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Amazing Discoveries is a middle school curriculum that used the scientific method to guide students through explorations of human behavior. There were twenty-eight experiments and demonstrations organized around four themes:
Basic Principles in Doing Science
Amazing Discoveries uses hands-on experiments about human behavior to teach the scientific method to students. The introductory experiments in Amazing Discoveries are structured to help students understand what social scientists do, and why. At the same time, each experiment enhances students' understanding of some facet of social information processing. Most importantly, the lessons are structured to encourage students to apply the concepts to their personal lives. The "social messages" are those that research has shown students with behavioral issues often fail to grasp on their own, but that all students are likely to find meaningful.
For example, in the first activity, students are asked to predict what kind of music (which athlete or actor --anything that would interest the students) is probably the most popular among members of the class. Next, students are asked to vote for the kind of music which is their own personal favorite. Very often, the results of this vote vary from what they had predicted would be the favorite. This lesson shows students that the social sciences have a great need for objectivity. Also, students learn that their judgment can be fallible. They can not always predict the preferences or attitudes of other people, and so they learn the benefit of keeping an open mind about others.
During another activity in this unit, titled, "Does Everyone See the Same Thing," students are asked to watch a short segment of a television sit com, such as Home Improvement. As they watch, students keep track of the number of put-downs they hear. At the end of the segment, students report the total number of put-downs they perceive among the characters. Very often, there are wide variations in what the youths perceive as insulting statements. The lesson demonstrates that scientists has to be careful to define the behavior or factor they are researching or the results of their research could be meaningless. The social lesson is that conflict often arises when people have different ideas about what kinds of comments are put downs. This helps students with ED understand that sometimes they may hurt those around them without meaning to.
Thoughts and Feelings Influence our Behavior
The experiments in this unit demonstrate the influence of a person's expectations, attributions, assumptions and inferences on their behavior. The science lesson of experiments in this unit is that when variables are manipulated, the outcome is affected. Socially, these experiments help students understand that there are many factors influencing them as they respond to situations.
In the "Self-Fulfilling Prophesy" experiment, students are each given seeds with which to grow a plant. Half of them are told that their seeds will grow very quickly, and will yield a beautiful, healthy plant in a short amount of time. The other half of the class is told that their seeds will produce a variety of the plant that will grow only at normal rates. Students tend to the plants and water them over a course of a few weeks. At the end of the experiment, students measure their plants. Very often, the results show that students who believed their plants were of the fast growing type had plants that were larger than their classmates' plants. At this time, the teacher revealed that in fact, all the students were given the same type of seed, and that their expectations influenced the outcome of their experiment. Class discussion could then turn to how expectations influence other outcomes in the students' lives, such as taking tests, or their opportunities to make friends.
Social Influences: Other People Influence our Behavior
This unit focuses students' attention on how characteristics and behavior of other people influence them. Students examine the effects of physical attractiveness on punishment, peer pressure to do antisocial acts, conformity to others' judgments, and the influence of models on prosocial behavior. The scientific aspect of the lessons offer a more in-depth look at how changing a variable may change the outcome of an experiment. Socially, students learn that peer pressure is indeed a reality, and can significantly affect the behavior of young people.
For example, in the "My Favorite Pet" lesson, the class tests whether other students will conform to their opinion about favorite pets. First, the class reaches consensus about what animal was least likely to be an appealing pet. Quite often, students agree that snakes are least likely to be anyone's favorite pet. Students then interview other students, some of a younger age, some who are their own age, and some who are older than they. In half of the interviews, the students begin by telling the interviewees that their favorite pet is a snake. In the other half, students don't mention anything about their own preferences. The class then examines the results of the interviews, often finding that the ages of the interviewees affects the outcome of their experiment. The topic allows students to examine age differences, and gives teachers an occasion to offer an adult perspective on peer conformity which is non-judgmental. Issues surrounding conformity generate strong opinions and feelings, and teachers report that they learn a great deal about their students during these discussions.
Social Communication: How People Influence Each Other
In this unit, students learn about social communication and how people influence each other through nonverbal interaction. The experiments deal with the phenomenon of pupil dilation, the influence of nonverbal behavior and social reinforcement on social interactions, how listeners and speakers play different roles in the flow of a conversation, and on tactfulness and persuasion. These experiments sharpen students' skills of observation and recording information accurately. The social lesson helps students with emotional or behavioral problems become more skillful in their social perception, interpretation and enactment of social behavior.
An experiment entitled, "What do Listeners Need to Know," students are asked to draw a picture that is described to them by a classmate. On the first trial, students are not allowed to see the picture or ask questions. Students keep track of how much time it takes the class to complete the drawing, and then examine their pictures for accuracy. Students then draw a second picture in response to a description from a second student. This time the students who are drawing are allowed to ask questions. The amount of time and accuracy are again analyzed. Students observe how asking questions take more time to do the task, but greatly increase the accuracy of their drawings. Discussions focus on the importance of asking questions for clarification in many situations; at home, school, or on the job. Students can talk about how asking questions can be hard, and discover that no one likes revealing that they don't know something.
Conclusion
Teachers and students both rate Amazing Discoveries positively. Students
demonstrate that they can learn the scientific and social concepts taught
in Amazing Discoveries. Some students with behavior problems are more likely
to be on-task when engaged in Amazing Discoveries than when doing other
class work. Some teachers choose to team teach lessons, so that the science
teacher delivers the experiment material, the math teacher guides the students
through calculations of the data, and the language arts teacher guides
them through writing reports on what they learned. Although it is time
consuming to prepare the lessons this way, teachers report that they are
very pleased with the results and they would use this method again. Anecdotally,
some students with behavior problems applied the lessons learned in Amazing
Discoveries to avert classroom fights.
Amazing Discoveries is a complete curriculum, and is available
from Exceptional Innovations by calling (703)709-0136.