To start off the new semester, AP Psychology students learned to be parents. They were tasked with taking care of a sock baby from the week of Jan 8 to Jan 12. Students were given the option of storing an egg in their sock baby to earn extra credit. They would only be given extra credit if the egg did not break by Jan 12.
“I had to make sure [the egg] didn’t get crushed by my friends.” Senior Cole Patton said. “Also it was stressful because I didn’t want a raw egg on my hand.”
Even at the students’ houses, the baby still needed to be cared for. Students were only given one egg that was signed by teacher Julia Jones. No matter the circumstances, if the egg broke, extra credit would not be granted.
“One thing that was easy about keeping the baby was the fact that we were able to let friends babysit the child.” Sophomore Hector Chavez said. “I had lots of instances where my friends would want to take care of my child, and so I would let them. This allowed me to take a rest by ensuring my baby was being observed and was well taken care of.”
Chavez’s response showed that even though some friends would not be careful like Patton’s friends, the majority would realize when to back off, and take care of the sock baby.
“My Psychology baby related to the content we were learning in class by helping us contextualize the psychosocial and cognitive development of a newborn.” Chavez said. “And explained to us just how vital attachment and attention are to a newborn.” The students taking AP Psychology learned valuable lessons in taking care of newborns, and learning the responsibility of an adult while learning about the human mind.
