Assignment/Activity Title — CAP Court

Year — 2021

Portfolio Competency — Critical Thinking

Skill(s) — Group Dynamics, Research, Public Performance

The Main objective of the CAP Court project was to conduct a mock trial as a team and convince the jury to side
with our argument. To do this I had to choose a real life controversial court case I would represent with a group of 9 others
and create and conduct an argument to present to the court on the day of the trial. The court case I chose was Dominion
Voting Systems versus Fox News Networks, and I represented the plaintiff, Dominion voting systems. During the
preparation phase for the mock trial, we as a group split into roles for our team such as attorneys and witnesses. We
conducted extensive research on the multiple topics the case concerned and the laws we were to be debating. During the
trial I represented a witness, Brad Raffensburger, the Georgia Secretary of State and the jury ruled in favor of the Plaintiff
Dominion Voting Systems.
Some of the skills I used for this project Include Group Dynamics, Research, and Public Performance. As I stated
before this was a group project with 10 people including me. Not only were we working on a tight schedule but we had a
very large list of things to do and there was now way we were going to complete the project well if we didn't share our
findings and knowledge. Not only was it necessary to work together, it was extremely helpful for our case. If we were all
on our own path for the project some people might have had different game plans in how they felt it was most effective to
argue our case, this would create confusion and not be beneficial to our argument. It was extremely beneficial that we all
worked together and towards the same goal. Group dynamics are extremely important when one is intending to think
critically. Communication always for better synchronization of thinking and better critical thinking skills. The more minds
we had working together for this project the more we were able to dig deep and analyse not only our own supporting
arguments but rebuttals to our opponents arguments. Research was also an extremely important skill for the CAP court
project. The more research we conducted as a team, the more stable and effective our arguments were and the more likely
we were to win over the jury. Research is one of the most important skills for Critical Thinking because the more
information one has on a topic the deeper and more angles of a topic or idea one is able to analyse. Therefore the more
critically they can see the topic from. Public Performance was also necessary for this project. In a real trial the witness
wouldn't be performing, they would just be speaking about their experiences, but for this we were all part of the same
team and I had to perform my part. However, part of my performance was not rehersareable because I didn’t know what
exactly the defense was going to ask me during cross defense. Critical thinking was necessary for the public performance
because there was no possible way I could rehearse for what they were going to ask me. I could critically analyze my
witness I was playing and the experience and knowledge they would have to be more prepared, calm and collected when it
came for me to present.
During this project my skills and knowledge were tested at critical thinking and I was assigned to a court case that
I felt like I knew a fair amount about. I also had my mind decided on the case before we started because of prior
judgement that turned out to be somewhat true. Not only did I realize through extensive research that I infact knew almost
nothing about the case and that our argument was going to be harder to prove than I realized. The facts of the case were
clear that the information Fox News was being sued for publishing was indeed false, but I failed to realize that the bulk of
the case would be proving defamation. My research skills, which I think vastly improved during this project, helped me
and my team realize this. It's a good lesson to remember to try to see all aspects of a topic and immerse oneself in their
ideas before making a definitive conclusion, and to therefore think critically.
VAUGHN P. KOWAL
____________________________________________________________________________June 14, 2021_________
Student Signature (Print here: Vaughn Kowal ) Date

Sarah Forman 6/14/21

Teacher Signature Date