A Sweet Treat in Psych Class
October 22, 2014
Donald Pippin’s psychology class did a demonstration on the nervous system during class, outside of the media center.
Students were learning about the bodies different responses to nerves within the nervous system. The demo was an interactive experiment that allowed the students to learn in a different and active way.
The students lined up in an l-shaped formation and stood behind one another, some connected, others alone. The person in back fed the person in front, representing the different actions of the nervous system, with a Hershey kiss.
Pippin enjoys allowing his students to participate in fun and entertaining styles of learning new material.
“We study research and we do examples. We do different examples similar to this [activity] to help the students understand why people behave the way they do,” Pippin said.
For example, Pippin recently had some fun teasing a student for an educational purpose. He went up behind a student he knew would not completely freak out, and scared them. He described their reaction and related it to the processes of the nervous system and how it affects the human body.
“I probably do one or two weird things a day. It’s more fun to teach that way and it’s more fun to learn that way.”
