social experiments for the classroom

8 Effective Social Psychology Experiments & Activities For High School Students

In school, social interaction plays a crucial role and forms the core of one’s academic life. Have you ever been curious about what others are thinking? Have you ever found yourself wondering about the thoughts and opinions of others? This is something that crosses everyone’s mind. The study of social psychology gives you a peek into some of these interesting stances. 

Social psychology is a field of psychology that investigates how the social environment shapes people’s thoughts, beliefs, and behavior. By studying social psychology, one can gain a deeper understanding of people’s actions and the consequences they have. Furthermore, engaging in practical experiments and activities can make this subject even more fascinating. 

In this post, you will find such engaging specific activities that will offer students valuable hands-on experience in the field of social psychology, allowing them to gain practical knowledge and insights into this fascinating subject matter.

Social psychology experiments and activities for high school students 

Here are a few interesting experiments and activities for high school students to learn about social psychology : 

1. Bystander effect simulation

The bystander effect [ 1 ] is a social psychology phenomenon that studies how an individual is unlikely to help in an urgent situation if surrounded by other people. Students can conduct experiments to study this effect in controlled settings. They can choose a social setting and select one person to pretend to need help, such as someone with a false injury struggling to cross the road or gather scattered items. 

The remaining students can observe their behavior while amongst the public.  This experiment aims to display the phenomenon called “diffusion of responsibility”. It will also help one understand the importance of helping people, acts of kindness , and empathetic understanding. Understanding the Bystander effect helps one understand the concept of social initiation, and can further be useful when a real social situation needs their intervention. 

2. Conformity experiment 

People tend to change their beliefs to match what they think is normal, which is called conformity bias. An experiment can be done to test this by asking a group of students to guess the length of a rod from three choices (25 cm, 30 cm, and 40 cm), with 25 cm being the correct answer. 

Some students might be told to give the wrong answer (like 40 cm) and act like they are sure it’s right, giving confident explanations for the same. This creates a situation of peer pressure and social conformity, making the students want to fit in and therefore agree with the group.

Other students might start to do the same thing as well to fit in with their friends. This experiment shows how conformity bias works. It also teaches students about the effects of peer pressure and social conformity, and how acting like others can affect things like confidence.

3. The marshmallow test 

The marshmallow test is a study about delaying pleasure, called delayed gratification. This happens when something else gets in the way of enjoying something right away. In an experiment such as this, immediate gratification can be understood as being given something delicious and eating it immediately. High school students can perform this experiment on preschoolers who are between three and five years old. 

The students will randomly select a few children and observe them individually. Each child will be given one marshmallow at a time and will be told that they will be given one more marshmallow if they resist eating this one until the observer returns. This is the process of delayed gratification [ 2 ]

The students would then observe and note the number of kids who attempted and succeeded in doing the same, and see if it agrees with their hypothesis. This test can help the students learn the importance of delayed gratification and how one can apply it to build virtues like discipline and organization.

4. Group polarization experiments 

The society contributes tremendously to forming one’s beliefs, prejudices, stereotypes, and notions. This particular experiment focuses on how societal agreements and discussions can strengthen already existing beliefs, lead them to extremities, and increase the rigidity of one’s thoughts. 

These experiments can take place both in classrooms and among peer groups. The first step is for students to express their opinions on a specific societal topic, such as gender norms. Then, the teacher can split the students into pairs, each holding a different viewpoint. 

The pairs will engage in discussions about the topic, sharing their personal opinions and biases. This increases their insight into the topic and open to more agreeable or disagreeable opinions. As the next step, the students will be asked their personal stance on the same topics again after the discussion. 

As per the hypothesis, their opinions will be more diversely spread and will have an increased intensity. This will help them notice any changes in the level of emphasis, aggressiveness, and rigidity of their opinions before and after the discussion. This experiment helps one realize the social effect on the rigidity of one’s thought formation and how social construct plays a role in molding one’s beliefs and values to polarized extremities. 

5. Mirror neurons 

The brain has a fascinating component called mirror neurons. Just like mirror images,  these are activated by subconsciously copying or adapting to performing any action or feeling a certain emotion, because others are doing so.

This explains why laughter can be contagious, or when your friend feels sad without any apparent reason, you begin feeling down in the dumps too. This indicates how we have the natural ability to empathize and feel others’ emotions only by imagining us being in their shoes, or even by being in the same environment as they are. Conducting experiments and activities, such as imitation, can help us understand the workings of mirror neurons. 

In a classroom or peer group setting, students can choose to perform a skit based on a story they know, but they must play a character they don’t particularly like. For instance, a student who dislikes Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series may be assigned to play that character. After the skit, the students can discuss the character traits of the parts they played and the qualities they possess.

In the end, it will be seen that the students have developed a sense of understanding and empathy towards the character that they previously disliked, by being in the same character for some time. Through these exercises, the students can learn how mirror neurons foster empathy, increase understanding, and make it easier to take on different perspectives. 

6. Nonverbal cues and communication

Societal construct is built in a way that puts so much emphasis on communication skills but ironically conducts it more in nonverbal ways. For high school students, it is not only important for them to be aware of its importance, but to learn it through the perspective of social psychology. This can be manifested as a learning-based class activity similar to the game of dumb charades. 

In this activity, the teacher or a peer will split the students into two teams. Then, one member from each team will be chosen to stand in front of the class and be given a list of emotions to express through facial expressions. Starting with simple emotions like happiness and sadness, they will gradually move on to more complex emotions like anticipation, confusion, grief, and sarcasm. 

The other team members will have to guess the nonverbal cues being portrayed by their teammates and will earn five points for every correct guess. By working together, the class can gain a better understanding of nonverbal communication and its significant impact on even the smallest interactions. This fosters collaborative engagement and teamwork, along with increasing understanding and receptive levels. 

7. Foot-in-the-door experiment

The foot-in-the-door technique is derived from the English idiom that means getting an initial start to something. This technique is studied in social psychology as a strategy used usually in the corporate or marketing sector. This social phenomenon can be observed in the form of organizing an activity like role play . 

The class will be split into pairs, and each pair will act out a marketing scenario. For example, they might choose to sell a skincare product. In the scenario, the salesperson will start by offering a free sample product and explaining its qualities. This small request is more likely to be accepted by the customer as it does not require much attention or effort, or any form of financial demand. 

Then, the salesperson will slowly follow up by convincing the customer to buy the product after trying it and agreeing with the description. In a social situation like this, it builds pressure on the customer to maintain the same agreeable behavior as before, which is why the customer will be more likely to buy the product. This experiment helps the student learn about social conformity and how society plays a role in shaping one’s moral values, categorizing their behavior as acceptable and non-acceptable.

8. Door-in-the-face experiment

This technique is the exact opposite of foot-in-the-door activity. In the case of a marketing strategy, it is used very smartly. High school students can conduct a social experiment with the permission and supervision of their teacher or faculty member.

The experiment involves inviting someone to a fundraiser organized by their school or institution. The students will start by making an unreasonable request, such as asking a random person to donate a thousand dollars to the charitable initiative of the fundraiser. 

The person is likely to deny the request, but that denial can make the person feel guilty for responding negatively. The students will then follow up with a small request to attend the fundraiser event. This is now possible and easy for the person to agree to, and also calms down the guilt of denying the earlier request by forming an acceptable image of an agreeable person.

This experiment teaches students about the importance of social acceptability in building self-image and confidence. It also lets them get an insight into how society can play a role in both building their values and morals, while at the same time, inducing feelings of unease and guilt. 

Wrapping it up

Already an intriguing subject, social psychology can be made even more fun by incorporating practical experiments and activities. The experiments done in social psychology are for observational and comprehensive purposes. 

They aim to better one’s understanding of social settings and their impact on an individual’s mind, together forming a cohesive psycho-social educational experience. Additionally, students can also engage in psychology games and activities for more clarity on the subject matter. These activities will help you dive deeper into how society operates, and also get to look at it from an observer’s perspective, giving you a clear, unbiased, and non-judgmental view of social occurrences and phenomena. 

• James M. Hudson, & Amy Bruckman. (2004). The Bystander Effect: A Lens for understanding patterns of participation.  The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(2), 165–195.
• Mischel Walter; Ebbesen, Ebbe B. (1970). “Attention in delay of gratification”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . 16 (2): 329–337.

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

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13 Powerful SEL Activities

Build social and emotional skills into any class.

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Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit’s academic teachers also use some of these activities to build SEL skills and deepen their relationships with their students. Cady Ching, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at Summit, incorporates opening activities into all of her classes: “In my freshman classes, we do them every class period.”

Here are some of the opening, group sharing, and closing activities that teachers use at Summit:

Opening Activities

1. Mindfulness: The benefits of mindfulness range from improved working memory to stress reduction . Here are two ways Aukeem Ballard, an HCC teacher, facilitates mindfulness:

• Visualization to release stress:  Have your students imagine what stress looks and feels like inside their body, and then ask them to release it. “The mindfulness practice makes you think the stress is coming off your body,” says Geoffrey, a 12th-grade student.
• Noise isolation: There are a variety of sounds that your students hear when they’re in your classroom, from students walking in the hallway to outdoor construction noise. Have your students focus on one noise and describe it to themselves and recall the last time they interacted with it.

