PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS LEARNING HANDS ON

Everyone has heard of Pavlov's dog, the famous experiment where a psychologist conditioned his dog to begin salivating at simply hearing a dinner bell, well Redbird students in Coach Lewis' psychology class are getting first hand experience with the process of conditioning.  Students are paired up and then they measure the pulse rate of the test subject.  They introduce a noise and then put the subject through a period of physical exertion.  After the exercise, the pulse is again taken.  This process is repeated multiple times, each time a sound cue is given then exercise follows.  After a several repetitions, the noise cue is given, but no exercise follows.  Students then measure the heart rate of the test subject to see if the simple sound cue can now cause an increase in heart rate.  This is an excellent way to bring the curriculum of a class to life.  It is letting the students learn in a hands on fashion and giving them a real world application for the information they are learning.  By letting students apply the knowledge they have learned, their depth of knowledge and understanding is increased.This is "outside the box" education at its finest and just another example of why: It is a Great Day to be a Redbird!