Blind painter

Watch "Esref Armagan Discovery Channel Kör Bir Ressam Youtube.com/tilev" on YouTube

Watch this video to see the the story of the artist who created the paintings displayed below

Busy in October

Howdy,
This week is going to be a busy one for both Honors and AP. Yesterday and today in AP we are taking our first test on chapters 1 and 2 in the textbook. I will have the scantrons and essays graded and online by the next time I see the classes, so parents the scores will be online within the next two days. AP students and parents should remember that the test format is done in such a way as to replicate that of the AP exam in the Spring. If after a few tests; however, students do not think that this method of assessment is accurately demonstrating their content knowledge then they need to speak with me about creating alternate forms of assessments for the rest of the year.

My Honors class will be having its first test next Tuesday 10/9 and it will cover material on chapters 1-3. This week we are finishing up chapter 3 by learning about how we sense and perceive the world around us. I will post some of the videos that we are watching in class about blind painters, and synesthesia a little later in the week. Below are some of the paintings that have been done by a Turkish painter named Esref Armagan who has been without eyes since birth. It is amazing that he can still paint such realistic scenes.






http://www.armagan.com/

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!!!!! (cont)

The last few days have been dedicated to the most amazing organ in the human body, the brain. We have discussed how neurons work, how the nervous system receives information from these neurons, and how the body then carries out the messages being sent. It is really and truly amazing to think that all human actions result from tiny electrical pulses and trace amounts of chemicals. In honors class, we researched the different parts of the brain and then marketed those parts to zombies, because what zombie wouldn't want a good old fashioned frontal lobe shake, or some snap crackle pons? Below are a few examples of what students were able to come up with.

Honors students now have all of the parts of the brain associated with these different products and will hopefully help them remember these parts and what they do much better. AP will be discussing the different parts of the brain today and will use that knowledge to help them diagnose the kinds of behavioral problems that could occur in people with traumatic head injuries like the following

 

This is the actual x ray of a man from China who had a knife blade stuck in his head for 4 YEARS! The article can be found here.

Upcoming Assignments:

Honors- has a quiz on the nervous system and the brain Friday 9/21

AP- Wiki post by Monday, rd pgs 75-83 and take notes by Mon/Tues, and Test chp 1+2 Oct 1/2

Have a good weekend everyone.

Mr. F

Welcome to a new week

Howdy all and welcome to a new week of psychology. This week both AP and Honors will be learning about the inner workings of the human brain. Honors will be completing a research assignment and presentation on the different parts of the brain today in class, while AP will be discussing the implications of how injuries to specific parts of the brain can lead to cognitive and behavioral problems. On the assignment front, Honors just handed in their argumentative research papers dealing with animal testing, the ones that I have read so far are very well done, students should expect to get their essays back by this Friday. AP students have a quiz Thurs/Fri about the brain that they should be studying for and a test on chapters 1 and 2 that will be on Oct 1/2. The test will be around 60 multiple choice questions divided evenly among the two chapters with one essay to be completed at home and one in class. That is the look ahead so far, I will post notes for this week today or tomorrow.
Mr. F

Braaaaaaaaaains!!!!

Today both AP and Honors classes were introduced the mighty neuron and the central nervous system. Over the next week we will map out how information travels from our individual neurons all the way through our body to perform any/all the behaviors that we are capable of making. The brain has always fascinated me and I hope that through our activities and discussions on the topic over the next week or two that all of my students will be as interested in the brain as I am. Here is a short video that has 10 really interesting facts about the brain that you may not have known...#1 is my favorite because it always happens to me and I never had a clue why.



Stay tuned for notes/powerpoints on the chapter that I will put up tomorrow. As for upcoming assignments, honors has a vocabulary quiz this Friday and AP will need to have read and completed the vocabulary for chapter 2 by Oct 1st.

