Internet Search and Discover Activities

One of my favorite things to do is share new ideas and perspectives with my students--especially ones that I do not necessarily have time to do within the formal curriculum.  Since I teach on a 100-minute alternating block schedule, I have created a couple of activities that have the students go to web sites that deal with aspects of a unit, read through the sites, and answer questions.  As much as anything, it exposes them to new resources that I've already checked for accuracy and appropriateness (front-loading).  I also ask questions that have them consider issues that I have some personal interest in.  Perhaps, at some point, they will continue asking questions themselves about obvious things within the context of their own lives.

Here is my first one for this fall for Social Psychology.  If you'd like a .docx version of this document, email me at psydways AT gmail.com.  I've also made one for the brain and biology unit later in the term.

Psychology: Web Exploration          Name                                                                          Per     

Social Psychology Edition rev. F2011

Be sure to read the instructions on each one to make sure you are doing the proper action.

#1  http://www.beyondprejudice.com/reduce_your.html   Read the page and list ten things people can do to reduce their prejudicial behavior (I know there are more than 10). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

#2   http://about-face.org/r/facts/    List two facts each about: Body Image: Media: Eating Disorders: Children and the Media: Appearance Messages: Socioeconomic Status, Ethnicity, and the Thin Ideal:

#3   http://about-face.org/goo/archive/   Choose a brand from repeat offenders______________________. What messages do this company’s ads send?

#4   http://about-face.org/goo/archive/ Choose a media literacy category.__________________________ What messages do ads from this category send?

#5   http://www.about-face.org/gallery-of-winners/top-ten-winners/1-2/ Examine these ten ads.  Why are these ten ads seen as being better ads in terms of their portrayal of women?

#6    http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005059    Describe where the term “ghetto” comes from.  Can you really describe something as "ghetto" now?  Explain.

#7     http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/ Take your native IQ.  This is a test about your knowledge related to Native Americans and their history.  How did you do?  Explain why you did as well or as poorly as you did.

#9  So you are curious about brainwashing?  Check out this site: http://health.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm Find terms and ideas we’ve studied so far to find out what you can discover about brainwashing.  Write down at least 5 things. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

#10  This site is a blog about relationships written by an author in the UK.  Choose one of the sub-articles and write down four observations/conclusions the research found about your topic.  http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/02/psychology-of-relationships.php Title of sub-article here: 1. 2. 3. 4.

#11  Go to this site:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/01/11/culture-affects-the-way-we-use-our-brain/1773.html Write a five sentence (one paragraph) summary of the findings.

#12  Can we avoid segregation? http://www.understandingprejudice.org/segregation/ Go to this site, read each short page and do the exercise.  Describe the Schelling Effect and the Anti-Schelling Effect. Schelling Effect Anti-Schelling Effect What you learned as a result of doing this exercise:

#12    http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007679 Describe what Nazi racism was about.

#13  Go to this site:  http://www.tolerance.org/activity/si-se-puede Read the article and list three key questions this raises in your mind. 1. 2. 3.

#14    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html Take two of the demonstration quizzes on this page.  Which two did you take?  How did you do?  What surprised you? Explain. Quiz 1 Result: Quiz 2 Result: Explain why you think you scored this way.  How did it surprise you?

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Famous Psychologists Wiki Website

As many of you are aware, the latest revision (May 2010, May 2011) of the AP Psychology Course Description book, commonly referred to as the "Acorn Book", includes listings of famous psychologists in almost all of the unit descriptions. Throughout the course of this past school year many of us have gone to great lengths to include these psychologists in our AP Psychology units and assessments.

As we rapidly approach the day of the 2010 AP Psychology Exam, I was looking for a way for students to study/review these famous people from the history of psychology. Last year I had students in my AP Psychology classes form study groups to create Wiki outlines of the fourteen AP Psychology units (http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2009/05/wiki-pages.html). My students seemed to find the outlines very helpful. This year I would like to expand the idea to the famous psychologists and beyond my school.

I have created a Wikispace page of famous psychologists at http://famouspsychologists.wikispaces.com waiting to be completed by AP Psychology classes from throughout the United States and possibly the world. My hope is many of you AP Psychology teachers and students will join forces to create a fantastic review tool. Together I'm betting we can create the world's largest AP Psychology study group.

Please take some time out of your busy schedule to visit the Famous Psychologists Wiki page and see if you and/or your classes would like to help with the project. I could see this as a great one or two day lesson in your classes as they prepare for the AP Psychology Exam. I am sure students will be excited about having your name and school name included on the Wiki site.

Lastly, as this is the first time I am taking on this type of adventure, please be patient with all those technological problems that I know are going to happen. It is one thing to try something of this nature with my students knowing when (not if) something goes wrong they will understand I am learning right along with them. It is a completely different thing to do the same in front of my peers throughout the country. I thank you in advance for your help and patience.

Online Responsive Face

Ken Perlin, professor of Computer Science of the New York University Media Research Lab has developed an online program called "Responsive Face" in which the user can manipulate various aspects of a computerized virtual face.

The site includes preset faces for various emotions including: frightened, disappointed, annoyed, surprised, happy, arrogant, and angry. Users can changes many aspects of the face to create their own set of emotions. The Responsive Face can be found at http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/facedemo/

Faceland, a distant cousin of the Responsive Face, is a computer program for sale from Do2Learn for $179. From what I can tell by the promotional information, the program is a very sophisticated version of Responsive Face. If anyone has purchased Faceland for use within a high school psychology class, I would love them to leave a comment below detailing their experience. For more information on Faceland go to http://www.do2learn.com/subscription/product_details/cd_Faceland.php

Memory Studies on APA's OPL

Back on April 24th of this year (2009), we posted a blog entry with information on the APA's highly interactive Online Psychology Laboratory (OPL) (http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2009/03/opl.html). The laboratory has a number of memory activities for students to partake in. In fact, the memory unit is second only to sensation and perception for the amount of studies.

Below you will find a listing of the seven studies currently on the OPL. Simply click on the item below to go to the study. Please be aware, the site requires teachers register and obtain a class ID.

To register your classes go to the homepage for the OPL at http://opl.apa.org/Main.aspx

Memory

• Be A Juror
• Learning and Memory
• Numerical Memory (Requires headphones)
• Object Location Memory
• Pitch (Requires headphones)
• Word Recognition
• Facial Recognition