Agenda: Sept. 24 - Sept. 28, 2012

Unit 2 - Biological Bases of Behavior

-and-

Unit 3 - Consciousness & Learning

Quick Agenda:
MON: Take Home Test Unit 2 is Due, Present Brain Unit Projects
TUE: Finish Brain Unit Projects, Work on Article - Dreams
WED: Intro Unit 3 - Consciousness & Learning
FRI: Discuss Dreams Article, Consciousness notes.

Monday, Sept. 24, 2012
Quote: "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

Learning Targets:

The Brain and Behavior

3 Major regions: hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain. Hindbrain develops first and both hindbrain and midbrain handle essential functions. 

Thalamus is a relay station.

Hypothalamus regulates basic biological drives (hunger/sex).

Lymbic System is involved in emotion, motivation and memory.

Cortex is cerebrum's convoluted outer layer, which is subdivided into occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal lobes.

Right Brain/Left Brain: Cerebral Laterality

Cerebrum is divided into right and left hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum. Studies of split-brained patients and perceptual asymmetries have revealed that the right and left halves of the brain each have unique talents.

Essential Questions:
- How does your brain and the biology of your central nervous system function and what impact does those functions have on your behavior?

Agenda:
1. Bubble scantron for Take Home Test Unit 2 - Biological Bases of Behavior
2. Present Brain Unit Projects.

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012
Quote: "Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." - William James, American psychologist and philosopher (1842 - 1910)

Learning Targets:

The Brain and Behavior

3 Major regions: hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain. Hindbrain develops first and both hindbrain and midbrain handle essential functions. 

Thalamus is a relay station.

Hypothalamus regulates basic biological drives (hunger/sex).

Lymbic System is involved in emotion, motivation and memory.

Cortex is cerebrum's convoluted outer layer, which is subdivided into occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal lobes.

Right Brain/Left Brain: Cerebral Laterality

Cerebrum is divided into right and left hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum. Studies of split-brained patients and perceptual asymmetries have revealed that the right and left halves of the brain each have unique talents.

Essential Questions:
- How does your brain and the biology of your central nervous system function and what impact does those functions have on your behavior?

Agenda:
-Finish any Brain Unit Project Presentations-
1. DO NOW: Pick up and begin reading the article for Unit 3 - "What Dreams are Made Of" We will discuss in class on Friday.
2. Notes, Video, & Discussion: Consciousness Link to the Notes
Video: The Mind - Awake and Asleep from Annenberg Media.
The Mind Awake and Asleep is the thirteenth program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. Drawing on the theories of early modern psychologists Wilhelm Wundt and William James, this program looks at conscious and unconscious awareness, how the mind functions awake and asleep, and the biological rhythms of activity, rest, and dreaming. 

Wednesday, Sept. 26 and Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012
Quote: "To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge." - Socrates

Learning Targets:
Learning Targets - Chapter 5 - Consciousness
1. People dream during REM sleep.

2. Sleep isn't easy for everyone. There are a variety of sleep disorders that are important to understand.

3. The Stages of Sleep.

Essential Questions:
- How do the stages of sleep occur (Sleep Stages 1-4 and REM sleep)
- Identify and examine sleep disorders & how they can cause disruption in a person's life? (Narcolepsy, Catalepsy, Insomnia, Somnambulism, Night Terrors)


Agenda:
1. DO NOW QUESTION: What is the most interesting dream you have ever had? Why do humans dream? Can we learn from what we remember in those dreams?
2. Notes, Video, & Discussion: Consciousness Link to the Notes
Video: Program 14: The Mind, Hidden and Divided from Annenberg.
The Mind Hidden and Divided is the fourteenth program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. Based on the pioneering research of Sigmund Freud, this program explores how the events and experiences that take place in the subconscious manifest themselves in our conscious lives. You'll learn about repression, the distinction between discovered and false memory syndrome, hypnosis, and split-brain cases.

Friday, Sept. 28, 2012
Quote: "Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything." - Mary Hemingway

Learning Targets:
- Determine what 'consciousness' is and how psychologists study the various phases of consciousness. (Selective attention, cocktail party phenomena, divided attention)

Essential Questions:
- How do psychoactive drugs alter consciousness?

