Psychology Unit Plan ED-499

Overview: Scientific Inquiry Domain

Content Standards with Performance Standards: CONTENT STANDARD 3: Basic concepts of data analysis Students are able to (performance standards): 3.1 -Define descriptive statistics and explain how they are used by psychological scientists 3.2 -Define forms of qualitative data and explain how they are used by psychological scientists 3.3 -Define correlation coefficients and explain their appropriate interpretation 3.4 -Interpret graphical representations of data as used in both quantitative and qualitative methods

Objectives: -TSW be able to define statistic terms and explain how they are used with 80% accuracy. -TSW be able to define qualitative data and explain how it is used by psychological scientists. -TWS be able to define correlation coefficients and interpret them with 90% accuracy. -TSW be able to interpret graphs of data as used with both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Assessments: Throughout the unit I will have several different assessments, listed below are the ones I plan on using. 1. Pre-Assessment: a. I will give the students terms and numbers associated with those terms and ask

what the numbers indicate. (Lesson 1) b. I will ask students if they know the difference between quality and quantity. (Lesson 2) c. I will show the students data plots and ask whether or not they notice a positive trend, negative trend, or no trend. (Lesson 3) d. I will give students case studies and ask how they would go about representing the data. (Lesson 4) 2. Formative Assessment: a. Small homework assignments for each lesson giving the students practice with the concepts they learned throughout the unit. (Lessons 1-4) b. Students will be given a quiz on statistics terms and when they are to be used, also qualitative data and when it is used will be included on this quiz. (Lessons 1-2) c. Students will be given a quiz on correlational coefficients, interpretation of graphs, and also will have short answer about statistics concepts. (Lessons 3-4) d. I will walk around during class when students are given time to work individually or in groups and see where they are doing well and also where they are struggling. (Lessons 1-4) 3. Summative Assessment: a. There will be a chapter test on the four sections that we have learned about over the course of the unit. The test will cover all aspects of the unit including terms, graphical analysis, and number analysis. Accommodations: Students will see the terms represented in graphical and numerical form, which will allow them to make connections in more ways than just memorizing definitions. Students will be given case studies and graphs used in real world situations so they will be able to have visual representations in addition to hearing the information.

Unit Sequence: The unit will be taught in 8 days, every section will take 1 day to take with a quiz after 2 sections have been completed. There will also be a review day before the test, and a day for the test. Technology: In these lessons I will use the technology that is available to me in my current teacher assisting classroom. These include the document camera, which would allow me to go over worksheets as well as show graphs on the calculator. The whiteboard will also be available for me to help explain concepts and do mathematical operations.

Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan 1: Descriptive Statistics I. Behavioral/Objective a. Content Standard 1: Basic concepts of data analysis Students are able to (performance standards):
- Define descriptive statistics and explain how they are used by psychological scientists.

II. Objective a. TSW be able to define statistic terms and explain how they are used with 80% accuracy. b. This is important because students need to know what statistic terms are to be able to say whether or not they are good descriptors in a study. III. Anticipatory Set a. For my anticipatory set I will ask students if they have ever seen statistics presented in the news, and wondered whether or not that the studies were true. IV. Purpose/Objective a. What? Today we will be learning the different statistic terms and how they are used. b. How? I will teach the students statistical terms and explaining what they mean. After they have a small understanding we will look at the results from studies, and analyze the statistical terms used in the different studies to say whether or not they are valid. c. Why? In order to help understand the statistics and validity of studies presented to the students. V. Input a. Task Analysis i. The learner should have a basic understanding of the statistics and the scientific process. b. Thinking Levels: i. Knowledge- Knowing how psychological scientists use descriptive statistics. ii. Comprehension-Understanding why they use the numbers they do. iii. Application- Apply their knowledge of descriptive statistics to say what they can be used for. c. Learning Styles i. I will lecture to students and give students real life examples of studies where psychological scientists use different descriptive statistics. d. Method and Materials i. I will lecture and discuss how descriptive statistics are used. ii. The materials needed are a projector, document camera, and various psychological studies.

VI. Modeling a. I will show the students a study with descriptive statistics and explain what they mean in the context. VII. Checking for Understanding a. I will give students a study and have them pair up and find the descriptive statistics and explain how they are used. b. Some studies will have numbers they dont really need in there and I will have them explain why those statistics arent very good. c. How does this relate to real life studies youve heard of? Independent Practice a. Students will be given a study to find what descriptive statistics were used and do that on their own. b. Unfinished work will be assigned as homework.