Technical Difficulties Last Week

Hello all, sorry for only the one post last week, but the CCPS tech department decided to block my blog at work so I couldn't make any posts while at school. It seems to be working fine again so keep our fingers crossed so that it stays this way throughout the year.

Last week, both AP and Honors learned about the scientific method and how it applies to psychology. They will be given chances all throughout the semester to put this new knowledge in practice. Students also were given time to research and discuss some of the ethical concerns that arise from the use of animals in testing environments. AP had some good online discussions about this topic, and Honors is currently writing a research paper on animal testing (here are the assignment and rubric docs) that will be due Thursday of this week (Sep 13th).

Upcoming Assignments:
AP will be having its first set of quizzes on vocabulary and chapter 1 this week. These students will need to begin reading chapter 2 and working on the vocabulary for that chapter. The due date will be up here shortly.

Honors has the animal ethics paper due Thursday and a new list of vocabulary words that will be due by Friday.

I'll make sure to get a few posts in this week to make sure everyone is up to date on what is going on in class.
Mr. Freundel

Beginning a new week

Last week both AP and honors classes spent a good deal of time learning about the history of psychology through its origins in philosophy. At the bottom of this post you will find power points and other notes that both classes have used up to this point. One of the assignments that my honors students finished Friday was a psych family tree project, where they mapped out the development of psychology from ancient philosophers to modern perspectives on the subject. Both classes did a great job and I will post some photos of what students came up with tomorrow.
As for the week ahead, Honors has a vocab quiz this Wed, and a quiz on the history of psych Thursday. AP should be working on vocab for its quiz next week as well as reading the articles on animal testing and making their first post to the class wiki. Also this week, both classes will be learning about the scientific method and how to carry out psychological studies. Once the classes have had a chance to create their ideas, I will be sure to post some here along with their results.

AP: Research Methods

Honors: Scientific Method

Syllabi and Other Important Docs

So that parents/gaurdians and students will always be able to know what is expected of them in class here are the AP and Honors syllabi. Also, AP students, if you ever lose your Vocab or Important Psychologists papers you can print them off from this website.

AP Syllabus
Honors Syllabus

AP Vocab
AP Important People

Welcome to a New Year of Psych!

Hello and welcome to my blog. Now that the semester has started rolling along, I am going to begin posting to this blog a few times each week to provide some information on what we've done so far and what assignments/activities lie on the horizon. So far my honors classes have tackled the "Allegory of the Cave" and the early history of psychology (ps if you are still having trouble with what Plato was saying click here for some more info). My AP classes are still working through the history of psych, but they will finish that up today and get started on the scientific method by next week.

AP students here are some of the assignments that you need to remember are due:

1: Animal ethics article read, answer questions, and wiki post by next Tues B, and Wed A

2: Make sure chp 2 is read and finish defining all vocab by Sep 12th

3: Fill in the rest of the "Early Pioneers in Psych" paper

4: There will be a quiz on the history of psych early next week

As I said in class, I will start making notes/powerpoints/handouts available through this blog so if you miss a day make sure you check here to see what material we've covered so that you are on track when you come in to class. I'm looking forward to a great semester.

Mr. F

Home Stretch

We are now entering into the last few weeks before the AP exam. I am currently running 2 AP Review sessions a week that are open to all students. So please come one come all. We have only 2 chapters remaining to go over and will be able to finish them in the next week. This will leave us an entire week to work on reviewing material before the exam.

On a different front, we finally ordered AP Psych tshirts that will hopefully be delivered this week. If you ordered a shirt, and you aren't currently in my class, make sure you check in at the end of the week to see if they are in.

Have a great week everyone.

Mr. F

Test this week and Spring Break

Just a reminder to everyone that we have a Unit 3 test-chapters 1-9,13- this Friday. It will be about 60-70 multiple choice questions, mostly focusing on the last three chapters. If you want to review for it, I will have a study session this Thursday after school. Also, remember to sign up for flex mod with me and we can review during the school day.

