Since many High School Psychology courses are taught as 18-week electives, some teachers may choose to use only parts of the POH website to focus on one of the modules in the curriculum. For example, when studying Motivation in Psychology students will discuss the Humanistic Theory of Maslow. They could use the information from this curriculum to further explore his ideas. If a teacher wanted to develop a WebQuest as a marking period project, they could allow students to work on parts of it in class periodically over the course of the semester, completing the activity with student presentations as a final assessment. The teacher might use the curriculum materials for independent research as well.

WebQuest resources :

A WebQuest is NOT just letting students “surf the Net”

What is a WebQuest?  https://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm

How to Develop a WebQuest   https://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/webquests/wq/writing.html

Rubrics for Web Lessons  https://webquest.sdsu.edu/rubrics/weblessons.htm

Wiki’s and  Blogs

Park’s Wiki  https://getpsyched.wikispaces.com/

Sujen Man’s  Blog  https://sujenman.wordpress.com/

Schools vary in the amount of technology available to both the teacher and the students, but many schools are integrating the use of Smart boards and laptops as well as integrating on-line data banks and reference libraries. Students are able to access their school Media Centers from home, and many teachers maintain an interactive website for their classes. The platform for this curriculum could be an excellent resource in all of the aforementioned situations.  For example, when discussing Martin Seligman in chapters related to Health and Stress or the Social Cognitive Perspective on personality, viewing an interview of Seligman, taking an on-line assessment and participating in a student discussion forum would be an excellent way to get students motivated and actively engaged in the learning. They could do this from home or in the classroom, depending on how the teacher decides to utilize the materials.

Due to restrictions some teachers may have on course content, the flexibility of how the curriculum/mini-lessons can be used is important. The format of a WebQuest provides excellent guidance for those that may need it but also can be altered in ways that will best suit the teacher and the students’ needs. For the instructors of an Advanced Placement course the time following the national exam would provide an excellent opportunity for students to work on a project that both adds to their knowledge of the research on happiness but allows them to explore their own attitudes and behaviors related to their goal of achieving happiness. Many psychology teachers prepare these types of assessments for the end of the course/year and this curriculum could be used as an addition to or in place of a student portfolio that many instructors currently assign.

Any and ALL of these ideas are applicable to a college course.

Note: WebQuest links do go “dead” so you have to check them out before you use them every time!!!