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IX. Closure a. Exit Passi. I will present the results of a study and ask the students to write down what of the statistics presented means in the context.

Lesson Plan 2: Qualitative Data I. Standards a. 3.2 -Define forms of qualitative data and explain how they are used by psychological scientists. Objective a. TSW be able to define qualitative data and explain how it is used by psychological scientists. b. This is important for students to understand because there is a very large difference between qualitative and quantitative data, and how they are measured. Anticipatory Set: a. I will present two different ideas for a psychological study, one that clearly requires qualitative data and another that would clearly use quantitative data. I will ask the students how they would go about collecting data. Objective/Purpose a. What? Today we will be learning the difference between qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection. And how to measure qualitative data. b. How? I will give some examples of how qualitative data is collected and give students some of the tests. I would then ask them to come up with a study themselves in which they would have to use qualitative data. c. Why? In order to help students understand that there are different measures for different data. Input a. Task Analysis i. The information the learner needs is the difference between quality and quantity. b. Thinking Levels: i. Knowledge- Know the difference between qualitative and quantitative. ii. Comprehension- Understand that they are measured different ways. iii. Application- Use their knowledge of their knowledge to recognize when qualitative data is used. iv. Analysis- They will see studies and decide whether or not it should be measured with qualitative data or quantitative. v. Synthesis- Students will come up with a study that uses qualitative data. Learning Styles i. Students will be able to listen to my lecture, or notice the difference on their own between the types of data used. Method i. I will see if they notice a difference in the types of measuring methods

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used in the anticipatory set. I will then explain that difference, and show them different studies in which you can see the difference. I will give let them identify the differences themselves, and then come up with their own study. VIII. Modeling a. Have you ever wondered how psychologists study things that you cannot physically see or measure? Checking for Understanding a. Questioning: I will question students as to whether they would measure something qualitatively or quantitatively. b. After teaching for a bit I will stop and have some students come up with made up examples that would display the information I just taught. I would do this a few times throughout the lesson. Guided Practice a. I will let students come up with their own psychological study that they would use qualitative data to measure something with. Closure a. Exit Slip- Students will write down what they would test for in their psychological study.

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Lesson Plan 3: Correlation I. Standards a. 3.3 -Define correlation coefficients and explain their appropriate interpretation Objective a. TWS be able to identify correlation coefficients and interpret them with 90% accuracy. b. This is important for students to understand so they can tell if there is a relation between two variables and whether or not it is a strong relation. Anticipatory Set: a. There is a correlation between murder rates and ice cream sales. I will show them that to get them interested in correlation. Objective/Purpose a. What? Today we will be learning about correlation coefficients and what it means. b. How? I will show students a few examples of things that have positive, negative, and no correlation. Some will have weak correlation, others will have strong correlation. And I will ask what that means for the relationship between the two things. c. Why? In order to help students notice the relationship between two variables. Input a. Task Analysis i. The information the learner needs is how to tell the difference between positive and negative slopes. b. Thinking Levels: i. Knowledge- Know the difference between positive and negative. ii. Comprehension- Understand that positive correlation means they are directly related, negative (inverse) correlation means that as one increase the other decreases. iii. Application- Use their knowledge of their knowledge to recognize when there is a positive, negative, or no relation between two variables. iv. Analysis- They will see plot graphs and determine what type of relation is presented if any. Learning Styles i. Students will be able to listen to my lecture, or see visually the relation between two variables. Method i. I will present my anticipatory set to get the students into a conversation about what it means for there to be correlation between two variables. I will then show them the different types of correlation, and have a few examples of each. Then they will identify the correlation on their own.

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Modeling a. I will show data plots relating two variables and explain the correlation between them. Checking for Understanding a. Questioning: I will question students as to whether something has positive, negative, or no correlation. Strong and weak correlation will also be shown. b. I will also present the correlation coefficient and have them tell me whether it is positive or negative and either strong or weak. Individual Practice a. I will let students come up with things that they think have relation. Closure a. Exit Slip- Students will be given a correlation coefficient and will have to draw what they think the data plot might look like.