As for Spring Break, you will need to read the first half of chapter 10 on gender and sexuality, as well as the first few sections of chapter 9(page numbers for both chapters will follow soon). You will be required to take notes on these materials in order to prepare for a quiz that we will have on the chapters when you return from the break.

Lastly, you will be able to email me extra credit for chapter 9 up until the day before we return from break. Anything that you can replicate based on Piaget's theories of cognitive development would be great, or if you wanted to pose Kohlberg's dilemmas to family members of different age groups and describe how their responses match up with Kohlberg's theory would be a big extra credit.

In case you forgot what Piaget's experiments w/ pre-operational children are:


And just for fun:

A look forward to this week.

This week we will go through chapter 9 on Lifespan Development and prepare for our Unit 3 test on chapters 1-9. Students will need to read chapter 9 during the week to make sure that they are ready for this test. The test will focus on chapters 7,8,9, and 13. We only have 6 more weeks of school time before the exam so we need to move quickly to get all of the chapters finished before the test date.

I will also offer two after school review dates for students this week so if anyone wants to come by after school to go over material feel free to check the calendar dates in an earlier post. Come one come all.

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend.

Another Busy Week

Great job on the last test everyone. I am still reading through the essays and I will do my best to get them all graded so that we can discuss them tomorrow in class. Remember, if these MC or Essay sections haven't been going well for you, see me and we will figure out ways for you to practice or alternative assessments.

Remember to have chp 7 read and define all vocabulary by Monday. We will finish the chapter by Tuesday at the latest and begin chp 8 by Wednesday if you'd like to get a head start reading through the chapter.

The quarter ends in two weeks, so if you are unhappy with where your grade is right now, make sure to do some extra credit or sign up for flex mod so that we can study to prepare you better for the next quiz/test.

Extra credit for this chapter will be due Tuesday:
- Take a few online IQ tests and compare the results to see what you think about the validity of them
- Ask questions about the Mississippi River
- Anything else that you can think of that relates to the chapter, just make sure it is in by Tuesday.

Memory, Test, and Review Sessions

Howdy everyone. This week we began our chapter on memory and have been blown away by how fragile and complex a system memory is. There are dozens of extra credit opportunities that will remain open until Wed. Some include researching Alzheimer's disease, creating and carrying out your own psych memory studies, or anything else that was of interest to you. As for upcoming assignments, there is a wiki post that is due this Tuesday by the time you walk into the class, and there is a test this Wed on chapters 1-6. Make sure you are studying for them and are asking to sign up for flex mod this week for review. The plan for this week is to finish memory up by Tuesday, do some review, take the test Wednesday, and then begin the chapter on cognition by Thursday. We still have some time before the exam in May but we need to keep pushing ahead.

As for the AP exam, there will be after school review sessions starting in another 2 weeks. Feel free to come to as many as you can, and if you miss any we might be podcasting them so that you could still listen in and review. The sessions will begin around 2:45 in my classroom and will last until 3:45. Remember, if you cant make it or are having trouble with the podcasts, we can do study sessions before school or during lunch shifts if that would help. Here are the dates that I have set aside for reviews. Hope to see everyone at at least some of these sessions. Have a good week.
Mr. F.

Recent goings on

Hello all. Sorry for the week long break from posting, but the county has blocked the ability to view any blogs so I haven't been able to post at school. This week students have been learning about different methods of learning. A major extra credit assignment for this chapter would be to try to condition a pet, video tape some of the process, then show it to the class. We will be done this chapter by Tuesday so whatever extra credit you are interested in completing make sure it is in soon.

Sensory extra credit

Here is the website that I discussed in class today. If you go to it and perform all of the activities and write a reflection about what you learned about sensation and perception you will get some ec for it. http://jvsc.jst.go.jp/find/mindlab/english/index.html

Tests and goings on in class

The first unit test will be Feb 22nd. The test will be 100 mc questions and will cover chapters 1-3. Please make sure to sign up for a flex mod sometime this week if you have any lingering questions about these chapters.