To get more tips, check out Ballard’s “ When Mindfulness Feels Like a Necessity ."

2. Name the emotion you’re bringing to class: Have each student call out the emotion they’re feeling. This helps each student know how they and other students are feeling, what different emotions look like, and how to better interact with their peers based on how they’re feeling. 

3. Write down, rip up, and throw away your stress: Have your students write down their expectations and insecurities, rip them up, and throw them away. This emotional check-in takes about three minutes. By acknowledging how your students are feeling at the start of each class, you’ll acknowledge their barriers to learning and create a safe space for your students to overcome them.

4. Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset share-out: Have your students share moments when they have demonstrated a growth and fixed mindset.

5. Quote of the day: Introduce a quote relevant to what your students are learning or to a shared experience—for example, an act of violence in the community. You can facilitate a whole-class discussion, group students into pairs, or have each student share a one-word response to the quote. This gives students the space to reflect on their beliefs and experiences and whether they agree or disagree with the quote and other students’ opinions, and it gives them insight into their peers’ perspectives and feelings.

6. Where we came from: Collect baby pictures from your students. Project one baby picture at the start of class, have your students guess who it is, and then have the featured student share something about their childhood.

7. Starting positive: Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and then walk around and write positive qualities about their peers on their backs.

8. Motivational moment: Have two students start the class with a three- to five-minute presentation—and come up with two or three discussion questions—based on their interests. The presentation must be related to the course content in a real-world context. “Many students include a video for visuals and increased engagement, but it’s optional,” says Ching. Have the rest of the class partner up to discuss their questions for one minute and then give them the opportunity to share out to the whole class. This exercise gives your students insight into their peers’ interests.

Summit Preparatory Charter High School

Per pupil expenditures, free / reduced lunch, demographics:, group sharing.

9. Circle sharing: To encourage active listening, create small groups. Have your students position their chairs in a circle so everyone can make eye contact. To strengthen empathy, you can facilitate deeper discussion around what a student shares by asking, “Why did that student share what they did?” or “What perspective is that student coming from?”

When discussing emotionally charged topics, it’s important to have guidelines to foster a safe space. Summit uses the Courageous Conversation protocol created by Glenn E. Singleton when discussing race. The protocol is guided by four agreements—stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept nonclosure. Here is an example of elementary school discussion guidelines from School 21. 

10. Write a poem from someone else’s perspective. Have your students choose someone they don’t know. This helps them to understand that they don’t “need to be best friends with someone to empathize with them,” explains Ballard.

11. Have a conversation with someone you don’t know. Have your students pair up with a student they don’t know and provide the pairs with five questions to ask each other. Each student introduces their partner to the class, speaking as if they were their partner, while the rest of the class looks at the student being introduced. “We don’t see people sometimes,” says Ballard, “and this exercise helps students to see each other more deeply.”

12. Play interest and identity-related bingo. Instead of squares filled with numbers or vocabulary words, create cards with information relating to your students . Summit’s Bingo cards have things like “‘I like to read’ or ‘I was born in a different country,’” says Armando, a ninth-grade student.

Closing Activity

13. Appreciation, apology, aha: Have your students get in a circle and share an appreciation, apology, or realization with the group. Students in Ballard’s class have shared things like:

• I would like to appreciate Brenda for facilitating the conversation in our small group.
• I would like to thank everyone for taking this class seriously.
• I apologize to everyone for having my headphones in for half of the time.

Encourage authentic and timely apologies. Apologizing for something that happened a long time ago has less impact than apologizing for something that happened that day or week. Let your students know that they don’t have to name who they’re apologizing to when they apologize for what they did.

Help students share helpful, not harmful words. “I often say, ‘Appreciations, apologies, and ahas should be something that you genuinely think will be useful for people to hear,’” says Ballard.

Have your students snap, clap, or shake both hands when they hear something that resonates with them. “We snap to let people know that we hear them without exerting our own voice in their narrative,” explains Ballard. Students shake their hands when peers share things that are emotionally charged. Ballard often gets this started by saying, “Let’s shake it up for that.”

“When you pay attention to each other, not only does it build a sense of community, but we’re more able to understand other people,” says Janet, a 12th-grade student. “If you're able to understand people at a younger age, you could work better with them as adults. That changes how the future generations will be. People can be more accepting, more helpful towards each other.”

Schools That Work

At Summit Preparatory Charter High School, students set daily academic goals, deciding what they’ll learn, how they’ll learn, and who they’ll learn with. Through a personalized learning platform, differentiated instruction, coaching in social and emotional skills, choice-based expeditions, mentors, and cognitive skills taught through projects, Summit helps students understand their needs as learners.

• Summit students outperformed the district and the state on the Smarter Balanced Assessment for math and ELA in 2015.
• In 2015, Summit schools had a 95% graduation rate and a 99% 4-year college acceptance rate.
• 55% of Summit graduates complete college in 6 years or less—almost twice the national average.

TOPSS Classroom Activities

Are you looking for an activity or lesson plan to use tomorrow in class? Quickly search over 100 activities from our popular Teachers of Psychology in Secondary School (TOPSS) unit lesson plans. Choose from popular topics like biological basis of behavior, memory, research methods and more. Be sure to check back regularly as activities will be added as they become available. These activities were originally available to TOPSS members only but in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been made publicly available in order to benefit any teacher. Teachers are still encouraged to join TOPSS . 

Search Activities

Search dozens of activities created and vetted by classroom teachers.

See all the activities

Lab Exercises

Also included are laboratory exercises for high school psychology teachers, originally printed in the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP; APA Div. 2) e-book "Promoting Psychological Science: A Compendium of Laboratory Exercises for Teachers of High School Psychology" (Miller, 2018). 

Download the Free E-book

Featured Activity

Sampling or Assignment?

Students often confuse the terms “sampling” and “assignment.” For each of the scenarios described in this activity, students should indicate which process is being discussed and how you can tell.

Activities are available for the following topics. Click on the topics below to find the full TOPSS unit lesson plan.

• Biological Bases of Behavior (PDF, 333KB)
• Careers, Education and Vocational Applications in Psychology (PDF, 290.2KB)
• Cognition 1
• Consciousness (PDF, 342.48KB)
• Critical Thinking 1
• Emotion (PDF, 442.17KB)
• Intelligence 1
• Learning (PDF, 319.01KB)
• Life Span Development (PDF, 409.09KB)
• Memory (PDF, 711.51KB)
• Motivation (PDF, 171.01KB)
• Personality (PDF, 394.62 KB)
• Perspectives in Psychological Science (PDF, 305.01 KB)
• Positive Psychology (PDF, 163.45 KB)
• Psychological Disorders (304.7 KB)
• Research Methods and Statistics (PDF, 623.84 KB)
• Sensation and Perception (PDF, 252.48 KB)
• Social Psychology (PDF, 429.34 KB)
• Stress and Health Promotion (PDF, 311.99 KB)
• Treatment of Psychological Disorders (PDF, 305.85 KB)

TOPSS has also made two-day lesson plans available from recent past winners of the APA TOPSS Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Awards. These include activities that are not included in the search feature above.  

1 These topics can be found in the STP e-book.

Miller, R. L. (Ed.). (2018).  Promoting psychological science: A Compendium of laboratory exercises for teachers of high school psychology . Retrieved from the  Society for the Teaching of Psychology

Social Psychology Experiments: 10 Of The Most Famous Studies

Ten of the most influential social psychology experiments explain why we sometimes do dumb or irrational things. 

Ten of the most influential social psychology experiments explain why we sometimes do dumb or irrational things.

“I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?” –Philip Zimbardo

Like famous social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo (author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil ), I’m also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things.

The answer quite often is because of other people — something social psychologists have comprehensively shown.

Each of the 10 brilliant social psychology experiments below tells a unique, insightful story relevant to all our lives, every day.

Click the link in each social psychology experiment to get the full description and explanation of each phenomenon.

1. Social Psychology Experiments: The Halo Effect

The halo effect is a finding from a famous social psychology experiment.

It is the idea that global evaluations about a person (e.g. she is likeable) bleed over into judgements about their specific traits (e.g. she is intelligent).

It is sometimes called the “what is beautiful is good” principle, or the “physical attractiveness stereotype”.

It is called the halo effect because a halo was often used in religious art to show that a person is good.

2. Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort people feel when trying to hold two conflicting beliefs in their mind.

People resolve this discomfort by changing their thoughts to align with one of conflicting beliefs and rejecting the other.

The study provides a central insight into the stories we tell ourselves about why we think and behave the way we do.

3. Robbers Cave Experiment: How Group Conflicts Develop

The Robbers Cave experiment was a famous social psychology experiment on how prejudice and conflict emerged between two group of boys.

It shows how groups naturally develop their own cultures, status structures and boundaries — and then come into conflict with each other.

For example, each country has its own culture, its government, legal system and it draws boundaries to differentiate itself from neighbouring countries.

One of the reasons the became so famous is that it appeared to show how groups could be reconciled, how peace could flourish.

The key was the focus on superordinate goals, those stretching beyond the boundaries of the group itself.