Agenda:
1. Prepare article for Unit 3 - "What Dreams are Made Of" for Socratic discussion in class.
2. Notes, Video, & Discussion - "Consciousness"
3. Introduce "Learning" - Video from Annenberg's Discovering Psychology Series Program 8: Learning. Learning is the eighth program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. This program discusses the basic principles of how we learn; classical, instrumental, and operant conditioning; and the role that stimuli and consequences play in learned behavior and habits. You'll explore how renowned researchers Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike, and John B. Watson contributed to what we know about human and animal learning.

Brain Unit - Extra Credit Examples

Unit 2 - Bio. Bases of Behavior: Chapter 4 Sensation & Perception, Notes & Target Sheet

Click here for Sensation & Perception Targets

CLICK here for the CH 4 Notes Sensation & Perception Intro


CLICK here for CH 4 Notes Vision


CLICK here for CH 4 Notes Hearing

Agenda: Sept. 17 - Sept. 21, 2012

Unit 2 Biological Bases of Behavior 

Chapter 3 and 4: The Biological Bases of Behavior & Sensation and Perception

Quick Agenda:
Mon - Finish Brain Rules, Discuss Article
Tue - The Neuron, Brain & CNS, Multiple Sclerosis
Wed/Thu - Intro to Sensation & Perception, Article study
Fri - Discuss Article
The take home test for Biological Bases of Behavior is due on the 24th. The Brain Unit Project is also due on the same date.

Monday, Sept. 17, 2012
Quote of the Day: "Their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them. Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous." -Pericles, leader of Athens, "Funeral Oration: In Defense of Democracy"

Learning Targets: (Link to CH. 3 Targets)
*How does the human brain develop and at what rate?
*Explain the different methods for peering into the human brain and analyze how that can help us understand what the various areas of the brain control


Essential Questions:
How does the human brain develop and at what rate?
How is the teen brain different from that of the adult?

Agenda:
DO NOW: Have the Teen Ticks article finished for discussion later in the period.
1. Finish Brain Rules #12 - "Exploration"
2. Discuss Brain Rules #1-#12 and as a whole. Which brain rule that Medina explains was the most important to you? What surprised you about them?
3. Discuss Teen Ticks article in small Socratic tables. At the end each group will share back out what they discussed. 

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012

Quote of the Day: It is said that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of that the Persian archers were so numerous that, when they fired their volleys, the mass of arrows blocked out the sun. Dienekes, however, quite undaunted by this prospect, remarked with a laugh,
'Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade.'
—Herodotus, The Histories

Learning Targets:

* Multiple Sclerosis Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a disorder that turns the body's immune system against itself. It is a chronic, typically progressive disease involving damage to the sheaths of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, whose symptoms may include numbness, impairment of speech and of muscular coordination, blurred vision, and severe fatigue


Questions to Master:

* How do neurons deliver signals?

* How can damage to the central nervous system and the brain impact a person's life and psychological functions (see MS)?

Agenda:

1. DO NOW QUESTION: Draw the diagram of a neuron (on board) - list the parts to the side. Which part goes where? What is the function of each?
2. Use the PsykTrek3 CD to explain how neurons function.
3. We will discuss the causes of Multiple Sclerosis, because it is a great example of how neurons not functioning properly can have an adverse impact on the human condition.
2. Video - if time we will compare what we have learned and discuss along with viewing these video examples (great to watch if you were absent from class):

The Human Body: Nervous SystemWhat is Multiple SclerosisWhat is Myelin?Meet Sallie - Everyday Matters Video from the National MS Foundation

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012 & Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012
Quote of the Day: "SPQR" - Senātus Populusque Rōmānus "The Senate and People of Rome"

Learning Targets: (Link to CH 4 Targets)

Psycho-physics: Basic Concepts and Issues in Measuring Perception

One key to understanding perception is the accurate measurement of the processes of perception. Psychologists have worked hard to develop strategies for measuring perception. The concepts are not nearly as clear as other concepts in psychology, but let’s address some of these measurement techniques.
1. Perception is the interpretation of sensory information; it relies on experience.
2. The difference between sensation and perception

Essential Questions:

How is stimulus intensity related to absolute thresholds?

How does Just Noticeable Difference JND fit with Weber/Fechner's Laws?

Central Idea of signal-detection?

Agenda:

DO NOW Question: Are you influenced by advertisements? If so, in what ways?

1. Notes, Video, Discussion: Introduction to Sensation & Perception.

2. Lab: Weber's Law. Students will work together to understand the "Just Noticeable Difference" in perception. The law states that the change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio of the original stimulus. It has been shown not to hold for extremes of stimulation. We will use envelopes with coins, shoes, & books.