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Lesson Plan 4: Graphical Representations I. Standards a. 3.4 -Interpret graphical representations of data as used in both quantitative and qualitative methods Objective a. TSW be able to interpret graphs of data as used with both quantitative and qualitative methods. b. This is important for students to be able to do because it helps them learn to analyze information given to them and draw conclusions. Anticipatory Set: a. I will show a qualitative and quantitative study and ask the students how they would go about representing the results graphically. Objective/Purpose a. What? Today we will be learning about the graphical representations of quantitative and qualitative methods. b. How? I will give some examples of how qualitative and quantitative data is represented with graphs, and then have students graph some results. c. Why? In order to help students understand how to represent both types of data. Input a. Task Analysis i. The information the learner needs is the difference between qualitative data and quantitative data. b. Thinking Levels: i. Knowledge- Know the difference between qualitative and quantitative. ii. Comprehension- Understand that they are measured and represented different ways. iii. Application- Use their knowledge of both methods to make graphical representations of each. iv. Analysis- They will see studies and decide whether or not it should be measured with qualitative data or quantitative, and then how they will represent it. v. Synthesis- Students will come up with a study that uses qualitative and quantitative data and explain how they would graph it. Learning Styles i. Students will be able to listen to my lecture, or notice the difference on their own between the types of data used. Method i. Since they already know the difference between the types of method I will be able to show them how each is represented graphically. Then I will give them results from each method and have them graph it.

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Modeling a. How would you go about modeling qualitative and quantitative data? Checking for Understanding a. Questioning: I will question students as to whether they would measure something qualitatively or quantitatively. And then see how they would graph it. b. After teaching for a bit I will stop and have some students come up with made up examples that would display the information I just taught. I would do this a few times throughout the lesson. Guided Practice a. I will let students come up with their own psychological study that they would use qualitative data to measure something with, and then have them come up with results to graph. Closure a. Exit Slip- Students will write down what they would test for in their psychological study and then say how they would graph it.

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Scoring Guide
Pre-Assessments: -The pre-assessment for lesson 1 I will not be grading them, I just want to get an idea of who has experience with conditioning. -The pre-assessment for lesson 2 will also be ungraded; I just want to get them thinking about the functions of the brain. I will also find out what some of the students know about what the brain does. -The pre-assessment for lesson 3 will be ungraded. I am just checking to see whether they can tell the difference between positive and negative slopes. -The pre-assessment for lesson 4 will also be un-graded; I want to know how my students would represent data in different cases. Formative Assessments: -The homework assignments given out near the end of class in all four lessons will be out of 10 points; however I will not grade based on correctness but instead completion. -The part of the quiz on statistics terms will be based on matching the definition to the term, each correct answer will be worth (2pts. each). The Qualitative part of the quiz will be all short answer where the student sees studies and says whether or not qualitative data is used and why they did or did not use it(5pts. each). The quiz will be out of a total of 50 points. -The first part of the quiz including correlation will have graphs and correlation coefficients presented and the student will have to say whether there is a strong, weak, or no correlation as well as whether or not it is a strong or weak correlation (2pts. each). The part of the quiz on graphical representations of qualitative and quantitative data will be short answer where students are presented a psychological study and are to say whether or not it should be measured qualitatively or quantitatively, and how it should be graphed (5pts. each). The quiz will be out of a total of 50 points. -Exit slips as well as my rounds walking around the class will not be graded. Summative Assessment: -The test will consist of questions very similar to those seen on the quiz with the same scoring. There will also be a final question where a study is presented along with its results, and the student will have to find the statistical terms, correlation coefficient, say whether its qualitative or quantitatively measured, and what all that means in the context of the study (10 pts.). The total of the quiz will be 100 points.

Reflection
I think this unit was very beneficial to me for a few reasons; the first of which I noticed was that I had to think about what I was going to cover in each lesson, and how I would present it. Sometimes people teach as they go, but with this unit plan I wrote up my plan for the assessment and realized that I didnt cover some of the material in my lesson plans so I had to go back and fix that. It also helped me come up with more formative assessments. Quizzes arent the only formative assessments, you can have exit slips, use questioning, and even just walk around the room to see how the students are doing. If I do end up teaching psychology I will probably use this unit plan as a base and change a thing or two so that it fits with the students I am working with.