4. Social Psychology Experiments: The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford prison experiment was run to find out how people would react to being made a prisoner or prison guard.

The psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who led the Stanford prison experiment, thought ordinary, healthy people would come to behave cruelly, like prison guards, if they were put in that situation, even if it was against their personality.

It has since become a classic social psychology experiment, studied by generations of students and recently coming under a lot of criticism.

5. The Milgram Social Psychology Experiment

The Milgram experiment , led by the well-known psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, aimed to test people’s obedience to authority.

The results of Milgram’s social psychology experiment, sometimes known as the Milgram obedience study, continue to be both thought-provoking and controversial.

The Milgram experiment discovered people are much more obedient than you might imagine.

Fully 63 percent of the participants continued administering what appeared like electric shocks to another person while they screamed in agony, begged to stop and eventually fell silent — just because they were told to.

6. The False Consensus Effect

The false consensus effect is a famous social psychological finding that people tend to assume that others agree with them.

It could apply to opinions, values, beliefs or behaviours, but people assume others think and act in the same way as they do.

It is hard for many people to believe the false consensus effect exists because they quite naturally believe they are good ‘intuitive psychologists’, thinking it is relatively easy to predict other people’s attitudes and behaviours.

In reality, people show a number of predictable biases, such as the false consensus effect, when estimating other people’s behaviour and its causes.

7. Social Psychology Experiments: Social Identity Theory

Social identity theory helps to explain why people’s behaviour in groups is fascinating and sometimes disturbing.

People gain part of their self from the groups they belong to and that is at the heart of social identity theory.

The famous theory explains why as soon as humans are bunched together in groups we start to do odd things: copy other members of our group, favour members of own group over others, look for a leader to worship and fight other groups.

8. Negotiation: 2 Psychological Strategies That Matter Most

Negotiation is one of those activities we often engage in without quite realising it.

Negotiation doesn’t just happen in the boardroom, or when we ask our boss for a raise or down at the market, it happens every time we want to reach an agreement with someone.

In a classic, award-winning series of social psychology experiments, Morgan Deutsch and Robert Krauss investigated two central factors in negotiation: how we communicate with each other and how we use threats.

9. Bystander Effect And The Diffusion Of Responsibility

The bystander effect in social psychology is the surprising finding that the mere presence of other people inhibits our own helping behaviours in an emergency.

The bystander effect social psychology experiments are mentioned in every psychology textbook and often dubbed ‘seminal’.

This famous social psychology experiment on the bystander effect was inspired by the highly publicised murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964.

It found that in some circumstances, the presence of others inhibits people’s helping behaviours — partly because of a phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility.

10. Asch Conformity Experiment: The Power Of Social Pressure

The Asch conformity experiments — some of the most famous every done — were a series of social psychology experiments carried out by noted psychologist Solomon Asch.

The Asch conformity experiment reveals how strongly a person’s opinions are affected by people around them.

In fact, the Asch conformity experiment shows that many of us will deny our own senses just to conform with others.

Author: Dr Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. View all posts by Dr Jeremy Dean

Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.

High School Sociology Experiment Ideas

Diversity Activities for Youth & Adults

While high school may seem like one giant sociology experiment, students can also conduct formal experiments in the science. Students who take sociology in high school often perform experiments as part of their course requirements or in conjunction with their science fair presentations. Experiment ideas should focus on the social lives of individuals or groups and how they function in society. Teenagers are in the process of developing their own perceptions of human nature and are often curious to discover how people respond or react to specific situations. As a student, you should always get your experiment approved by your teacher to ensure it's safe and beneficial to your understanding of sociology.

Deviant Behavior

Conduct an experiment that examines how society responds to deviant behavior or behavior that doesn't follow the norm. Ensure that the experiment neither violates laws or regulations nor poses any danger to those involved. For example, as a team of three, board a public elevator, such as one at a mall or a parking garage, and have one student face another, looking at the back wall rather than looking at the doors. A third student should stand at the back of the elevator, facing forward, and observe riders' reactions and responses to the rear-facing student. Don't block anyone's ability to get on or off the elevator or push the buttons, and limit your elevator use to a few minutes to avoid unwanted speculation. Another possibility would be to visit a public place, such as a park or a lounge area at the mall, and have one student eat an unusual item like a blue foot-long hot dog or a hot pink taco while the other student records bystander responses. The goal is to see how onlookers respond to out-of-the-ordinary behavior.

Honesty and Courtesy

Examine whether individuals are more likely to be honest and courteous when they know someone is watching them. One option might be to observe handicapped parking spots, without drivers knowing that you're watching the spaces, to see if those without handicap stickers still park there. Then, park next to the spaces or stand near them and observe if your visible presence deters ineligible drivers from parking in those spaces. You could conduct a similar experiment by spilling a handful of coins on the pavement and observing whether individuals return the money or pocket it. Examine if the response changes when others are present to witness the coin spilling. Record your observations.

Racial Discrimination

Perform an experiment to see if people respond differently to individuals of a different color or race. Pair up with a person of a different race, but the same gender, in your class. Dress in the same outfit and visit your local mall. Each person of the team should have another student follow him to document the responses. Record how long it takes customer service representatives or sales associates to address the similarly dressed students and document any differences in attitude, vocabulary or attentiveness. You might also document if the type of store made a difference, such as sporting goods stores versus cell phone stores or music stores.

Gender and Color Preference

Survey 100 males and 100 females and ask, "What's your favorite color?" You can limit your survey to a specific age group, such as high school students, or you can take a random poll of all ages. Record the answers and create a pie chart or a bar graph to summarize the responses. The goal is to see if the stereotypical association that girls like pink and boys like blue still holds true. The two colors weren't promoted as gender identifiers until just before World War I.

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7 Fun Social Studies Activities that Students Will Love

By Kirsten Hammond

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When it comes to social studies activities and lessons, upper elementary students, whether they are in 3rd grade or 5th grade, always love things that get them up and moving! As a social studies teacher I was always looking for ways to incorporate activities into my lesson plans that have students get involved in what they are learning.

The seven activities I’m going to share with you will make your students want to learn more about the topics being taught. These ideas are both fun and educational.

By incorporating these seven easy-prep social studies activities into your lessons, you’ll no doubt see improved student engagement in your classroom as well as overall learning.

1. Daily Review

One of my favorite fun social studies activities that students love is daily review. At the beginning or end of each class, take a few minutes to review what was covered in the previous lesson.

This can be done through a quick quiz, daily passage , a discussion, or even a game. Not only does this help reinforce the material, but it also keeps students engaged and interested in the subject. Plus, it only takes a few minutes to prepare each day!

2. Current Events

Another of my favorite social studies activities that students love is discussing current events. This can be done by assigning articles or news segments for students to read or watch, and then leading a class discussion about the topic.

This not only helps students stay up-to-date on current events, but also encourages critical thinking and analysis of the world around them. Plus, it requires minimal prep time and can be easily incorporated into any social studies lesson.

CNN 10 is a really great resource for 4th and 5th grade. There are a lot of great news segments. You can always preview it in advance if you’re not quite sure, but it’s always interesting for students to watch and they like to discuss it afterwards.

3. Simulations

Simulations and role-playing activities are a great way to engage students in social studies lessons. This allows students to experience history in a more interactive and memorable way, and can help them better understand the perspectives and motivations of different people throughout history.

These activities may require a bit more prep time, but the payoff in student engagement and learning is well worth it.

Be sure not to role-play or simulate any sensitive topics regarding marginalized communities and events.

4. Read Alouds

Believe it or not, reading aloud is a simple yet effective way to engage students in social studies content. Choose a book or article related to the topic you are studying and read it aloud to the class.

This is one of the easiest social studies activities that can help students develop their listening and comprehension skills, as well as expose them to different perspectives and ideas.

You can also use read alouds as a springboard for class discussions or writing assignments. Picture books and chapter books are both highly effective – even for the 5th graders! I highly recommend that you utilize both in the upper elementary classroom. There are so many great books that I recommend !

5. Guided Notes

Guided notes are a great way to help students stay focused and engaged during lectures or presentations.

Provide students with a partially completed note-taking sheet that includes key terms, concepts, and questions related to the topic. As you present information, students can fill in the missing information and add their own notes.

This helps students stay organized and retain important information. Plus, it’s an easy-prep activity that can be used for any social studies activities!

6. Project Based Learning

Project-based learning is a great way to engage students in social studies. Assign a project that requires students to research and present on a specific topic, such as a historical event or a cultural tradition.

Encourage creativity and collaboration by allowing students to work in groups and present their projects to the class.

This hands-on approach to learning will not only help students retain information, but also develop important skills like critical thinking and problem-solving.

7. Problem Solving Activities

Social studies provides a great opportunity for students to develop problem-solving skills.

Try incorporating activities that require students to analyze and solve real-world problems, such as creating a budget for a family or designing a community service project.

These activities not only engage students in the subject matter, but also help them develop important life skills that will serve them well beyond the classroom.

