Your Brain
A visit to the British Psychological Society Stand will reveal some of the secrets of the mind and human behaviour. Students will be able to investigate how optical illusions trick our brains, question real psychologists and take part in experiements that explore the complexity of their own thoughts. With a wealth of potential careers in the field of psychology, these resources can be used back in the classroom to extend your students' understanding of the brain and highlight the work of psychologists.
Illusory Pendulum Experiment
This is a quick and exciting demonstration could be used as a 'hook' at the beginning of a lesson on the brain's role in how we perceive the world and how this perception can be tricked.
ScienceBob - Optical Illusions
Remind students of what they did at the Big bang Fair with this selection of optical illusions, large enough to be effective when shown on a powerpoint slide to a class.
Neuroscience for kids.
This website is particularly useful as it provides explanations of the mechanism behind a variety of illusions, which can add detail and interesting facts to a demonstration of illusions.
There are also suggested investigations and activities which could be used to follow on from the starter.
How Smart Is an Ant?
How do we find out how our brains work? You could introduce the idea of scientific research and psychology with this Catalyst article.
How do animals with small brains behave in a way that appears to be clever? A question that would fascinate most students. This article explains how scientists have discovered the mechanisms behind an individual ant's behaviour through a series of simple experiments and detailed observation.
It is a useful resource to illustrate the need for scientific method when studying behaviour, perhaps in preparation for a class investigation. It also demonstrates the possible applications of such research in answer to questions like 'why are we learning about this?'
Changes in Behaviour
After looking at the article students could plan their own investigation into behaviour. This book contains numerous suggestions for activities and investigations, exploring areas such as learned and unlearned responses and patterns of behaviour.
Educational Psychology - Careers
This article provides a good list of career options available with a degree in psychology , as well as describing the role of an educational psychologist. Students could choose one of the careers listed and find out more about it for homework in preparation for a presentation. It could also be useful as part of a classroom display on behaviour.
Brain Power Booster
This activity could be used to encourage students to think about variables which cannot be controlled and consider whether results are reliable enough to support a conclusion.
It can also be given as a homework.
Christmas Lectures 2011 - Meet Your Brain
There are three demonstration-packed lectures, delivered by experimental psychologist Professor Bruce Hood, in this collection which can be shown directly to students or used for teaching ideas to enrich lessons on human behaviour.
By clicking on About This Collection you can read more about the illusions and demonstrations used in the lectures.
Superhumans?
This resource can be used as the basis for a lively debate or as a groupwork activity looking at ethical decision-making.
Set in the future, the Brainlink chip can be implanted directly into the brain to connect your thoughts and memories to a computer. What would the consequences of this technology be?
Mind lab
This is an interactive website which students can work through by themselves to explore how their perception of the world works. This is more suitable for higher ability students.