In September, the AP Psychology class here at AHS began the year learning their coursework through basic learning techniques and their teacher, Mrs. Mowery, also incorporated visual and creative aspects by introducing a companion project.
The class began to learn about brain functions, specifically how it affects thought processes and actions that follow. For weeks students spent time studying and analyzing this topic using notes, lectures, videos, Google Slides, and more. After the students learned the unit, Mrs. Mowery planned a project for them. The Celebrity Brain Project was introduced to the students on Tuesday, September 10th with a due date of Friday, September 20th.
The requirements for the project were simple: a student would pick a celebrity, draw a diagram of the brain with labeled functions, and explain how the celebrity’s actions related to their brain functions. They also included multiple terms and definitions that correlated with the brain and what affected a person‘s actions and behaviors. Most students printed out a sheet with these vocabulary words and adhered it to their poster board. Students didn’t only work on the project in the classroom, some took their work home to complete it. The students were given complete creative control and enjoyed the project by making it their own.
Abby Drew Trotter, a junior at AHS, chose Colby Brock as her subject. He is known for being a famous paranormal investigator and she used his career to connect brain activities. She said, Abby Drew enjoyed working on this project, although the most challenging part for her was printing things out because she had a lot of information that had to be organized. Her poster featured everything required; along with numerous photos of Colby Brock spanning her board. Going into this assignment, she felt prepared and ready to capture the brain from a new perspective, putting what she already knew about the brain into real world examples.
Tessa Swanson, a senior, conducted her project featuring Adam Sandler. Her poster had many intricate artwork pieces across a variety of mediums. This included a hand-drawn portrait of Adam Sandler in pen, different drawings of his iconic outfits, and creative titles. Tessa chose Adam Sandler because of his role in the 1998 movie “Waterboy.” In the movie the professor asked a question about alligators and the cause of their extreme aggression, to which Adan Sandler replied, “My momma said alligators are ornery because they got all them teeth and no toothbrush.” Alligators are actually aggressive because of an enlarged medulla oblongata. It’s the sector of the brain which controls aggressive behavior. Tessa enjoyed the unit on the brain functions because she was able to take tedious notes, which she described as being very satisfying and helpful in remembering the material. She said, “It helped rewrite everything on the poster board. I got to be creative and draw his face.” Swanson was proud of her work, and enjoyed the creative process.
The Celebrity Brain Project was a great way to help the students visualize the relationship of the brain to real life circumstances. This project was able to set the stage for everything the students could expect throughout the year. Mrs Mowery said, “Connecting the celebrities’ traits to the parts of the brain and going beyond that labeling which was so important; the reason we did the project. Because the application of it is not just understanding that the hippocampus deals with memory but the fact that Taylor Swift would need to memorize her lyrics. It was part of not just proving what they knew, but learning as they went.” By showing innovativeness and originality, the students were able to show their interests and personalities through the final projects.