There are ways to make social studies activities fun for upper elementary students. Pick at least two of these ideas that you will commit to utilizing this school year. I highly recommend you incorporate them so that it keeps students on their toes.

kirsten hammond

Kirsten is a former 3rd and 5th grade teacher who loves helping upper elementary teachers by creating resources and sharing ideas that are engaging, research-based, and TEKS-aligned. She is a work-from-home mama of 3 rambunctious little ones and loves running, true crime, and lots of coffee.

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28 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for the Classroom

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What is Social-Emotional Learning, and What Are Its Benefits?

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which people develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. 

According to CASEL , research shows that integrating SEL activities in your lesson plans and classroom routines leads to positive outcomes, including better academic performance and decreases in stress and anxiety. The benefits of social-emotional learning at school extend into adulthood. Being able to build positive relationships, understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, develop a healthy sense of identity, and feel and show empathy are all lasting advantages that social-emotional learning offers. 

As one of just 12 middle and high school programs endorsed for social-emotional learning by ESSA , Facing History integrates SEL throughout its curricular resources. We’ve also curated a number of simple social-emotional learning activities that you can implement within your own lesson plans and as regular classroom routines. 

Activities to Integrate Social and Emotional Learning in Your Classroom

Build your students’ SEL skills through these simple classroom routines and flexible activities.

All of our SEL activities are designed by a team of curriculum developers with scholarly expertise, many of whom are former teachers. While they’re primarily geared toward middle school and high school students, many of them could be adapted for other contexts as well.

Cooperative Learning

Think-pair-share, learn to listen, listen to learn, two-minute interview, socratic seminar, jigsaw: developing community and disseminating knowledge, save the last word for me, give one, get one, making meaning of community, contracting, personal reflection, exit tickets, create a goal and discover your “why”, journals in the classroom, s-i-t: surprising, interesting, troubling, rose, thorn, bud, three good things, understanding and managing emotions, head, heart, conscience, toolbox for care, emoji emotions, fist to five, graffiti boards, social awareness and empathy, stick figure quotes, identity charts, shadow reading, café conversations, our names and our place in the world, character maps, you might also be interested in…, student reflections on black history month, how historical empathy helps students understand the world today, teaching lgbtqia+ students: insights from harvey milk high school, ya books on the lgbtqia+ experience, all community read: george takei’s they called us enemy, exploring audre lorde’s intersectionality, honoring transgender day of remembrance, 9 of our favorite back-to-school activities and resources, remembering stonewall on the 50th anniversary, paragraph 175 & the origins of the pink triangle, king's life is a demand, all community read: six powerful titles made our list, donate now and together we'll build a better world, inspiration, insights, & ways to get involved.

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48 Ways To Teach Social-Emotional Learning Every Day

Incorporate SEL all day long.

In addition to all the reading, writing, and arithmetic that students learn in school, they’re also learning social-emotional, or SEL, skills. Social-emotional skills include self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship building, and decision-making. Whether or not your school uses an SEL curriculum, you can incorporate SEL skills throughout the day with activities that help students think about feelings, build relationships, resolve conflict, and make good decisions. Here are our favorite social-emotional learning activities to incorporate into your school day. There are ideas for preschool through high school, because SEL skills are skills you never stop learning!

Learn more: What is social-emotional learning?

1. Reference an emotions bulletin board

Little kids have big feelings, and they need to learn the words to match their emotions. Use this free bulletin board kit to create a reference for students as they’re learning feelings. You can use it for a number of social-emotional learning activities. Have students identify the way they are feeling during morning meeting. Or for older students, use the bulletin board to name feelings and synonyms for various feelings. You can also have students refer to the bulletin board when they are analyzing literature and characters’ feelings.

Learn more: Free Printable Emotions Bulletin Board Kit

2. Start the day with a greeting

Start the day at your classroom door greeting each student. Use this greeting sign to give students choice in how they greet you each day. A daily greeting starts the day off on a positive note and gives you a quick check-in with each student. Kindergartners may want to tell you all about their weekend, while you may notice that a high schooler is looking stressed. 

Learn more: Free Printable Classroom Greeting Sign

3. Use a feelings chart

Talk about feelings on the regular. Use this feelings bundle for various social-emotional learning activities. You can incorporate a feelings check in each day with younger students and provide older students with all the words they need to describe their feelings in a journal prompt. The more practice students have at expressing their feelings, the better they are at managing them. 

Learn more: Free Printable Feelings Charts

4. Set a daily mindfulness routine

At the start of a lesson or day, take a few minutes for mindfulness. Choose mindfulness activities that match your class. Yoga for a busy bunch, music for older students, or a guided meditation for students who love to visualize a story. 

Learn more: Mindfulness Activities for Kids ADVERTISEMENT

5. Practice positive affirmations

The way students talk to themselves impacts how they persist, feel about their day, and how they interact with others. Use these daily affirmation cards to help students develop positive self-talk. Pass them out at the start of a week and have students reflect on what each statement means to them. Can they incorporate their statement into their internal talk this week? At the end of the week, have them share or write a reflection about how the statement shaped their week. 

Learn more: Free Printable Positive Affirmation Cards

6. Get into the habit of journaling

Younger students can get in the habit of writing their thoughts and feelings with weekly journal prompts. Older students can use a mindfulness journal to track how they feel and what they’re thinking across a week, month, or school year. 

Learn more: Free Printable Mindfulness Journal

7. Take regular brain breaks

Brain breaks—where you completely set aside academic work and spend time moving, listening, or even being silent—help students reset and get ready for more learning. These social-emotional learning activities are great for students of all ages. Younger students can do a dance or movement break. Older students can color to music for one minute. 

8. Use the Worry Iceberg

Building emotional resilience includes understanding how first impressions can be incomplete. Help students develop emotional resilience with a Worry Iceberg activity. Have students think about a situation that made them anxious. What could they see? What was also happening underneath? How does knowing the whole “iceberg” help them understand the situation? And what can they do in the future to get the whole “iceberg” when a situation arises? 

Learn more: One-Minute Activities To Build Emotional Resilience

9. Maximize transitions for self-awareness

Use transitions as social-emotional learning activities that reinforce self-awareness by having students breathe like an animal, strike a yoga pose, or check in with how they feel.

Learn more: How To Use Transition Times for Emotional Health Check-Ins

10. Introduce the Zones of Regulation

Another way for students to check in with their emotions is using the Zones of Regulation. Students identify their feeling zone using the colors. Once they know their zone, they can identify which strategy to use to get back to green (if they’re not already there). 

Learn more: Zones of Regulation Activities

11. Schedule a morning meeting

Morning meeting is an important part of elementary school and provides a time for students to reflect on their feelings and actions, talk about concerns that arise during the day, or engage in collaborative decision-making. Even in the upper grades, a once-a-week 10-minute check-in can serve the same purpose.

12. Teach active listening skills

Students are better able to learn, build relationships, and increase social awareness when they’re listening. Teach or reinforce whole body listening so students know what listening looks like, and how to manage their bodies so they understand what others say to them. Note that students with ADHD, autism, and sensory processing challenges may not be able perform whole body listening in the same way other students do, but we can make  accommodations for students based on what we know they need to be successful.

Learn more: Free Whole Body Listening Posters and Worksheet

13. Build in behavior reflection

As students develop self-awareness and self-management skills, reflecting on their behaviors is an important step. Use behavior reflection sheets to guide students’ reflection and turn behavior situations into a learning opportunity.

Learn more: Free Printable Behavior Reflection Sheets

14. Create a calm-down corner

A calm-down corner is a space students can go to when they need to calm down. Even going to the calm-down corner when they are overwhelmed or upset shows that students are developing self-awareness and self-management skills. You can include a variety of social-emotional learning activities in your calm-down corner, such as fidgets and breathing exercises.

Learn more: How To Create a Calm-Down Corner in Any Learning Environment

15. Create calm-down jars

A calm-down strategy that students can take with them, a DIY calming jar is a great craft that you can use to talk about the importance of emotional regulation and self-management.

Learn more: DIY Calm-Down Jars

16. Try calming mind-body exercise worksheets

Older students can use meditative exercises, like coloring mandalas or doing guided visualizations. Use a variety of mindfulness exercises so each student can find one that works for them.

Learn more: Calming Mind-Body Exercises To Do With Students

17. Model and practice positive self-talk

The words students tell themselves impacts their self-management, persistence, and ultimately their success. Model and reinforce positive self-talk with a self-talk poster. Use these phrases when you’re doing think-alouds and prompting students, and encourage them to do the same.

Learn more: Free Printable Positive Self-Talk Poster for Teens

18. Make DIY stress balls

Part classroom craft project, part SEL activity, DIY stress balls are so much fun! Make them using balloons, slime, beads, and more.

Learn more: 4 Different Ways To Make DIY Stress Balls

19. Assign classroom jobs

Classroom jobs build self-management and responsibility skills. While younger students ask for classroom jobs, they’re effective for high schoolers too—the tasks of whiteboard cleaner and technology helper come to mind.

Learn more: The Big List of Classroom Jobs

20. Read SEL stories

A story can be a model for social-emotional skills or it can introduce students to scenarios they haven’t experienced yet. For younger students, read a picture book and talk about what happens and how the characters feel. For older students, read and discuss novels with SEL themes.

