The planning, delivery and impact of a three day (15 hour) mini-course
     in psychology is described.  The course was delivered to 12 grade
     eight and nine students.  Implications for course and program
     development are discussed and an outline of the course content is
     offered.

 All students in the course had selected it from a dozen different offerings based
on information presented to them through their schools.  The following description was
given for the psychology offering:
 

          Can you really "wash" a brain?  Are people really just like those rats
     when they learn?  Is there a way I can train my baby sister to eat
     worms?  This mini-course will look at these questions and many more
     about how humans (including kids, parents and pets) learn, think, feel
     and behave.  It will offer you a chance to learn what psychology is and
     what psychologists do.  It will let you experience psychological
     phenomena and design and conduct a psychological experiment. 
     Mostly it will let us talk about things like intelligence, habits, dreams,
     learning, thinking, mental health, mental illness and generally why we
     act the way we do.

Goals of the Course

 While the course sought to introduce students to psychology, as a discipline and
a possible future profession, this was only one or several reasons for offering students
the "experience".  The course (and the program) sought to offer young people a chance
to "see" and be a part of a large institution (i.e. a university) which was considered to be
very different in many ways from their school.  It also sought to let them:  (a) experience
meeting with a new group of students who shared a similar academic interest, (b) cope
with a new educational environment and (c) take part in experiences like "seminars",
"labs" and "discussion groups".  Learning specific content (in this case about psychology)
was a secondary objective.  More appropriate was the learning of an "incidental" or
"enrichment" type which was deemed likely to occur.  In other words, the course sought
to "broaden" the students' career and academic horizons.  It was believed that if the
children were "immersed" in a rich and focused environment that they had selected and
identified, considerable specific content and more general and diverse learning, some
reflecting a positive valuing of higher education, and a heightened motivation to "stay in
school", would take place.

 While it is possible that some of these young people could chose a career in
psychology, it was fully appreciated that many would decide they did not want this career. 
Many could also get a taste of "higher education" and hence perhaps better decide if they
liked the kind of focus and "more in depth" type of study that is required of those entering
a profession requiring several years of advanced training.  At the very least, the young
people would be offered the chance to meet, question and interact with people who were:
"researchers", "professors", or professionals involved in fields like engineering, biology
and geology.
 

Course Content

 Deciding on what young students should or might be offered as an introduction
to a discipline is difficult.  An even moderately detailed and comprehensive overview of
the field was considered to be "dull" and likely not understood.  With this age group an
emphasis on overviews, outlines and definitions also was considered as inappropriate. 
It was decided that samples of information on topics within psychology and samples of
activities that persons working in the discipline performed would be offered.

 An effort was made to give students experiences and information of four types.
These included (1) learning about the area of psychology, (2) learning about a possible
career in psychology, (3) learning about "higher education" and "university" study and (4)
learning about their own personal interests and perhaps abilities.

 The class was exposed to several "foundational" concepts and ideas in
psychology.  Students were given the chance and encouraged to ask as many "personal"
questions of the instructor as they wished.  They asked, for example, about how I (as a
living example of a "psychologist") "saw" others, "thought" about young people and about
what my day to day work involved.  My training and income were also sources of interest. 
The course opened with a discussion of, "What's a 'psyche' and what's an 'ology'". 
Students were introduced to the detailed work that researchers do, the vagueness and
difficulty of many issues and to the role of psychologist as a therapist and clinician.  They
had a "peek" at "standardized testing", the use of distributions of scores and norms and
at the range individual differences that people display.  They discussed intelligence and
were shown the range of tasks typically found on intelligence tests.  They also
experienced "scoring" children's drawings of people.  About three hours were spent on
collecting "objective naturalistic observations" and related concepts like "operational
definitions" and "behavioral descriptions".  The observations were made in a campus
daycare setting where the students interacted with and observed the children and where
they collected samples of child drawings for subsequent "analysis".  (For additional
information on class activities and the sequence they were offered, see Appendix A.)

 The class activities and the direct content of the course were supplemented by
offering students access to a library of approximately 75 books on areas related to
various aspects of psychology and to the needs of young adolescents.  This library was
established in the room and available for perusal and overnight borrowing.  Several video
tapes on various aspects of "psychology" were also made available.  To allow both these
resources to be sampled the room was opened for 30 minutes before class and kept
open over lunch.

 In addition to the classroom and field trip, students explored questions about
several aspects of University life including the freedom, independence and workload.  
The physical nature of the University was explored and places like labs, large
classrooms, the library and cafeteria were visited.  Students noticed and commented on
the sheer physical size and diversity of the campus.
 

