Mock Trial for Laguna Beach's Thurston Middle School Students

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Cox Communications invited Thurston Middle School forensic/mock trial students to try out its new gigabit-internet service as it relates to distance learning at the “Gigablast” event in Rancho Mission Viejo.

Five students had the opportunity to test distance learning technology with Thurston history teacher Michelle Martinez at the Cox Smart Home, a newly built three-story, 2,800 square-foot home with services, products and activities reliant on high-speed internet and large bandwidth.

Cox Communications is the first broadband communications company to deliver gigabit-internet speed service to Orange County business and residential customers. G1GABLAST, Cox’s gigabit service, claims to be 100 times faster than the average speed in the United States.

“Thurston has been very fortunate to be able to partner with Cox Communication to showcase 21st century learning” said Martinez. “My forensic students and daughter, Noelle Martinez from Baylor University studying forensic anthropology, were beyond excited to be given the opportunity to demonstrate a crime scene from our mock trial of King Richard III.”

During the first simulation, Noelle guided students through the crime scene investigation, communicating via Facetime on the Double Robot and Macbook Pro. Each student played an important role in the simulation as if it was a real investigation. Student roles included Faith Ackley as the criminologist, Sage Miller as the photographer, Leah West as the evidence collector, Max O’Connor as the medicolegal death investigator, and Sophia Lander as the lead investigator. In the background, students had also set up a 3-D printer to create King Richard III’s spine to show the media and other guests how they use the printer to create evidence for the mock trial.

As the crime scene investigation simulations continued, one of the students connected with the forensics class through Google Hangouts. The connection to the class was an essential piece to the overall demonstration of distance learning to show guests how the lab process works for a crime scene investigation.

The forensic/mock trial club has been a recipient of the Cox Communications Innovation Grant for the past two years. With the financial and technical support from Cox Communications, Martinez has been able to use distance learning with Baylor University to incorporate first-hand teaching of criminal investigation and forensic analysis.

“We use Cox for our internet connections,” said Chief Technology Officer Mike Morrison. “We now have 10 times the connection speed than we did 2 years ago, which has enabled us to add quality video conferencing connections to our curriculum. We currently have 37 teachers that will explore video conferencing in their classrooms throughout this school year.”

The event also featured Jason Yang, a world-renowned violinist who tours with Madonna, Wi-Fi cooking in the kitchen with food blogger and internet/television star Whitney Bond, popular gamer and author Genese Davis playing and podcasting from the home office, a robot used for telemedicine, virtual reality instruction, and other demonstrations.

Laguna Beach Unified School District Photos:

Left to right: Leah West, Sage Miller, Max O’Connor, and Faith Ackley, and Sophia Lander.