Project Based Learning Electives provided by the Berrien Springs Virtual Academy
Historic Court Trials Fall 2025
All students must complete a project for these classes.
*Find this class listed under the Humanities category during registration.
Instructors: Jan Sigvartsen PhD, Leanne Sigvartsen
Email: lsigvart@gmail.com
Phone: 269-363-3968
Ages: 10 and up
Location: various locations, see syllabus for details
Required Orientation: August 26th or 28th, 6pm-8pm
Class Day & Time: Sundays 1pm-4pm, see syllabus for details
Course Overview: Reenact and relive real court trials from the 1800’s from Berrien Springs’ very own courthouse – back when the court was the hottest entertainment in town. The Berrien County History Center has generously allowed us to use the Old Courthouse for this class too! This is an immersive exploration of Berrien Springs’ own legal history, where students will play parts in these real historic court trials. This is not a mock re-trial debating the merits of the law, but rather an experiential look at how courts were conducted historically, how early settlers from our own town were treated under the law, and the legal issues these settlers faced in the 1800s. There will be a discussion about each case after each re-enactment. We will also re-enact court trials from other famous courts like the Old Bailey in England, where many people were sentenced to transportation to the United States and Australia as convicts. Through re-enacting these trials, we will learn about the rapid industrial and technological changes that forced people to act on the wrong side of the law.
*Please note: it is important to make as informed a decision as possible when choosing your student's Community Resource classes. Most locations will allow a student to drop a class after one meeting, at no charge if it wasn't a good fit for the student, but not all. Some classes plan ahead based on the number that have signed up and have purchased materials, hired teachers, etc. and there might be a fee for class time or materials given to the student if the student drops after one or two meetings. The school cannot pay for classes that students do not complete, so choose wisely; if you do not take the class off of your student's schedule by the deadline, you may be asked to pay for the class time incurred prior to dropping the class.
Teacher of Record: Tom Hurst
