't know that these cases could involve so many people, both plaintiff and defendant. I will be on the defendant side, playing the role of a witness, and I look forward to being a part of this project.

I, Anthony, didn't know that things like this even happened. I never knew that companies could be so irresponsible when it comes to their own back yard. I also will be playing the role of a witness, but for the plaintiff side. I'm glad I am on this side, because I am angry that a company would do this to the people that live there.

This movie really made us and the team aware of our sitution in Philadelphia. What would the consequences be if a local manufacuter were to do this here, in OUR community? Our population is much larger than the community in the movie, and the effects would devastating. It makes you wonder what is in our water, right here at home.

We look forward to posting more in the next few weeks.

Anthony and Darien

Our First Blog

It was Fun Meeting Everyone in our group( but we still don't know everyone's name yet).
We are still getting new students in our group everyday.
We are planing a Mock trial, its going to be fun and exciting. we are going to meet a couple of people like some lawyers(etc)

Everyone in our Group is Very Happy To put This Trial Together.