2021 Master Teacher Finalists Announced

6/4/2021
 
Prof. Michael Conklin, Angelo State University
Oops, Did You Offer to Sell a $30 Million Harrier Jet?
This classroom activity centers on a Pepsi commercial from the 1990s, available on YouTube, as a vehicle for exploring issues of contract law.  The commercial featured a $30 million Harrier jet, which in theory would be available per contest rules for only $700,000.  The Pepsi Points promotion in the commercial led to a real-life lawsuit.  The classroom activity explores contract formation issues including offer, acceptance, advertisements as offers, the reasonable person standard, adequacy of consideration, and legality.  It challenges students to consider practical, real-world implications beyond what the law dictates, including the merits of “winning” a lawsuit after years of litigation versus avoiding the lawsuit in the first place. 

Prof. Debbie Kaminer, Baruch College/CUNY
Vaccines in the Time of COVID-19:  Using Vaccine Mandates to Teach about the Legal and Ethical Regulation of Business
This presentation uses the question “Can government and businesses mandate the Covid-19 vaccine?” as a starting point for an interdisciplinary lesson appropriate for a variety of business law classes. Real world business dilemmas often have many parts to them, and this timely and engaging question pulls together different legal concepts including constitutional law, administrative law, stare decisis, the Commerce Clause, the Supremacy Clause and employment discrimination. The question also raises issues of ethics and behavioral economics, which will help students integrate their learning across disciplines. Additionally, the lesson will develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills.

Prof. Evan A. Peterson, University of Detroit Mercy
Legal Analysis Complete?  Congratulations, Your Work Is Only Half Done . . . Introducing the Home Depot Crisis Management Exercise
Businesses increasingly view legal knowledge as an empowering mechanism to create value, foster relationships, and manage future risk. Business law and legal environment courses should foster holistic examinations not only of legal analysis but also legal strategy, business strategy, and ethics.  This classroom exercise introduces the Delphi Method technique for structuring group communication and building consensus.  Students are asked to employ this method as they consider specifically how Home Depot should respond to a class-action lawsuit arising out of an alleged shoplifting incident. 
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Prof. Sean James Shannon, SUNY Oneonta
Beyond the Classroom Walls:  Virtual Exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning Project for Teaching Business Law Students Contract Law:  A Primer for International and Domestic Collaborative Learning
Recognizing the need for students to develop broader cultural understanding, a global perspective, and skills necessary to engage in negotiations and work with other international collaborators, this classroom exercise presents a collaborative international virtual classroom learning project to teach undergraduate business law students in the United State and Finland contract law.  American and Finnish students work together as teams over several weeks to draft a contract for a US musician touring in Finland or a sponsorship contract for a Finnish athlete to market a soccer sneaker for a New York-based company. The project could equally be applied to domestic virtual exchange projects between college classes in the United States.