Braintree High School hosted "We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution," part of a nationwide mock Congressional hearing competition, on Wednesday evening.

"Today is a showcase, not a competition," Director of Social Studies Gorman Lee said. "It's a fun event."

This year marks the first in which schools have been able to participate in a preliminary showcase, a kind of dress rehearsal that allows schools to prepare for the statewide competition, which will take place Jan. 29 at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.

Other teams present on Wednesday included Chelmsford High School, Pembroke High School, and the Academy of Notre Dame of Tyngsboro. All of these participating schools will attend the state competition.

In his opening remarks, state coordinator for "We The People," Roger Desrosiers, said the showcase may become a qualifying round for the state competition next year.

Braintree High School history teacher and team sponsor Rick Flanagan said of the showcase, "It's good for them to go through the process once, kind of get used to it."

Student teams are divided into six units of three students each, which correspond to the six units of the "We The People" curriculum. The three students then present a prepared response to a question posed by a panel of two judges. The initial response has a four-minute time limit, then six minutes are alloted for students to respond to the judges' follow-up questions.

Judges score student responses based on clarity of their responses, presentation skills and knowledge of their topic areas, which are based on issues surrounding interpretation of the U.S. Constitution in the modern day and throughout history. Students have knowledge of the general questions as part of their preparation for the event, but the follow-up questions tend to address hypothetical situations and require spontaneous responses.

"They're all questions related to the Constitution," Flanagan said. "It runs the gamut of covering the Constitution and all the amendments."

Some Consitiutional issues addressed at the showcase included the powers of the president as commander in chief, interpretations of the term "rule of law" and issues surrounding freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

Some schools include the "We The People" as part of the Advanced Placement curriculum. At Braintree High, the program is offered as an elective course in the history and social studies department. Flanagan teaches the course.

"We The People" is sponsored nationwide by the Center for Civic Education. Winners of state and district competitions will compete at the national level in early May in Arlington, VA.