This year, the AP Psychology class is doing different types of experiments. AP Psychology is a class where students learn about various topics, from the brain to behavior. This class is taught by the one and only Ms. Bethel.

 Ms. Bethel is new to The Walker School community, taking over for some of the social studies classes. All of her students this year had to create and formulate their experiment by themselves or with a partner (primarily partners) using the knowledge they have previously learned. Ms. Bethel describes the student’s experimental projects as “an opportunity to get creative and demonstrate what we have learned in class.” The students loved the opportunity to do a fun project in the class. Some experiments that people were doing are…

*Mary and Blitz – How can a timer affect performance on assessments

*William and Bryce – Bystander effect with falling in front of people

*Anna and Ariya – Door in the face concept

*Chloe, Lawrence, and Shiva – Change blindness concept

*Penelope and Shreya – How does school affect our mood

*Kennedy and Andruw – Sleep study and memorization

*Marley and Saana – Equation For The Perfect Sleep  Exertion + Exhaustion  

Many students used surveys to convey their data, while others used hands-on or communicative methods in their data experiments. One group used the door-in-the-face concept: people are likelier to say yes to easy tasks after being given a challenging task. Anna describes her experiment for the door-in-the-face concept, “Ariya and I went around asking people a crazy question that we expected them to say no to and then a second more reasonable question that they were likely to say yes to.” The students in the class enjoyed working on their experimental projects, which gave them a creative way to learn.