Learn more: Best Social Skills Books for Kids

21. Set and track actionable goals

Setting goals contributes to responsibility, but it doesn’t come naturally. We have to teach students how to set meaningful, reasonable targets, and then give them the tools to track their progress. Seeing how they are progressing also helps students build resilience and perspective.

Learn more: Free Printable Back-to-School Goal-Setting page or Goal-Tracking and Stamina worksheets

22. Track important habits

Building new habits takes time and persistence. Use a habit tracker to keep track of how students are progressing toward their goals.

Learn more: Free Habit Tracker Printable Bundle

23. Ask icebreaker questions

Icebreakers are great for the first day of school, but you can actually incorporate them all year long. Use them when you form new project groups, or when you change the seating around in your room. Talking about different topics helps students practice conversation skills.

Learn more: 300 Fun Icebreaker Questions for Kids and Teens

24. Hang kindness posters

This free set of printable kindness posters helps spread important messages. When you first put them up, take time to discuss them with your students. Ask them for examples of what kindness looks like, and encourage them to share stories of a time when their kindness made a difference.

Learn more: Free Printable Kindness Posters

25. Use social stories

For young students, and students with disabilities who require explicit instruction in social skills, a social story is a great way to teach them step-by-step approaches for social situations. For all students, social stories can help develop social awareness.

Learn more: Free Printable Social Stories for Kids

26. Teach students to be upstanders

Upstanders reach out to others, especially those who seem like they might be hurting or struggling. Teach kids about the concept, their role in helping build classroom community and helping those who might not feel included, and hang these free printable upstander posters in your classroom. The tear tags offer positive affirmations.

Learn more: Free Printable Take-One Posters

27. Celebrate students’ diversity

Understanding diversity is important for self-awareness and relationship building. Engage students in thinking about how they are unique and how our diversity makes us stronger.

Learn more: Diversity and Inclusion Free Printable Activities

28. Use videos to teach relationship building

Everyone can use a reminder about how to make and keep friends. Use friendship videos in morning meeting to talk about how to make and keep friends. Or, with older students, use them as a friendly and funny reminder of what students likely already know but might not be practicing. As students learn more about relationships, use anti-bullying videos to start a conversation about this topic.

Learn more: Friendship Videos To Teach Kindness and Compassion and Best Anti-Bullying Videos

29. Practice empathy with scenarios

Help students understand and work through common scenarios that engage their empathy as they think about the scenario, how they would feel, and what they would do.

Learn more: Empathy Prompts

30. Use Band-Aids to learn about fairness

Tired of hearing kids whine, “But that’s not fair!”? Build students’ social awareness with teacher Aimee Scott’s fairness lesson. Her quick and simple exercise helps kids understand that fairness doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing—it means everyone gets what they need to be successful.

Learn more: The Band-Aid Lesson

31. Play a cooperative game

Kids get plenty of exposure to healthy (and unhealthy) competition, so use classroom time to shift the focus to cooperation instead. Cooperative games encourage kids to communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve together. Point out the skills they’re using during the cooperative games that will help them in relationships as well.

Learn more: Cooperative Games To Promote Comradery and Healthy Competition

32. Create collaborative art

Art is about expressing your individuality, but you can also make something pretty incredible when people pool their talents. Murals, hallway and bathroom displays, kindness rock gardens, and other art projects bring students together to bond over creativity and artistic vision.

Learn more: Collaborative Art Projects

33. Engage in fishbowl discussions

Encourage active listening and communication skills with this classroom idea. After taking some time to think about a topic, a small group of students discusses the issue while other students watch and take notes. After a time, the teacher opens the discussion to the entire group, using notes they made while they watched the small-group discussion.

Learn more: How I Use Fishbowl Discussions To Engage Every Student

34. Sticky-note discussions

Teacher Erin Castillo popularized this concept on her Instagram account , and now teachers everywhere use this idea. We love it as a unique way to take attendance or as a bell-ringer/entry activity. All you do is post a question on your whiteboard and ask students to respond (anonymously or with names attached) using sticky notes. You can use “Would You Rather” questions , or try these SEL prompts to really get students thinking and sharing.

35. Play board games

Whether kids are playing to win or working together to achieve a common goal, board games teach lots of decision-making skills. Players have to analyze information, consider their options, and imagine the impacts of their moves on themselves and others.

Learn more: Best Board Games and Other Games

36. Discuss philosophical questions

One of the most incredible ways to encourage critical thinking and self-exploration is to ask kids thought-provoking questions. Hearing the responses and exchanging ideas can really expand our perspectives and leave us with important food for thought.

Learn more: Philosophical Questions for Kids and Teens

37. Get a classroom pet

Want to teach kids about responsibility in an incredibly meaningful way? A class pet could be the answer! When kids work together to care for a hamster, goldfish, lizard, or tarantula(!), they have to make responsible choices about what’s best for the animal. Sure, it’s a challenge for the adults involved, but the benefits can really add up.

Learn more: Best Classroom Pets According to Teachers

38. Set up an escape room

Students love the interactivity of an escape room, where they have to work together to solve a series of problems before their time is up. Escape rooms encourage a lot of responsible decision-making skills, both individually and as a group.

Learn more: How To Set Up and Run a Classroom Escape Room

39. Use choice boards

If we want kids to make smart decisions, we’ve got to give them the chance to make choices on their own. One way to do this in the classroom is using choice boards. These interactive tools give kids several options to choose from on an assignment. They can evaluate the possibilities, and choose the one that seems right to them.

Learn more: How I Use Choice Boards To Increase Student Engagement

40. Teach safe online decision-making

Let’s face it: Kids and teens aren’t necessarily focusing much on safety—their own or anyone else’s. So it’s important for the adults in their lives to help them learn why safe choices matter and what they look like to begin with. We’ve got resources for talking to students about prescription drug safety , Internet safety , bike safety , underage drinking , and inclusive sex ed .

41. Play Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) can be a fantastic classroom game, and it encompasses a wide range of social-emotional learning activities. Players need to work together, know their own strengths and weaknesses, make smart choices, and so much more.

Learn more: Teachers Are Using D&D To Teach SEL Skills

42. Talk about tough topics

School shootings, racially motivated violence, abortion, gun control—these are topics most teachers tend to shy away from in the classroom. The thing is, kids need a safe place to talk about these issues. They need adults who will help them sort out their thinking and separate fact from opinion. Students need to learn to respectfully disagree with one another and how to have constructive conversations that may lead to compromise.

Learn more: Our Students Want To Talk About Tough Topics

43. Read the news as a class

If you’re going to make smart decisions, you need to be informed. But many kids only learn about the news and current events from single news sources, usually whatever’s playing on their TV at home. Show students how to find a variety of sources to learn about current events. Teach them to think critically and evaluate articles to separate provable facts from opinion. Many teachers love using Newsela, since the articles can be differentiated for different reading levels.

Learn more: Ways To Use Newsela With Your Students

44. Have students reflect while they work

As students are working on math problems, have them jot down how they’re feeling at each step of the process. They can jot down emojis or words that show where they were confident, confused, distracted, or frustrated. This can be helpful when reviewing work and thinking about how their emotional state impacted their learning. 

45. Get inspired by SEL heroes

History is full of role models that students can learn from. Use these free character education posters to talk about the qualities you want students to emulate and how they’ve helped others in history. Assign students an SEL hero to research and present about so students can see how others have used SEL skills to change the world.

Learn more: Character Education Posters

46. SEL superpowers

As students learn about social-emotional skills, encourage them to think about their SEL superpower, or the skills they are best at. Once students have identified their superpower, talk about how they can use their SEL superpowers to help others. To share your superpowers, draw superheroes, put students’ pictures on each one, and write about your SEL superpowers and how your students use them around school.

47. Get in the habit of gratitude

Use a bullet journal or list to reinforce gratitude. In younger classrooms, have students call out the things they are grateful for and create a class list. With older students, spend the last five minutes of each class or week reflecting on what they are grateful for. 

Learn more: Bullet Journal Ideas

48. Send home an SEL progress report

We love the idea of giving kids and their families feedback on their SEL skill development! An alternative progress report like the one this teacher uses can help kids zero in on their strengths and weaknesses.

Learn more: SEL Progress Report

What are your favorite social-emotional learning activities? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out ways to teach kindness and gratitude..

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You’re Going to Want This Free Emotions Bulletin Board Kit for Your Classroom

Perfect for PreK-2! Continue Reading

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20 Interactive Social Studies Activities for the Classroom

March 21, 2023 //  by  Sharayah Lynn Grattan

We can begin teaching kids about human society, how we establish rules for common understanding and order, how we share ideas and culture, and significant figures in our history, at an early age. There are so many components included in the domain of social studies that each year you can cover new material with your students.

From anthropology and economics to political science and geography, there are so many worlds to discover. We have 20 of the best activities for you to open your kid’s eyes to all of it!

1. Civil War Snacks

These biscuit cookies are called “hardtacks” and are said to have been the go-to snack for people who lived in the 19th century. As a part of teaching the Civil War in your historical social studies unit, incorporate some food culture to help your kids taste what it was like to live back then.

