Engaging Simulations: The Supreme Court
In my last post, I reported that so far my data is showing increased student engagement and interest in the topics covered in the activities. I continue to utilize self-report inventories to measure student engagement tailored to each activity. To review, my research question states: How can I maximize the civic engagement of my 12th-grade government students upon their graduation in time to vote in the 2020 election?
Data collection continues as the new year begins. After finishing the curriculum unit on the U.S. government’s legislative and executive branches, it was time for the judicial branch. As I shared with my students, during my college years I was required to take a Constitutional development course that was by far the most boring course I ever took. It consisted of lecture after lecture reviewing court cases and taking notes. I told them that as a result, I have had very little interest in following the intricacies of case law and legal proceedings. Therefore, my goal with this unit was to break down the judicial system and make it meaningful to them through real-world scenarios.
To work towards this goal, I provided the students with two simulations regarding the process and decision-making of the Supreme Court. These lesson plans provided an opportunity to combine two of the activities students had indicated were of high interest: simulations and current events. Students reported that they learned a lot about the Supreme Court process from the two simulations and that, overall, they liked the activities. The first simulation involved analysis of a past Supreme Court case and assuming the roles of Supreme Court justices. Each class was split into two groups in order to create an odd number of justices. Each group was tasked with reviewing the case and simulating the debate of Supreme Court justices to arrive at a decision on a case. Students reported that they did like this simulation, but the rating was not quite as high as for the second simulation.
The second simulation activity was done over two days. This was unique and at times stressful for students as they were simulating a current case heard before the court last fall that has not been decided. I loved it because they could not “Google” the court decision! Students had access to a case summary, oral arguments, and other precedent cases to prepare for the court session. Students acted as attorneys for each side and the remainder of the class served as the justices, who heard arguments and asked questions. The “court” then rendered a decision and the classes will be continuing to follow the case as the real decision is released sometime this spring.
In the self-report inventories, students reported a higher rating for this simulation and desire to do a simulation again. It also scored higher on the interest scale than the first simulation, but not as high as previous activities. My observations on these results are that students are not as familiar with the often difficult legal language and not as comfortable with the judicial process as they were during the study of the legislative process. For example, I was often called in by student groups to explain a term or rephrase some of the language. Additionally, they verbally shared they were not as confident in their justifications of decisions because they did not feel they had enough background in the judicial process.
Stay tuned for our next adventure in the journey — -the political process. Fortunately, this is a timely unit during the beginnings of the caucus and primary season. During this part of the journey, I will be conducting some individual student interviews to get more qualitative data and hear the voices of my students more directly. Continue to follow me on this Medium blog and also on Twitter, hashtags #setlab, #educationscientist, and #changebydesign.
