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Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 2, Exploring the Human Mind: Intro to Psychological Research (7th-8th)

Posted by on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 in blog, SAVY.

Dear Exploring the Human Mind parents, 

  

Today, we began with some fun icebreakers outside to get the group warmed up. Then we jumped into learning more about how to design an experiment, including how to tell the difference between correlation and cause and effect, as well as between reliability and validity. Your students were very engaged and provided wonderful examples of things that may be reliable but not valid, and vice versa. We also learned about more famous psychology experiments, such as the Bobo Doll experiment, and chatted again about the experiments’ limitations and strengths.  

  

This afternoon, students split into four groups to design a study to answer a research question posed by the local government. Each group was given a different question, ranging from how social media use in adolescence may be associated with anxiety and depression, to how litter might be impacting global warming. The students created thoughtful proposals, even considering how they would fund such a project! As a class, we brainstormed ideas to tackle any limitations and encouraged each other to think deeply about possible solutions. 

  

We spent the end of the day in the computer lab, beginning to work on our final poster presentations. Students learned how to conduct an initial literature review to examine theories and prior research related to their research questions. These foundations will guide them in their next steps as they tackle writing methods and results later in the week! So far, they are doing great with this independent work, and I look forward to meeting with each of them individually to discuss the progress of the projects. 

  

Tonight, please feel free to engage in these dinner table questions: 

  • How do we weigh the strengths and limitations of different types of measurements when choosing?   
  • What are the steps of developing a successful research proposal? 
  • Why is it important to conduct a literature review before developing a new study? 

  

Sincerely, 

Abby