Psychology teachers Donald Pippin and Alice Oben are taking their students to Busch Gardens in order to further understand classical conditioning and study the methodologies that are used in psychology through observation and interviews.

The animal trainers at Busch Gardens use classical conditioning when doing live interviews to get the animals to connect and relate with the crowds. The psychology students will be taking observations and interviewing these animal trainers.

“Not only is this going to help them understand classical conditioning, it will help them understand the process of an observation and of an interview,” Pippin said about the trip.

Pippin and Oben plan on incorporating social media into the trip. While at Busch Gardens, students will be live tweeting with a hashtag and will be taking snapchats so they have a saved snapchat story at the end of the day.

As of press time, they had not decided on the hashtag. Check back here for updates as the hashtag is chosen and follow along with the students throughout the day.