You will conduct one individual service-learning project worth 100 points. The project is meant to be a fun and interesting way to increase your comprehension of course material and to help you apply child development principles to everyday life within your community. It is also meant to work in a creative and innovative manner in integrating multiple psychological concepts. Below are 5 potential projects to choose from, although you are not limited to these 5 potential projects and may choose your own idea. If you choose your own idea, you must receive approval from me first. Choose projects which you will enjoy (i.e., which fit your own interests, skills, and creativity level) and which will stimulate your thinking about topics in this course. A brief description of potential projects is listed below. Be aware that some projects may require you to read ahead in the text or get outside sources. You must send me a proposal (briefly describing the project you will do and any relevant details), due week 7 –midnight via Blackboard. Please note that these projects can require several days to a week to complete, so plan accordingly (i.e., do not procrastinate!). All projects must have a community-service impact. We will discuss this more in detail throughout the semester. You will write a summary of the project and/or findings and present the project/findings to the class.
The detailed rubric on how and what you will be grade on can be accessed here: Individual Project Grading Rubric
Examples of Potential Individual Projects
Project #1: Create a blog …note: if you choose this, you must start blogging early on the semester. IT MUST BE LIVE on the Internet. This option will not be possible to choose if selected after week 8.
For this project, you will create a blog (that means it’s your voice and your ideas on the blog and what you think) devoted to a specific topic (s) or theory (ies) in child development over the semester time period that will inform your local community about the topic(s). The overall goal of the tutorial is to inform and educate your targeted visitor on the blog about your chosen topic and inform them of your thoughts. You should assume that your visitor is intelligent but not necessarily familiar with the field of psychology. Your site should be both useful and visually interesting, and should contain (a) pictures, graphics, videos (b) hot links to related information or relevant sites, and (c) references. Note that students are responsible for getting their projects up and running on the web. The day the assignment is due, you will simply turn in the correct URL, and I will grade it directly on the web.You must have at least 1450-1850 words (approx. a 4-5 page paper) on your topic, why it was chosen, who is the audience, and how will this help the audience develop or learn better.
Project #2: Write a children’s story
Write a short story for children that will be focused in the needs of children in your community (at least 10 pages or more) (e.g., include acts of altruism, aggression and discrimination, etc.) Make sure to look at a few children’s stories in order to get an idea of how to proceed. You can aim your story at any age level below 10 (but be sure to specify your story’s target audience). Write a 4-5 page paper (approx. 1450-1850 words) explaining (1) whether any of the acts committed in the story might be emulated by the readers of your community, (2) which events would have the created impact on the readers, given past research/theory, and (3) describe how your story concepts and ideas illustrate the theories and what we have learned in class. Make appropriate references to the textbook and articles you have read. Please note that your story should be neatly presented (i.e., like an actual book) and should contain illustrations. Bring your book on presentation day.
Project #3: Design a Toy
Design a toy or game that fosters the healthy development of children within your community (e.g., social, cognitive, physical development). Write a 4-5 page paper (approx. 1450-1850 words) (1) discussing the theory (ies) you used to help create the toy, (2) describing the toy, and articulating the positive and negative (if any) aspects of your toy, including the developmental stage for which the toy was designed for (e.g. infancy, early childhood, etc), and (3) discuss how the toy promotes social, cognitive, and or/physical development. Bring the toy to class on presentation day.
Project #4: Design a public service campaign
For this project, imagine that you are a professional specializing in persuasive communications and letter you have been hired to bring about a positive change in children’s behavior within the community (e.g., you might want to get them to exercise more, to adopt one or more healthy behaviors, to volunteer, to be more compassionate, or to decrease bullying in school or cyber-bullying, etc.) Your final product will consist of a 4-5 page typed paper (approx. 1450-1850 words) that includes a list of your specific goals, and outline of the steps you would take to achieve them, and a thorough discussion of the theoretical principles (e.g., modeling, reinforcement, dissonance) that underlie your persuasive techniques/strategies. You are to provide tangible evidence of your campaign (e.g., a video-clip, pamphlet, etc.) on presentation day.
Project #5: Conduct an experiment
(e.g., cartoons and aggression or anything else that might be of interest)
Conduct the following experiment on observational learning. Videotape a television cartoon (or rent one) that contains a lot of violence and one that contains virtually no violence. Then recruit 6 participants (either Parents of children; or children) to watch the violent cartoon, and 6 participants to watch the mild cartoon. Choose any group but make sure to get all 12 individuals from the same group. You should also try to have the same number of males and females in each group. After participants watch the cartoon, give them a sheet of paper and ask them to write a one paragraph story about a boy named Tim. Read these stories (taking care not to see which condition each participant is in), and code them on a 4-point scale from “not much aggression in story” to “a lot of aggression in story.” Next, see if your mean rating of the stories in the two groups is different (using a t-test)—I can help you with this. (If you would prefer to use another measure of aggression, that’s OK, but check with me first). Did you find more aggression in one of the groups? Use your findings to educate your community by explaining both why you choose this community, and describing the results of your experiment in a 4-5 page paper(approx. 1450-1850 words) including a section on whether or not your findings are consistent with past research. You must collect your data and include them with your project. On the final day you present the results on a poster board or via a power point presentation with your data.
A summary of what A-C grades are, a more detailed point system rubric will be handed out later.
A C project is one that answers the questions adequately, without being particularly innovative. A project receiving this grade may not properly draw on child development concepts, nor integrate them in a logical fashion. Projects that are not well-thought out, do not reflect a great deal of effort, are not well written, and/or include noticeable carelessness, will receive this grade. Projects that seem to “take the easy way out” are more likely to receive this grade.
A B project addresses the question in an interesting, logical manner. Concepts and relevant research are applied accurately and cleverly integrated. Such projects are also well written, do not reflect much carelessness, and reflect a fair amount of thought and effort. Novel approaches are not necessarily taken, but the project satisfactorily addresses the question in a thoughtful way.
An A project is one that approaches the question in a creative, innovative manner. Several child development concepts are clearly and logically integrated, and links (in some case, novel links) are made to current research on the topic. Such papers reflect extremely careful attention to detail, are very well written, and often offer interesting new approaches to a community problem at hand. Projects earning this grade usually reflect an impressive amount of though and rigor.
