The Building Blocks of Research

On a brisk, Friday afternoon, one might imagine students in a classroom watching the clock tick the final 90 minutes of the day away.  I can think of many Hollywood movies that this happens.  At Linn-Mar High School this is NOT the case.  On a recent visit to Jeanne Turner's AP Psych class,  I was schooled on the scientific method, operational definitions, and several facets of psychological research.

Before the lesson even started, students were engaged in meaningful conversation discussing the previous night's homework.  As they shared their "a-has," Ms. Turner worked the classroom checking for understanding and answered questions.  The verbal feedback Ms. Turner offered pushed students to think beyond the surface.  Ms. Turner provided students with the opportunity to learn that hearing the word "no" is not a bad thing.  You can get valuable feedback and information from the wrong answer.

Students completed several tasks during the 90 minute block of learning.  Students were asked to identify, discuss, and know the differences between confirmation bias, overconfidence, operational definitions, replication, and controlled variables.  Students learned the importance of seeing evidence, not just anecdotal information.  They were given some clues on how to have healthy skepticism.

My favorite task of the day was the Lego Activity.  During this portion of the lesson students had ten minutes to work in groups to create a structure from a bag of random Legos.  They also had to provide exact directions of how to create the structure for another group to replicate.   Most groups built their structures first and then created directions.  As groups finished their structures, Ms. Turner photographed the creation and posted the photos on Twitter.  Groups rotated, and tried to follow directions to replicate the structure.  Groups had 5 minutes to follow the directions.  As groups checked their work on Twitter, they debriefed with reflection questions.  They self-assessed their ability to replicate the structure, and how the task tied into currently discussed research topics.

Again, the conversations students were have at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon were astounding.  What they found was that specific directions were vital to exact replication of the structures.  The operational directions that they stumbled on during yesterday's homework, were resolved.  They needed operational definitions in their directions.  Ms. Turner gave students the building blocks of research to help them complete the Lego Activity.

Not only, did Ms. Turner engage students on a Friday afternoon, she took time after class to visit with me, ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON.  She answered my questions, and helped me think of how I can use similar learning strategies with students and teachers.  As I reflected on my observation of Ms. Turner's class, I wished I could time-travel back ten years and re-write my thesis statement for my Master's degree.

Linn-Mar is lucky to have Jeanne Turner along with 34 additional model teachers with whom staff, students, and administrators can collaborate.  If you haven't had a chance to schedule a model teacher visit I highly encourage you to visit our model teacher website and get one schedule today.


Click here to visit our Linn-Mar Model Teacher website.