Also, remember that there is a wiki post due this Friday. Log on to wikispaces.com using your screen name and password. If you are having problems see me, there will be no excuses this week for late posts, they will be for a grade.

Extra credit: It is great that students have taken on creating extra credit assignments for the brain, but that chapter is now done. You have until the 22nd to turn in any extra credit assignments for chp 3 sensation and perception. Some ideas are:
- research optical illusions and explain how they work
- create models of the eye/ear that are labeled with explanations of what each part does
- anything else that you can think of that relates to the chapter, be creative

Stay tuned for uploads of images of ec projects when I get a dig camera.

Rockin the Brain

Chloe took up the challenge and dominated the brain song extra credit. Anyone who is interested go to http://scappsych.podbean.com/ to listen to her song.

Extra Credit for the Brain

Write and perform a song about the parts and areas of the brain and their functions. Submit a hard copy of the song.

Create a skit about the parts and areas of the brain and their functions. Submit a hard copy of the skit and perform it.

Create a 3-D model of the brain with the required parts and areas labeled; explain the function of each part-individual

Anything else creative that you can think of will count as well. Due by 2/15.

Chapter 2 and Looking Ahead

Well class we have one chapter down and 14 left to go. We've already covered a lot so it is important that you go back and review notes from this chapter from time to time to help keep it in your memory. Remember, every unit test will be cummulative so you will need to remember this information for the rest of the semester. Chapter 2 is underway and we should be able to finish it by next Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Here is a link to a website that deals with all the ins and outs of the brain and this site does an incredible job of breaking down neuron communication if you want to be wowed even more. Warning:the link is very scientifical but just get through it and you'll be ok.

Don't forget that we have a vocab quiz for chp 2 words next Monday, Important People 1 Tuesday, and a quiz on chp 2 Wednesday. It is going to be a busy week and a week where you can earn plenty of points so make sure you make it count.

As always, extra credit for this chapter is due by the day we have a quiz on it, so Wed is the last day for any extra credit dealing with the brain, nervous system, etc.

Important People Quizzes for the Semester

Here are all the dates for the Important People Quizzes we will have for the rest of the semester, including the date for the Final Quiz.

2/14-Wundt through Bandura
2/29-Throndike-Gilligan
3/15-Whorf-Binet
3/30-Terman-Zimbardo
4/18-Asch-Vygotsky

Final-5/14

Remember to be filling in these names as we go through the semester. If they are not in the text book use a site like http://www.psychology.org/links/People_and_History/ to get the info. The majority of the names can be found in the Red Hockenbury book.

Upcoming Assignments

To my AP Psych students and parents:
In the spring semester we are really crunched for time to get through everything that we need to to be prepared for the AP exam in May. As a result, we will be having regular chapter quizzes and unit tests. Every week or so we will have a 20-30 question quiz on a given chapter. Every 3 chapters we will have a 100 question test. Tuesday Feb 7th will be our quiz on Chp 1 so please be studying for it. We also have our first vocabulary quiz coming up Feb 6th.

Extra Credit: Remember 1 extra credit per chapter and the extra credit must be handed in before we finish the chapter that it is related to. For this chapter, anything relating to philosophy, experiments, early psychology, etc. would be acceptable.

Hope everyone is having a good first week.

Mr. F

Let the 2nd Semester Begin!

So begins another semester in AP Psych at SC. I will use this site as a weekly reminder of major assignments and topics covered in AP Psych. Get in the habit of checking in with it from time to time because I will be posting articles/videos/experiments/etc. that you can read/view/run/etc. for extra credit purposes. This first week we will be tackling the topics of the evolution of psych from other sciences, the scientific method, and how to run a successful experiment. Assignments that are due this week are: Read and do vocab for Chp 1, get the syllabus signed, and make a post on the class Wiki page by Wed. I look forward to another great semester of AP Psych.

Mr. Freundel