Teach Psych Science

I'm gearing up for a new semester of AP Psychology in about 2 weeks and this semester I am starting with Research Methods on Day 1 and pushing History and Perspectives to the end of the semester, right before the exam. (My thought - they just don't have enough background knowledge to navigate the perspectives, and it is always such a struggle. And, my first day lecture is generally on structuralism and functionalism, Wundt, etc... and the first night reading is the whole History chapter with 2453 names and many of my students get overwhelmed with all that content right  off the bat. I'm going to see if moving History and Perspectives to the last unit after Social Psychology will make more sense to them as they'll be able to put all those perspectives, names, theories and movements of psychology into some sort of timeline and framework.)

ANYWAY...while looking around for some new Hindsight Bias, Confirmation Bias and Scientific Method-type activities, I came across this website. Um...wow. It is called "Teach Psych Science" and appears to be a great place to find activities for the teaching of various scientific method-type activities and also statistics and research type activities. The website appears to accompany the following Research Methods text from Macmillan Publishing (which I promptly requested a sample of!)

Teach Psych Science Link 

This great intro to Intuition vs Empirical Reasoning seems like a great way to get kids thinking about psychology as an empirical science for the first day! It is a variation of the "Which Door to Choose" activity.

Other good ones I came across?:

When does a joke go too far?- Ethics 

Smarties vs. DumDums - Internal Validity Activity 

Seriously - get to this website and check it out! Everything here looks amazing and very engaging for the high school psychology classroom. I'm excited to explore some more!!

--- Posted by Amy Ramponi

(Remember that snow and cold I wanted, yeah. It is 7 degrees out today. Low is going to be -1. What was I thinking?!)http://teachpsychscience.org/

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ASAP Science Videos

One of my students, Frankie, has been on me for weeks to check out as series of videos on YouTube.  I finally did and wanted to share them with you.  They call themselves "ASAP Science."  This is the link to their channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/AsapSCIENCE.  They are similar to the RSA Animates videos, only dealing with various science topics, including many in psychology.  There are so many ways to use them, whether it be as attention grabbers, resources for topics we have no time for, or as research ideas.  Great stuff either way.

They have many videos covering many topics we teach--here are a few:












posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Michael Schermer and the Baloney Detection Kit

I have been using this video but just realized I had not shared it on the blog.  It is Michael Schermer, author of these books,

• The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, 
• Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time,
• How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science

explaining the role of skepticism in science.  Great words and some cute graphics to explain the important questions in skepticism.

My handout includes this information:

With a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine lays out a "Baloney Detection Kit," ten questions we should ask when encountering a claim.
The 10 Questions:
1. How reliable is the source of the claim?
2.Does the source make similar claims?
3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else?
4. Does this fit with the way the world works?
5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?
6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point?
7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?
8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?
10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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