Learn More: Education

2. Learning Taxes With M&M’s

This fun activity is a great hands-on introduction to taxes for elementary grade students just beginning to handle their own money. Distribute snack packs of M&M’s to each student and give roles: the tax collector, the King, the Parliament representative, to 3 students. Take candies away for various things (blue socks, erasers, crossing your legs), explain the process of wages and taxes, and who it goes to.

Learn More: Upper Elementary Snapshots

3. Native American Dreamcatchers

Indigenous people are a huge part of America’s history, they have many traditions and customs that can teach your students to have respect for people of all heritages. These dreamcatcher crafts will make your fun history lessons utilize motor skills and are a great decoration for your classroom walls.

Learn More: Art Bar Blog

4. Reading the Stars

Time to bring history to life with this DIY constellation hands-on activity that teaches students how many African Americans were able to navigate and travel the underground railroad while en-route to freedom during the 18th and 19th centuries in America. You’ll need a hole punch, black card stock, and a flashlight.

Learn More: Everyday Reading

5. DIY George Washington Wig

We cover historical figures in our social studies lessons teaching about the life of colonists in the initial 13 colonies. Wigs were a sign of class and power during this time with white wigs reserved for only the most prominent figures. George Washington had the signature white wig we all imagine, so let’s recreate it using a paper bag, cotton balls, and ribbon.

Learn More: Deceptively Educational

6. Flower Press Like an Explorer

When explorers first came to the New World they had a lot to record and send back so people in Europe knew what kind of plants and animals were across the ocean. A fun class book to make with your students is a flower press album. Go outside with your kids and have them pick some flowers, then press and save them for future observations.

Learn More: Magical Movement Company

7. Dictator for a Day

This engaging lesson can be used in the social studies curriculum covering different forms of government. Pick one student to be a dictator and have he/she establish their own rules for the country. Explain how freedoms such as religion and speech are hindered and the lack of fairness this type of government provides for its citizens.

Learn More: Study

8. Mystery Skype

Geography is another domain of social studies and learning how to differentiate between attributes of states, countries, time zones, is a useful skill for student understanding. There are platforms set up that can connect your skype to another classroom somewhere else in the U.S. and even around the world! Brainstorm questions with your students ahead of time so they know what to ask to find out where they are.

Learn More: 29 Fun Geography Lessons Your Learners Will Love

9. Voting Knowledge via Online Game

iCivics is an online gaming platform designed to teach students useful knowledge about how the United States government functions and their roles in it. This online game is great for high school or middle school students to learn how to become informed voters and how they can participate in our democracy. Get more ideas for teaching the presidential election process here .

Learn More: iCivics.org

10. Analysing and Drawing Political Cartoons

There are so many great examples of political cartoons over U.S. history that teach students how certain events and beliefs are presented to persuade readers. Pick some influential political cartoons from the past and have an open discussion regarding what opinions they are expressing and the intentions of the people who created them.

Learn More: Thinkport

11. Historical Role Play

Let’s get into character with this simple improvisation activity of historical figures. Write down names of influential people of the past and put them in a hat for your students to pick from. Give them a few days to research their person and make a presentation in front of the class.

Learn More: Edutopia

12. Immigration Stories

There is a lot to cover in your immigration unit for the U.S. since it is a country of immigrants. Explain the histories and reasons why different groups of people immigrate, why they want to leave their home country, and the processes they go through to assimilate to their new country. There are many educational books out there written by immigrants to read for engaging class discussions.

Learn More: Population Education

13. Current Events for Kids

It can be challenging to explain a current event to a young learner in a way they can understand. Kidworldcitizen.org is a website with resources and articles written for kids with simple words and without biases found in other sources. Pick a few articles and read them in your next social studies class.

Learn More: Kid World Citizen

14. Economics Cheat Sheet

Economics begins to emerge in our elementary classrooms, and it’s best to start with the basics. Help your students understand how the economy works and affects their daily life with this visual explanation. Have your students create their own to put on the classroom walls.

Learn More: Pinterest

15. Religions Around the World

There are so many different religions and belief systems in our world, and it’s important we teach our young learners to respect their customs and traditions. Challenge students to pick a religion they don’t know about and do research as a group to learn more and share.

Learn More: Education World

16. Culture Boxes

Assign each student a culture and ask them to fill a cardboard box with items, images, foods, clothing, etc. that encapsulate the society to share with the class.

Learn More: Living Montessori Now

17. Traveler IQ Challenge

This online geography game tests your students’ social studies skills regarding map reading, locating states in the U.S., country capitals, and more! Play it with the whole class or assign kids to play at home.

Learn More: Crazy Games

18. Archaeology Puzzle

This reconstruction project can be a fun family activity to introduce archaeology to your kids in a hands-on and engaging way. Get a clay pot, break it into pieces, and hide the pieces in the sand or dirt for your kids to dig up. Then help them clean the parts and piece the pot together. You can add symbols or words on the pot to reveal a message once it’s reconstructed for an added bonus!

Learn More: Tikkido

19. Our Class Constitution

Have your students participate in a democracy by having them help you write your class’s constitution.

20. Then and Now Sorting Game

Print or make your own flashcards with images of old objects we used in the past and their updated/modern versions. Show students the progressions we’ve made as humans and what that means for our future.

Learn More: What I Have Learned Teaching

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Solutions for Social Emotional Learning & Executive Functioning

30 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for Every Classroom

August 9, 2022 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

How do I integrate social emotional learning? This is a question many educators are asking themselves. The good news is that there are countless ways to add SEL into the classroom, without it taking over your entire day. Social-emotional learning is a huge umbrella that accounts for the way we build relationships and teach meaningful skills from self-awareness to decision-making and everything in between.

This list is designed to give teachers and administrators options; no educator can do all of these activities all the time. Instead, choose a few and give them a try in your classroom to see what works best for you and your students.

Just a note: The majority of links below are free. This is intended to provide you with additional support to get started integrating SEL into your classroom. Every classroom deserves that. I’ve also included some extra paid activities if you need something more. I hope they make a difference for you and your students.

Maybe most importantly, these strategies are largely universal; they can be done with pre-schoolers all the way up to high schoolers. They can be done in a general education classroom, special education resource room group, a homeroom block, or an advisory period.

1. Daily Greetings

One of the simplest SEL techniques is starting the day with personalized greetings at the door. Have students choose the greeting (wave, fist bump, or thumbs up), or simply just say good morning to each student by name as they walk in.

2. Emotions Check-In

According to some research, just expressing our emotions can help alleviate those very feelings. Use a daily emotions check-in to help students share how they are feeling and what they need to be at their best.

3. Class Circle

Once a day, gather as a group in a circle. Use targeted relationship-building questions to share. It’s important to give everyone a chance to share who wants to. And on that note, it’s also important to allow kids to pass if they’re not comfortable sharing one particular question.

4. Journal Writing

Provide a SEL journal prompt each morning for kids to respond to. If your students are still working on writing skills, they can draw their responses and share aloud. SEL journaling provides a safe space to open up and allows you to integrate SEL with academic skills in a natural way.

5. Gratitude List

Once a day (or when time allows), have students write out a gratitude list. They should list out 3 things they are grateful for that day. These can be big things, like family or friends, but they can also be seemingly small things, like the smell of chocolate chip cookies or comfortable shoes. When we practice gratitude, we help kids and teens feel happier, more focused, and calm.

6. Morning Meeting

Start each day with a guided morning meeting. Any educator can implement a daily morning meeting some easy steps: greetings, a SEL-focused topic, guided discussion questions, a few activities, and a closing or reflection.

7. Mindful Morning Check-In

Use a mindful morning check-in to start the day. It is a five-step process that involves taking 5 deep breaths, listing 4 things you notice around you, identifying 3 things you are grateful for, saying 2 positive self-talk statements, and naming 1 thing you are looking forward to for the day.

8. SEL Read Alouds

Integrate social-emotional skills and reading using read alouds and stories. The truth is that read alouds are fun and engaging for kids of all ages (even big kids). Start or end your day with a read aloud, highlighting relevant SEL skills before, during, and after the story. You can choose a read aloud to work on a specific SEL skill (empathy or friendships, for example), or you can pick up any book and see where it takes you. Use a SEL read aloud list to help get started.

9. SEL Chats

Provide a targeted SEL question (or a few questions) and have students chat to discuss. Use SEL discussion-starters, such as: What is a good choice you’ve made recently? What could you teach someone else? What are some skills you feel most confident in? These questions are helpful to build relationships within the classroom, and they also allow for further discussion of critical SEL skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and decision-making). Come up with your own questions or use these SEL task cards with prompts for the year.

10. Coping Skills Practice

Healthy coping skills are essential to learning how to manage emotions and stress. Make it a point to practice coping strategies together, such as listening to music, drawing, reading, exercising, practicing yoga, and talking with a friend. These techniques can be practiced for just a few minutes as a time as a meaningful reminder for students.

11. End-of-the-day Reflection

The end of the day is the perfect time for reflection. That includes thinking about what went well, what students learned, what they are most proud of, and how they feel. Use targeted end-of-the-day reflection questions to start the process.

12. Recite Positive Affirmations

Positive self-talk helps students feel confident and ready for success. Choose favorite positive affirmations , create a list, and read them together. A list can be read at the start of each day or before a big test.

13. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is learning how to be present in the moment. This self-regulation technique helps students feel calm, focused, and happier. Start your practice with mindful breathing exercises . These can be done anytime, but really pay off first thing in the morning, in between transitions, or right before quizzes and tests.

14. SEL Art Activities

Use art activities to allow for self-expression while integrating SEL skills at the same time. Use self-portraits to focus on self-awareness. Try mindful coloring to work on healthy coping skills. You can have students work together to create a shared drawing to build teamwork skills.

15. Class Meetings

Hold a class meeting on a regular basis to review expectations and solve problems together. These become a healthy spot to work on conflict resolution skills, as students can share struggles they are working through and get feedback from others. Class meetings are also the perfect venue for reviewing class expectations on a regular basis.

16. SEL Quote of the Day

Quotes are character-building! Share a meaningful social-emotional quote on the board. Have students discuss and share what it means to them. Some favorites to start out with are, “You are enough and a work in progress all at the same time,” and “It’s never too late to stop and go down a different path.”

17. Daily Check-In Journal

Provide a daily check-in journal first thing each day. This allows students to share how they are feeling, while also integrating other SEL skills and supports that kids need. As a bonus, journaling also means students are working on their writing skills.

18. “What Would You Do?” Scenarios

Integrate SEL skills by discussing some “What would you do?” scenarios. For example, you might ask, “You have a big test tomorrow, but a friend wants you to go out to the movies. What would you do?” Have students talk and share ideas to learn and grow. Make up your own questions or grab this set to get started.

19. Brain Breaks

Breaks are a critically important part of replenishing self-regulation skills. Provide brain breaks through movement like yoga or mindful breathing exercises. Schedule them into the day (such as between tasks) or use them when you notice students just need to refocus. Here are mindful brain breaks to try with a nature theme .

20. Show-and-Tell

Once a week, give students a chance to share items and ideas that are important to them. They might share an art project they created or a new game they got for their birthday at home. This gives kids a safe space to communicate and share a piece of themselves with their classmates.

21. SEL Skill of the Day or Week

Introduce one meaningful SEL skill of the day (or week). Briefly discuss it and ask some guided questions. Then, highlight that skill when you see it in action to help students generalize it to their own lives.

22. SEL Crafts & Hands-On Activities

Provide hands-on learning opportunities with SEL crafts. Have students make a coping strategies wheel or practice mindfulness with hands-on tools . Activities that are hands-on are often memorable.

23. Play Games

Many games build social-emotional skills . Use games to fill some end-of-the-week reward time, also weaving in those social-emotional skills at the same time. Choose games you might already have in your classroom (such as Jenga and Scrabble), or use games that specifically target SEL skills.

24. Shout Out Board

Create a bulletin board in the classroom where students can give “shout outs” to others. The idea is that students can give compliments and kind feedback to their peers and teachers. For example, a student might give a classmate a shout out for helping them organize their notebook. This builds a sense of community and allows a chance to highlight SEL skills along the way.

25. AM / PM Check-In

Provide individualized check-ins for students in need. During an AM/PM check-in time, an adult might ask a student how they are doing, review goals for the day, and reflect on how the day went.

26. Weekly Goal Reflection

Meet with individual students once a week to review goals and track progress. Goal reflection meetings can just be a few minutes, but have a big impact because students are getting 1:1 support. One helpful strategy is to have an individual binder for each student to record their goals, grades, and progress.

27. Daily Jobs

Help build responsibility by assigning classroom jobs. Examples of jobs might include paper collector, technology set up, and lunch counter.

28. Provide Catch-Up and Organization Time

Everyone needs down-time sometimes. Provide catch-up and organization time to allow students the chance to re-organize materials, finish missing work, and even get a head start on future assignments.

29. SEL Question of the Day

Provide one SEL question of the day . Project it or write it on the board. Give students time to discuss with a partner and write about it.

30. Group Activities or Challenges

Help students build a stronger community by implementing group activities and challenges. Have students work in groups to design kindness posters or work through an escape room challenge.

Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

I’ve developed a complete yearlong social-emotional learning curriculum for elementary students grades 3-5. It comes with everything you need to target skills like empathy, decision-making, confidence, friendships, self-control, and more. Learn more here.

Grab your free printable poster to help remind you about SEL activities and strategies in the classroom!

Remember that it’s about finding the social-emotional learning activities that work best for you and your learners.

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Social Interaction Activities in the Classroom

Social interaction activities in the classroom help students develop their self-esteem, understand conflicts and improve their conflict-resolution skills, increase their problem-solving capacity skills, their intrapersonal skills and help them build long-lasting friendships.

This article is part of the Social Interaction in Schools Guide . Learn all about Social Interaction Skills in Education , Student to Student Interaction , and Teacher to Student Interaction .

Social interaction happens daily. Each social environment is different, and we have to communicate each time differently. However, the basics are the same, and it is essential to know them. Our family, community, culture and education at home and school play a vital role in developing our social interaction skills. 

Social interaction in the classroom basics

In a classroom environment , the social interaction happening is done with colleagues of the same or appropriate age as you and with the teachers and mentors. As school is where young people spend half of their day, this is a great environment where they can develop and practice their social interaction skills. 

Social skills are best learned when a multitude of means is used. And this is mostly because students cannot be all the same and have the same needs and perceptions. Thus there is no right or wrong way to teach social skills, but if you want them to appeal to each student, using various means of integrating social skills in the classroom is the best. Using tools such as storytelling, role-playing, groups exercises, peer observing, and multimedia can be a great way to enhance the social skills of a broader range of students.

Why is it Important?

Social interaction is essential as it helps students form relationships, build trust with themselves and others, understand different topics, learn new things, and develop socially and cognitively. 

Inside a classroom environment, social interaction helps students have positive outcomes from their interactions, understand the behaviours of the other colleagues and be an active part of a discussion – whether listening or talking. 

Social interaction is a great tool to learn. 

Moreover, there is no difference between social status, ethnic group, or origin when socially interacting. 

What are the benefits? 

The benefits of social interaction go beyond the interaction rules. 

Social interaction helps students and everyone involved have a healthy life; it helps them maintain good mental and physical health . Once you know how to communicate and understand others, it is easier to accept them, their opinions and their needs.

Social interaction is essential for a child’s mental and physical well-being, and it helps in the learning process. 

Being open about social interaction and making the most of it can help students 

 – Develop their interpersonal skills.

 – Gain self-confidence.

 – Surpass their shyness.

 – Have a positive attitude towards school.

 – Feel connected with their colleagues and supported as they are free to discuss the lessons, courses, and homework, thus sharing experiences between themselves. 

Success comes easier inside a group with cohesion, where students communicate directly with one another and understand each other’s needs. This helps them release the workload they might feel they have. Once social interaction is established, the increased cohesion of students allows them to create groups and feel a part of one.   

 – Increases students’ thinking capacity.

Interpersonal skills help students see the need of others when communicating and also allows them to make decisions on how and what to say. It is a great way to grow relationships, show their understanding, and receive positive outcomes from interacting with others. 

More than the benefits social interaction has among students; it also offers benefits such as:

 – It creates norms as far as learning is concerned.

 – Helps students cope with challenges as far as teaching concerns. 

 – Develops students’ personalities as they continue to grow their interaction skills and discover various aspects of their personality.

Social interaction classroom activities for high school students

The teacher gives the students a topic and the objective he wants to achieve. Then students are grouped, and they have to discuss the topic until they come up with various findings. While the instructor/teacher is the one that makes sure the students interact and communicate, inside the group, there has to be someone taking notes, someone leading the discussion and the team that participates in findings. Thus, they develop social interaction skills like negotiating, compromising, delivering an idea, and presenting. 

Another way of implementing social interaction in classroom activities is the social stories. These are great for students as they allow students to have, let’s say, kind of a script about certain situations.

Social interaction classroom activities for middle school students

Middle school teachers should create a communication culture with a collaborative learning community. Teachers tend to generate an order type of teaching in the classroom to keep middle school students listening. However, it creates chaos and unwillingness to cooperate and communicate. 

This will allow students to be a part of creating their norms, take on social responsibility and develop friendships. 

Multimedia tools come in handy when adding social interaction to the classroom. These can be – videos, virtual environments, pictures etc. Multimedia tends to help those students that are more visual learners. While not necessarily the most recommended tool, this can help students who face disabilities. 

Parents’ involvement in school activities with their middle school children has a significant impact on enforcing social interaction skills. 

Social interaction classroom activities for elementary students

A social language that becomes part of the classroom culture in elementary school is vital.  This means just using familiar ways and words to communicate with others – listening, apologising, respect.

A fantastic social interaction idea for elementary school students is reading and discussing children’s literature. Many of the books destined for children have stories that include the social interaction topics – making new friends, discovering new situations, etc. From being a part of this universe, children learn how important having social interaction skills is. 

At this age, children can also be taught social interaction skills through turn-taking and pretend play: “Watch this,” and “Did you see that!?!”

Promoting social interaction among students

Social interaction is at every step during school hours. However, inside a more formal environment, social interaction begins when the teacher/ tutor introduces the subject of discussion and the objective they need to reach. 

