2019 Master Teacher Finalists Announced

​Daniel R. Cahoy
Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business
The Name Game
“This proposal seeks to bridge the gap between the legal, business and social world of trademarks. It describes a simple combination of exercises that can complement basic instruction to help students engage their emotional and strategic brains. Specifically, the combination first presents a debate on a key ethical issue in the midst of the basic instruction on the nature of trademarks. It then follows up with a realistic classroom exercise that requires students to apply business and legal skills in choosing a trademark, validated by classroom voting.”

​Shawna Meyer Eikenberry
Indiana University, Kelley School of Business
Living with a Contract:  Helping Students Understand the Importance of Contract Language and Negotiations
“Many textbooks deal with basic concerns of contract law – offer, acceptance, consideration, what law applies, consent to contract, possible remedies, etc. And these are important topics, no doubt. But in “real life,” the most common contract issues that business professionals address usually aren’t about these kinds of issues. Instead, they actually negotiate contract terms and decide whether to live with risks that come with accepting contract terms that they can’t negotiate. It is this kind of real life situation that this group of assignments and related lessons strive to illustrate.”

​Michael R. Koval
Salisbury University, Perdue School of Business
You’ve Been Chopped!  Energize Those End-of-term Student Presentations with Some Friendly Competition
“This proposal describes my end-of-term Tort Lawsuit Competition, which requires students to find and analyze a current lawsuit based in negligence that has been filed, but not yet heard, against a business or organization. Each student completes this task individually before the competition by finding a complaint and submitting a paper. In groups, the students choose one of their lawsuits to use for the competition. A Lightning Round provides all groups the opportunity to present their work on the same day in a fast-paced game show environment. The students vote as to which lawsuits they want to hear more about. The winners move on to the next class period, and the losers are chopped! This is a fun and educational way to wrap up a Legal Environment course, and can be used in classes of just about any size.”

Anthony L. McMullen
University of Central Arkansas
“The Simpsons” Teach Legal Environment of Business:  Three Episode Clips to Teach Basic Principles of Negligence and Contract Law
“As a fan of the “The Simpsons,” I once contemplated authoring a blog akin to “Law and the Multiverse” (lawandthemultiverse.com), where I would write about various legal issues raised over the past thirty seasons. When I realized that time would not permit me to pursue this endeavor, I started incorporating episodes into my teaching.
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I have adopted the flipped-classroom approach to teaching, which allows more time for showing how the law is applied rather than just explaining what the law is. Students are assigned reading and homework before class. I curate YouTube videos for students who are auditory learners, and I create voice-over PowerPoints to increase instructor presence and provide additional material on challenging topics. At the beginning of each class, I ask students if they have questions. Once any questions are resolved, I give the students ten minutes to review discussion questions (provided to students in advance) in small groups before having a full class discussion. While the discussion problems come from various sources (old essay questions, textbook case problems, hypotheticals that I make up), I enjoy classes where the students can discuss legal issues raised by “The Simpsons.” My Master Teacher presentation would show ALSB members how to incorporate the show into lectures on negligence, basic contracts, and promissory estoppel.”