What Participants Experienced and Potentially Learned

 It is difficult to know exactly what was gained from the course.  Students were
asked to rate the course "in secret" using a brief questionnaire prepared by the program
organizers.  All students agreed that the course was interesting and that they enjoyed the
activities offered.  All except one recommended the course to others and all except one
agreed that they would like to take part in such a program again.  Interestingly, one
student stated that psychology was not a career in which she had a future interest.  Ten
of the twelve students said the course was challenging and two rated it in the middle of
the scale.  All of the students found the visit to the day care and the related activities
worthwhile.  Three expressed that they found the intelligence and I.Q. test related
experience interesting.  Individuals remarked that they found the study of gestures,
hypnosis and dreams interesting.

 It was noted that outside the classroom, the young people, several times, used
terms that had been earlier discussed in class.  The students, in class and out, posed
many very good and reflective questions about the nature and implications of concepts
that were offered.  It seemed that the materials offered were found to be interesting and
it was clear that all eagerly participated in discussions and activities.  Several times
students expressed a desire to spend more time on specific topics.

 At a personal level, students experienced meeting new people and forming a
new group.  They also experienced handling a new setting and a moderate degree of
offered independence and responsibility.  They were told, for example, that they were in
a university and would be treated like university students.  This meant that they could
leave the room if they needed to, that they had to take some responsibility for offering
views and that discussion and speculation were expected.

 It was clear throughout the course that students were pursuing a personal
interest and that they were with others who had expressed and shared similar interests. 
It was also significant that the students, perhaps for the first time, focused on a single
(albeit somewhat diverse) topic for a relatively long time (three days).  If anything, their
interest and ability to focus appeared to increase as the program progressed.

 The participants' personal identity and esteem were no doubt enhanced by the
uniqueness of the experience as was the pleasure and challenge of learning new ideas. 
The program ran parallel to their regular classes hence they also had the status of being
"out of class" and of doing something "special".  They appeared to value this.

 Besides learning about a subject new to most, this course, as noted above,
offered students the opportunity to interact directly with a person likely to be seen as
"authority" (i.e. doctor, professor, psychologist) in a setting (namely the university) likely
to judged to be "special" and perhaps even intimidating.  Such experiences can help
overcome stereotypes and potentially help open students' minds to other opportunities
while allaying misgivings or fears that might exist.  While such incidental learning is very
difficult to assess, the rich and diverse environment offered them was well explored by
the students and the learning was deemed to be considerable.

 It was clear that the students responded to the opportunity and the
encouragement they were given to question and challenge information and positions. 
Their appreciation of being treated as responsible young people with opinions and
information was evident and clearly considered valuable to them.
 

Course Development and Suggestions for Future Mini-Workshops

 It was a significant challenge and quite time consuming to identify topics relevant
to the age group and legitimately part of the discipline of psychology.  It was very
challenging to find ways to offer experiences and activities that related to the topics
selected for inclusion in the course.  The goal was to find activities and examples that
were both representative of the psychology and concrete enough to be within the
cognitive ability of the students.  For the three day (15 hour) workshop, at least 40 to 45
hours of searching, preparation and planning needed.

 Many concepts common to this subject were considered and deemed too
abstract (i.e. mental illness, therapy and some aspects of thinking) to be dealt with at any
length.  Some topics, because they seemed too "risk laden" (i.e. sexuality, family
relations, suicide, personal problems and coping) also were not touched upon directly as
it was felt that dealing with these in a group that was unknown and possibly without
subsequent direct support was not acceptable.

 When developing the course, an effort was made to search the literature for
curriculum or activities to help one introduce or explain "psychology" to the target age
group (i.e. 13-15 years).  None was found.

 It is felt that there is considerable value in offering this course and similar
courses to such "small" groups.   My group and the other groups that were a part of this
project were all small.  The psychology group consisted of 12 people.  The size was
perfect as it allowed ample opportunity for all individuals to interact, raise questions and
discuss their views.  Discipline was not a problem or an issue, in part because it was
relatively easy for the instructor to monitor and interact with virtually all individuals on an
ongoing basis.

 The developers of the program, utilized a strategy which involved accepting
students who had expressed an interest in the subject of the mini-course.  Those who
came forth needed to be "supported" by their principals before being placed.  Students
in the course were randomly drawn from the pool of those expressing an interest and
having support.  This appears to be an excellent procedure.  Such a "support" (versus
"selected") strategy allows children who may not be deemed "outstanding" or "strong" to
be included.  Opportunities such as this can be motivational and can offer an opportunity
for a mixing and diversity of views in a group.  "Good and responsible" and not just "very
able" children have a chance to experience "other worlds" and this is viewed as very
positive.  It was clear from psychology group, that all participants had thought about what
they would be learning and doing.  All had selected "psychology" as their first choice.

