AT&T Fellows Final Report: Susan Shapiro

AT&T Fellows Final Reports

March 2005

Name	Susan J. Shapiro
Title	Associate Professor
Department	Psychology
Campus	IUE
Project Title	Integrating Laboratory Research into Psychology
Project Goal	The project was developed to create a laboratory activity associated with the Behavioral Neuroscience course that would make effective use of available technology, giving students practice in applying scientific principles, conducting research, and using appropriate technological and non-technological tools.
Type of Technology Used in the Project	Laboratory equipment consisting of a carrying bag containing a probe Vernier Interface, power supply and appropriate probes, a PDA (personal digital assistant) or handheld computer for data collection and analysis with appropriate connection cables, and an instruction manual for the equipment. Appropriate software will be installed on the PDA as well as on the two classroom computers to complete data analysis with the collected data.

Executive Summary of Results

A portable physiology laboratory was created for use in Psychology courses. The technology allowed the real time collection and analysis of physiological measures such as heart rate, respiration rate, and skin temperature. Student were able to take the portable laboratories home for use in conducting simple experiments with family and friends. Students without adequate preparation in the research process had difficult designing an appropriate project. Students reported a better understanding of the connection between physiological arousal and mental states as well as an appreciation of the difficulty in doing real data collection as a part of the research process.

Need for the Project

The psychology department has made efforts to increase the use of technology tools in psychology courses to assist students in developing the ability to learn to use new tools that become available and that may be necessary for their future tasks and occupations.

We are also interested in increasing student’s understanding of the scientific aspects of psychology, giving them problem solving and data analysis skills useful in their future educational pursuits and occupational choices. At this point, there have been few opportunities for students to engage in laboratory research before their completion of a capstone independent research project.

Use of Technology

The technology used had measurement devices to allow the students to collect data on themselves, their classmates, and their family and friends to be used for analysis in class projects. Student have been introduced to many other data collection techniques, such as observation or survey research, but seldom make use of technology in their research.

Instructional Design Plan

Students learning outcomes expected were to make the connection between their own observations and physiological phenomena related to behavior. Psychology students often think of people in terms of behavior and mental phenomena, and fail to pay attention to the role of physiological arousal in the process of understanding behavior.

The project also encouraged student interaction. IU East students often do not get to know other students in their courses as they spend little free time on campus. Faculty try to create assignments that facilitate interaction and the development of relationships as a retention strategy as well as a support to student learning.

Students were encouraged to work together to plan their research project. Faculty were available during a classroom session with the equipment. This course was conducted over the VIC interface with students at three locations. One class period was spent doing sample exercises with the equipment while the instructor was available to help trouble shoot equipment problems.

Students were required to work as a pair for the assigned project. This allowed them to have help in problem solving necessary to learn to use of the equipment and some one to talk to about the design of the research and the study results before submitting the final paper.

The Teaching and Learning Center provided support in ordering the equipment and in setting up the lab kits.

If other faculty were interested in creating similar activities, development of appropriate assignments is not difficult. Once the equipment is available, assisting students in designing small research projects is not particularly difficult. The equipment also comes with extensive handbooks of possible experiments with detailed instructions that can be used as they are or modified to fit with a specific curriculum. Although many of the activities are designed for Elementary or Secondary classrooms, they can easily be modified for inclusions in a college laboratory.

Implementation of this type of project requires commitment on the part of the faculty involved in keeping track of the equipment and checking it out to students, as well as checking in the equipment and making sure it is working for the next group of students.

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Students working on this project were observed to have a better understanding of the complexity of research and the realities of conducting laboratory research rather than merely being consumers of the existing research.

While the number of students directly involved in the projects was limited, these students were able to involve family and friends in the research process and in their education.

Assessment Plan

Assessment was done through students responses on the course evaluation and through evaluation of the quality of student work. Student projects reflected problems with design of the project as well as with writing an appropriate APA style paper. (These skills are taught in the Sophomore level Methods of Experimental Psychology course, which students are expected to take before taking upper division courses. Many of our students fail to follow the advice of faculty and take their upper division course first, leaving the research course till their senior year. Since we cannot require them to take it in a particular semester due to possible scheduling problems in a students body made up of commuting students who work and have family responsibilities, we have a recurring problem when such assignments are included in upper division courses.)

Comments about the assignment were generally positive, though students found the assignment difficult and felt that they needed more supporting instruction in conducting research and using the equipment.

Plan for Colleague Development

Equipment, such as the portable probe software and hardware used in this activity, would be appropriate in many disciplines.

On the IU East campus, similar equipment is used for chemistry courses. Interaction with the chemistry faculty was a part of the colleague development aspect of this project.

I also demonstrated the equipment to faculty in a campus wide presentation, in one-on-one discussions, and while on a trip to the University of Namibia, in Africa.

A Conference presentation on the Behavioral Neuroscience course was used as a vehicle for explaining the potential of using similar equipment to create laboratory exercises in the context of a course taught through a variety of media, including VIC and Online sections of the course.

Shapiro, S.J. Behavioral Neuroscience: The On-line/Off-Line Version The 20th Annual Conference on Distance Learning and Teaching Madison WI, August 4-6, 2004.

Final Comments on Project Results

I feel that the goals for this project were partially met. I was able to create an appropriate activity for the Behavioral Neuroscience course that exposed students to technology that they would not otherwise connect to the discipline of psychology. They were also able to take equipment into their homes so that they could connect their educational experiences with their family and friends.

The equipment worked much as described for the activities for the first course. When I went to prepare the materials for the next time the course was to be taught, a year later, the PDA’s would not hold a charge long enough for the students to take them home and use them with the required software. Since I could not assume that students had home computers where they could download and install the probe software as well as the PDA software, it was not longer possible to use the equipment in the form I intended.

It is still usable with the computers in the classroom, but the portability aspect is no longer viable.

A second problem has appeared due to the disappearance of some of the equipment. I made sure that all kits were returned and stored in the Psychology store room before I was off campus for a year. When I returned, half of the kits were missing and no one on campus was able to account for them. This has made it difficult to use the kits in the manner intended as there are not enough kits to check out to students for all students to have time to complete the assignment as planned.

The remaining kits are now used in the classroom where the software can be used with the two classroom computers for data collection and analysis.

If planning to create a similar activity, I would make the following suggestions:

Any activity which involves students in the observation of human behavior is very useful. The inclusion of technology reinforced research skills not often supported in behavioral and social science research, where technology use can be limited, particularly at the undergraduate level. This activity was very challenging for students as they must learn to use unfamiliar, and sometimes sensitive, equipment as well as learn to plan research.
This type of activity requires substantial support for research skills before the activity is conducted. Students who had not taken the lower level research course before taking this class had a great deal of difficulty with the design of an experiment that was appropriate for the equipment and the time constraints.

Return to Final Reports page

AT&T Fellows Home Page