Psych Students Study Childhood Brain Development

High school juniors and seniors enjoyed interacting with kindergarten students on September 26 as part of a psychology class lesson on brain development.

“This is certainly a bonus of being a K-12 school,” says Curt Stutzman, Bible, English and social sciences teacher. “It’s great to be able to do a lesson on brain development, and then invite the younger students to our class to interact around some simple activities so the older students can observe how they respond to conservation tasks.”

In psychology, conservation refers to logical thinking that allows a person to determine that a certain quantity will remain the same despite adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size, according to psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget’s (1936) theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world.

Students in Mr. Stutzman’s class reviewed number, length, liquid, mass, area, weight and volume with the kindergarten students.

“Besides,” comments Mr. Stutzman, “who doesn’t like playing with Play Doh?” Based on the smiles, it appeared everyone did.