 In future, it would be useful for persons delivering workshops to know better
what students were expecting or what they would like to learn about.  It might be possible
to have the students, perhaps at the time of application or after being notified of
acceptance, write down one or two questions or topics that they would like to explore in
their mini-course.  This information would help the instructor better select and develop
materials and activities.

 The psychology mini-course lasted three days.  For an "introduction" to an area
this was seen to be a reasonable length of time.  A longer (i.e. five day) psychology
program could have involved some "project" (i.e. doing some "research" or creating a
product or test) as contrasted to just exploration.   The optimal length obviously depends
on the subject being studied and the ease with which "projects" can be developed and
introduced and of course the availability of an instructor.
 

Conclusions

 It was found that for this course, there was a high level  student involvement and
apparent interest.  Virtually all participants contributed by asking questions and readily
engaging in offered activities.  There was very little obvious boredom (yawning, doing
other activities, talking to each other, etc.)  Many students wanted to extend activities
beyond available time.  In mornings and at lunch, individuals looked through the books
supplied and sampled video materials that were present.  A few borrowed books
overnight.  Questions were frequent and forthcoming from literally all members of the
group.

 There appeared to be a serious effort put forth by all participants and a genuine
attempt to integrate the offered materials.  Many home examples and some personal
examples of related experiences were offered by the students.  At the end of session,
many questions about university and professional training were asked.  Questions about
being a professional were also asked.  Frequent "why" questions possed and "is that
because" speculations were offered.

 The young people readily formed groups and appeared to bond together well. 
By the middle of the third day, all of the students interacted easily with each other, ate
lunch together and shared information.  Only two of the twelve students seemed slightly
hesitant to enter the newly formed social group.  All shared and discussed ideas.

 As noted, discipline was excellent and students were cooperative and
responsible.  There was no damage, mess, material loss or any other type of problem. 
Overall, from the instructor's perspective, students appeared to enjoy and learn form the
process and experience.

 I strongly feel that offering mini-courses to this age group is of considerable
value and I would encourage that students continue to be given the opportunity to engage
in such activities.  While, unfortunately, it may not be possible to offer all students such
access, offering such experiences even to some is better than offering the experience to
none.
 

Appendix 1:  Activity Schedule

Monday A.M.

           A.   Intro, Basic Rules, Getting to know each other Exercise
           B.   Discussion/ Definitions of "Psychology" 
           C.   Discussion of What Psychologists do:
                (i.e. Research, Practice, Teach, Design and Evaluate Environments and
        Products)
           D.   Discuss Being "Egocentric"
           E.   Discuss How We Communicate (Verbal and Non-verbal)
           F.   Task/ Activity:  Developing a "Gesture List"
           G.   Discuss Observation and How We "Quickly" Interpret Data

Monday P.M.

         A.     Discuss Play, Curiosity and Learning:
         B.     Activity:  Study Why do Children Play with Toys
                (In small Groups class studied:  What a child learns from a toy?, How long
        a toy might be "used" and why?  What's a Good Toy?)

Tuesday A.M. 

         A.     Discuss Naturalistic Research (in preparation for observation at the
        preschool) 
         B.     Discussed data to be collected at preschool. 
                          (Included: peer relationships; coordination; language usage;
             adult/caretaker actions; children's curiosity and exploration)
         C.     Visited Preschool
      (Collected "data" on above topics plus samples of child drawings.)

Tuesday P.M.

         A.     Discussed Collected Drawings 
         B.     "Scored" children's drawing re amount of detail included
         C.     Discussed why psychologists use tests. (special attention to I.Q. tests)

Wednesday A.M.

         A.     Discussed Intelligence Tests - Displayed Samples
         B.     Group Activity on Impact of TV by Age of Child
                          (included discussion of how parents roles change with the age of the child)
         C.     Discussed Topics of Students Introduced
   (Dreams, hypnotism, sex differences, lying)
         D.     Discussed Becoming a Psychologist (training, income, being a
        professional)

Wednesday P.M.

      Toured Campus                            

   1. Topics explored included:  communication; perception; information processing
   (more specifically, "sensory store", "working memory", long term memory,
   forgetting), developmental change and growth curves; egocentric thinking, sex
   differences, I.Q., and play.

   2. Videotapes were offered on topics including:  the brain, family communication,
   suicide, children's thinking, and mental illness.