I will share this activity with the caveat that I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I GOT IT -- maybe from TIPS? Anyway, it is not my own creation but I have used it several times.
When I begin the reasoning unit in either intro or cognitive, I say, "Before we begin today, I want to make an annoucement. Some students on our campus are concerned about environmental issues and they asked me to present this information to you. There is a petition you can sign if you want to join their cause." Then I put the following up on the overhead projector:
The Association for a Chemical-Free Environment wishes to inform the American public of the imminent dangers in our environment from a chemical called dihydrogen monoxide. Just a few of the harmful effects of this chemical:
1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. It is a major component in acid rain
3. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
4. Accidental inhalation is often fatal
5. It contributes to erosion
6. It decreases the effectiveness of automobile brakes, contributing to hundreds of fatalities annually
7. It can reduce the nutrient content of our food supply
8. It has been found in the tumors of terminal cancer patients
9. Its presence can be detected in both human and nonhuman animals
I then ask students for their reactions and typically get "We really need to do something about this" and "Is this really all over the place?" until someone says, "It's water." Anyway, it is fun and it makes them think.
Rory McElwee
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On 26 Mar 2004 at 16:29, Lenore Frigo wrote:
> April Fools day is coming soon and I'd like to liven up an 8:00 a.m.
> introductory level course with a bit of a trick. Any suggestions for
> an appropriate April Fools trick that could be turned into a bit of a
> psychology lesson? Something along the lines of critical thinking
> would be good.
This may be of limited value because you'll need to have web access
in the classroom. But last year I used Google's inspired April Fool's
claim to have made use of Skinnerian techniques to train pigeons to
select the best websites. Their real technology uses something they
call "pagerank". They turned this into "pigeonrank". The Google
creators clearly must have had a psychology course or two in the
their background. When I showed it, the class bought it big time ( at
least for a while, anyway). it could certainly be used to deliver an
apt lesson about not believing everything you find on the web, and
about the need for critical thinking.
I just checked, and it's still up, although there's no guarantee they
won't replace it with a new one this April 1. It's at:
http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html
Stephen
___________________________________________________
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7
Canada
Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at
http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips
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