3. Lab: Subliminal Stimulation. Students will look at advertisements from various corporate logos to compete to see who can see the subliminal message contained within.

4. Video: Mind Control with Derren Brown. Students will see how easily the advertisers can be tricked by subliminal messages as well as consumers.

Friday, Sept. 21, 2012
Quote of the Day: "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind." - Winston Churchill, speech at Harvard University, Sept. 6, 1943

Learning Targets: (link to CH 4 Targets)
* Define the Mind/Body Problem. The mind is about mental processes, thought and consciousness. The body is about the physical aspects of the brain-neurons and how the brain is structured. The mind-body problem is about how these two interact.

Essential Questions:
*What is the mind/body question?
*Which is more important in psychology - the mind or the body?

1. Discuss article, "The Yogurt Made Me Do It." Students will discuss the article in Socratic groups, then report back to the full class. 

Happy Mountain Day!

Every year at my alma mater, Juniata College, we celebrate Mountain Day. It is a surprise announcement and quite an awesome relief! It is traditions like this one that made college so much fun and so rewarding. 

On a side note, this was also the VERY toughest day of football practice every year. The football team doesn't get the day off from practice, so we always had to return early to hit the practice field. There were a lot of moans and groans during warm ups. The entire campus was still empty and we knew that everyone else's Mountain Day was a lot longer than ours. Still I wouldn't change a thing.

Happy Mountain Day!

Established: 1896

Mountain Day is the oldest tradition at Juniata, in existence in some form since the late 1800s. On a beautiful fall day, classes are canceled and everyone flocks to one of the state parks in the area for a day of outdoor fun including a picnic lunch, nature walks, crafts, music, tug-of-war, and the spirited faculty/staff vs. seniors co-ed flag football game.

The most unique element of Mountain Day is that no one knows in advance when it is going to occur! Trying to guess the date of Mountain Day is one of the most-popular topics of conversation among the students and faculty in the weeks leading up to the event.

Article: What Makes Teens Tick?

Link to the Article: What Makes Teens Tick

Understanding Standard Deviation

Standard Deviation Video on Youtube

CH 1 Notes - Psychology Themes & Variations

Click here to see the notes for CH 1 Psychology Themes & Variations

Notes - Chapter 2 - Research Methods

Link to Notes Chapter 2 - Research Methods

Notes - Chapter 1 Psychology Approaches

Notes Chapter 1 - Psych Approaches

QUICK AGENDA:
TUE - CH 1 - Psychology Approaches
WED/THU - Quiz Ch 1 & 2 CH 2 - Research Methods
FRI - TEST CH 1 & 2

Way to go Eagles! First win of the season last Friday night!

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012
Quote of the Day: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there." - Will Rogers
Learning Targets:
Part 2 - Psychology Approaches
Chapter 1 
To familiarize students with the study of Psychology & different approaches
To explore the competing theories and important contributions to the development of Psych
To examine factors that eventually led to change in modern Psychology
Agenda:
DO NOW - "List as many jobs and careers as possible that use or deal with Psychology."
1. Notes & discussion of Chapter 1 "Psychology Approaches" 
2. Students will use the Psyktrek 3 CD in class to answer questions at random.

Psychology can be a little silly sometimes. 

Wednesday & Thursday, Sept. 5 & 6, 2012
Quote of the Day: "Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts."  - Edward R. Murrow
Learning Targets:
Part 3 - "Themes & Variations" of Psychology"
Chapter 1 
To familiarize students with the study of Psychology & different approaches
To explore the competing theories and important contributions to the development of Psych
To examine factors that eventually led to change in modern Psychology
Part 4 - "Research Methods"
Chapter 2 
Psychology is an empircal science
Psychology uses the scientific method
What are the three types of Descriptive Research: The Case Study, The Survey, Naturalistic Observation
Agenda:
1. Quiz on Chapter 1 & 2 
2. Notes & Discussion: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. 
3. Students will answer questions regarding the scientific method through use of the Psyktrek 3 cd in class. They will use the wireless remote to select the correct answers. 

Friday Sept. 7, 2012
Quote of the Day: "You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." - Albert Einstein 
1. Test on Chapter 1 & Chapter 2
After students are finished with the test, they will begin preparing for the Brain Unit and Biological Bases of Psychology.