Category Archives: Blog Prompts

Spotlight Blog 2 Prompts

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag "Spotlight" on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. The spotlight post is due by the beginning of class on Friday, 11/10. Option 1 - Use the tag "Intelligence" There has been a lot of controversy around the way our educational system works to improve learning outcomes for our children. For this post, you are going to investigate one of these issues and present your conclusions based on the evidence you review. You may select either year-round education (i.e., whether or not there should be a long summer break) or single-gender education (i.e., should boys and girls have separate classrooms). You will need to find two sources arguing for year-round education/single-gender education and two sources arguing against it, review the evidence in each source, and present ...

Week 10 First Impression Prompts – Learning

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Learning." The first impression posts will be due by the beginning of class on Monday, 10/30. The refinement posts will be due at noon on Sunday, 11/5. Option 1: BF Skinner passionately believed in the power of operant conditioning. He thought it was such a powerful influence that it proved free will is an illusion. See Skinner make this claim here. Respond to Skinner’s assertion that there is no such thing as free will. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Option 2: Violence in the media has been controversial for decades, but over the last 20 years there has been increasing attention to the amount of violence in video games. The rise ...

Week 9 First Impression Prompts – Stress

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Stress." The first impression posts will be due by the beginning of class on Monday, 10/23. The refinement posts will be due at noon on Sunday, 10/29. Option 1: Stress permeates American society, and college is a very stressful environment for everyone involved. Stress management is a critical component of academic success in college. Describe your current stress management strategies, assess how well they work, and discuss what other stress management activities you could realistically incorporate into your routine to help you deal with stress more effectively. Option 2: Stress is something all too common in college students’ lives, but what if you could change your relationship with stress? Kelly McGonigal discusses doing just that ...

Week 8 First Impression Prompts – Emotion

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which one you choose, please use the tag "Emotion." The first impression post will be due Wednesday, 10/18, at the start of class. Refinement posts for these prompts will be due Sunday, 10/22, at noon. Option 1: We all want to enjoy life and seek ways to make ourselves happy. Indeed, we spend much of our lives chasing the goal of happiness. But how good are we at actually finding it? Dan Gilbert discusses the ways in which we sabotage our own happiness in his TED talk. Watch the video, share your reactions, comment on the speaker’s credibility, discuss how reasonable you find its message to be, and discuss ways in which you can incorporate more synthetic happiness into your life. Option ...

Week 7 First Impression Prompts – Sleep

Hand writing on a notebook   Regardless of which option you choose, please use the tag "Sleep" on your post. The first impression post will be due at the start of class on Wednesday, 10/11, and the refinement post will be due at noon on Tuesday, 10/17. Option 1: In this TED talk, Russell Foster outlines 3 prominent theories about why we sleep. Watch the talk and argue for the theory you find the most convincing. Make sure to explain your thoughts about the credibility of each of the three theories. Option 2: College students are often heavily sleep deprived as they sacrifice sleep in order to study, work, and/or have a social life in addition to their academic commitments. Assess your current sleep habits and how healthy you think they are. What is a realistic goal for ...

Spotlight Blog 1 Prompts

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag "Spotlight" on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. The spotlight post is due by the beginning of class on Monday, 10/9. Option 1 - Use the tag "Development" As divorce has become more and more common in the US, the number of children affected by divorce has increased greatly. The effects of divorce on children are controversial and there are a number of opinions out there on just what is "best" for kids. If you select this option, I want you to find two credible sources that argue divorce is inherently harmful to children and two credible sources that argue children can come through a divorce without serious consequences. Make sure to assess the arguments and supporting data presented in each source, explain what makes ...

Week 6 First Impression Prompts – Psychoactive Drugs

Hand writing on a notebook   The first impression posts for this prompt will be due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, 10/4. The refinement posts for this prompt will be due Tuesday, 10/10, at noon. Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag "Drugs." Option 1: Recently, several states have legalized recreational use of marijuana and even more are considering it. This has lead to both celebration and condemnation depending on who you ask. Medicinal use of marijuana is still controversial as well. In your blog post, take a position on both medical and recreational use of marijuana. Should they be legal or not? Make sure to point out pros and cons to both arguments. Option 2: When it comes to treating addiction, two prominent approaches are the abstinence ...

Week 5 First Impression Prompts – Memory

Hand writing on a notebook Because of the exam this week, the schedule for blog posts is a little different. The first impression posts for this prompt will be due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, 9/27. The refinement posts for this prompt will be due Tuesday, 10/3, at noon. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Memory” on your post: Option 1:   One of the topics we will discuss related to memory is study habits. For this post, critique your current study habits. Discuss what do you do well and what do you need to improve. In particular, I want you to discuss how you studied for the first exam in this class and share any changes you might make for the second exam to improve your preparation. We will see how ...

Week 4 First Impression Prompts – Neuroscience

Hand writing on a notebook Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Neuroscience” on your post. For your blog prompt this week, you are to choose one of the following TED talks:

Research Design Critique – Bonus Blog Prompt

Hand writing on a notebook In class on Friday we conducted a Coke vs. Pepsi taste test experiment. The research question was "Can people tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi?" Based on the data we collected in class, we determined the answer to the question was no because 3 of the 4 people only got 2-3 guesses correct out of 5 trials. For this bonus blog post, critique the design of the experiment as we conducted it in class. The bonus post will be worth up to 2 extra credit points depending on the quality of your answers (make sure to use the terminology from the chapter whenever possible) and must be posted by the beginning of class on Monday 9/11 with the tag "Bonus Posts" to earn credit. You must use answer the following questions as part of your critique:

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