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