Once social interaction strategies are promoted, students develop their abilities to speak up, listen, understand and trust themselves and others. 

There are cases when social interaction cannot help when there is a big difference between people’s motivations within a group.  There are challenges as far as the likes of others are concerned, differences that exist between the desires of each group participant and the strategies they use to achieve the objective. 

Positive Peer Interaction

Social interaction helps increase positive interactions between students and peers , and eventually, it leads to a successful academic life. These interactions imply self-regulation, active listening, cooperation and effective communication. As long as the basis of the above exist, students can have positive peer interactions. 

A positive peer interaction involves identifying and studying real-world problems, interacting with classmates, and using project-based learning.

Interactive Learning Centers 

“Just as a listener tunes into a speaker, a teacher must observe, listen to and tune into a learner. Being sensitive to the learner’s thinking allows the teacher to draw the child’s attention to many things. The teacher, in conversation with the child creates opportunities for the child to talk, and to talk more.” ( The Role of Powerful Language Interactions in Reading Recovery Lessons)

There is nothing like playing to help students learn. Playing offers children the freedom to choose how to play, with whom and what to play.

Conclusion 

Social interaction skills grow students into being ready for their professional life. It will help them communicate with colleagues, better understand and comply with the rules, and create relationships.  

Social interaction in the classroom is essential because it helps children enjoy being in a social environment and participate in activities that will help them learn more. 

Social Interaction in the Classroom FAQ 

How do you implement social interaction in the classroom.

Inside the classroom, social interaction depends a lot on the teacher and how the teacher sees the availability of the students to combine lessons with socialising. However, an experienced teacher can easily mix the two when creating communication paths with students, open questions, allow students to lead the idea where the lesson leads, and offer multimedia guides and other tools that enav]ble teachers to keep the communication alive. 

Why is social interaction significant in the classroom?

Social interaction is an everyday tool that people use to connect, exchange ideas, learn, grow and form relationships. Social interaction can help students use their learned skills and create long-lasting friendships in a classroom environment. 

What is an example of social interaction?

A great example of social interaction in the classroom is sharing ideas on something the entire class read. 

What are the types of interaction in the classroom?

Some of the interaction types can be  

 – Talking

 – Viewing a movie

 – Sharing ideas about a topic

 – Solving a problem

 – Roleplaying 

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20 Interactive Social Studies Activities for the Classroom

• Social Studies Education

Introduction:

Engaging students in social studies can be challenging at times. However, with the use of interactive activities, educators can bring history, geography, and culture to life. Here are 20 interactive social studies activities that will captivate and educate your students.

1. Exploring Google Earth:

Have students navigate to different countries or historical landmarks using Google Earth to learn about geographical features and significant locations.

2. Historical Interviews:

Students research a historical figure and prepare questions for a mock interview, then pair up and roleplay as interviewer and historical figure.

3. Time Capsule Creation:

As a class, create a time capsule filled with artifacts, letters, or drawings that represent current events or cultural trends. Plan to open it in a future school year.

4. News Broadcast Reenactment:

Have students reenact a pivotal moment from history as if they were news broadcasters reporting live on the scene.

5. Map-Reading Scavenger Hunt:

Create an in-class scavenger hunt using maps of various scales, where students must identify geographical features or locations to solve clues.

6. Cultural Food Day:

Assign each student a different country and have them research traditional dishes from that nation. Host a food day where everyone brings a dish from their assigned country to share.

7. Political Cartoon Analysis:

Choose recent or historical political cartoons for students to analyze and discuss the message being conveyed by the cartoonist.

8. Current Events Debates:

Select various current events topics and have students participate in organized debates representing different sides of the issue.

9. Virtual Field Trips:

Take advantage of various online resources to arrange virtual field trips to important cultural or historical sites around the world.

10. State Fair Showcase:

Assign each student a US state, and have them create posters with key facts about their assigned state’s history, geography, economy, etc., for display during a class “state fair.”

11. Create a Classroom Museum:

Students bring in artifacts or create replicas of artifacts related to the current social studies topic and host a classroom museum exhibit.

12. Historical Reenactments:

Assign students roles in reenacting important historical events, such as signing the Declaration of Independence or participating in the Boston Tea Party.

13. Create a Civilization:

In groups, students develop their own civilization, complete with a unique government, culture, economy, and geography.

14. Mock Trial:

Have students participate in a mock trial based on a historical event or legal case.

15. Student-Led Podcasts:

Students create and produce podcasts discussing various social studies topics they’ve researched.

16. Analyzing Primary Sources:

Select primary documents (e.g., letters, speeches) for students to analyze and draw conclusions from to deepen their understanding of historical events.

17. Human Timeline:

Line up chairs representing different time periods or historical events, then have students arrange themselves by chronological order based on individual research projects.

18. Cultural Exchange Pen Pals:

Connect with schools in another country and foster cultural exchange through correspondence between students.

19. Election Simulation:

Simulate an upcoming election by having students campaign for various political candidates and participate in a mock vote.

20. Family History Project:

Have students explore their family history and heritage by conducting interviews with family members and creating a family tree or biography presentation.

Conclusion:

The key to engaging students in social studies is making the subject matter come alive through interactive activities that encourage participation and critical thinking. Try introducing these 20 activities into your classroom to enrich your social studies curriculum and create an exciting learning environment for all students.

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11+ Psychology Experiment Ideas (Goals + Methods)

Have you ever wondered why some days you remember things easily, while on others you keep forgetting? Or why certain songs make you super happy and others just…meh?

Our minds are like big, mysterious puzzles, and every day we're finding new pieces to fit. One of the coolest ways to explore our brains and the way they work is through psychology experiments.

A psychology experiment is a special kind of test or activity researchers use to learn more about how our minds work and why we behave the way we do.

It's like a detective game where scientists ask questions and try out different clues to find answers about our feelings, thoughts, and actions. These experiments aren't just for scientists in white coats but can be fun activities we all try to discover more about ourselves and others.

Some of these experiments have become so famous, they’re like the celebrities of the science world! Like the Marshmallow Test, where kids had to wait to eat a yummy marshmallow, or Pavlov's Dogs, where dogs learned to drool just hearing a bell.

Let's look at a few examples of psychology experiments you can do at home.

What Are Some Classic Experiments?

Imagine a time when the mysteries of the mind were being uncovered in groundbreaking ways. During these moments, a few experiments became legendary, capturing the world's attention with their intriguing results.

The Marshmallow Test

One of the most talked-about experiments of the 20th century was the Marshmallow Test , conducted by Walter Mischel in the late 1960s at Stanford University.

The goal was simple but profound: to understand a child's ability to delay gratification and exercise self-control.

Children were placed in a room with a marshmallow and given a choice: eat the marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes and receive two as a reward. Many kids struggled with the wait, some devouring the treat immediately, while others demonstrated remarkable patience.

But the experiment didn’t end there. Years later, Mischel discovered something astonishing. The children who had waited for the second marshmallow were generally more successful in several areas of life, from school achievements to job satisfaction!

While this experiment highlighted the importance of teaching patience and self-control from a young age, it wasn't without its criticisms. Some argued that a child's background, upbringing, or immediate surroundings might play a significant role in their choices.

Moreover, there were concerns about the ethics of judging a child's potential success based on a brief interaction with a marshmallow.

Pavlov's Dogs

Traveling further back in time and over to Russia, another classic experiment took the world by storm. Ivan Pavlov , in the early 1900s, wasn't initially studying learning or behavior. He was exploring the digestive systems of dogs.

But during his research, Pavlov stumbled upon a fascinating discovery. He noticed that by ringing a bell every time he fed his dogs, they eventually began to associate the bell's sound with mealtime. So much so, that merely ringing the bell, even without presenting food, made the dogs drool in anticipation!

This reaction demonstrated the concept of "conditioning" - where behaviors can be learned by linking two unrelated stimuli. Pavlov's work revolutionized the world's understanding of learning and had ripple effects in various areas like animal training and therapy techniques.

Pavlov came up with the term classical conditioning , which is still used today. Other psychologists have developed more nuanced types of conditioning that help us understand how people learn to perform different behaviours.

Classical conditioning is the process by which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus , leading to the same response. In Pavlov's case, the neutral stimulus (bell) became associated with the meaningful stimulus (food), leading the dogs to salivate just by hearing the bell.

Modern thinkers often critique Pavlov's methods from an ethical standpoint. The dogs, crucial to his discovery, may not have been treated with today's standards of care and respect in research.

Both these experiments, while enlightening, also underline the importance of conducting research with empathy and consideration, especially when it involves living beings.

What is Ethical Experimentation?

The tales of Pavlov's bells and Mischel's marshmallows offer us not just insights into the human mind and behavior but also raise a significant question: At what cost do these discoveries come?

Ethical experimentation isn't just a fancy term; it's the backbone of good science. When we talk about ethics, we're referring to the moral principles that guide a researcher's decisions and actions. But why does it matter so much in the realm of psychological experimentation?

An example of an experiment that had major ethical issues is an experiment called the Monster Study . This study was conducted in 1936 and was interested in why children develop a stutter.

The major issue with it is that the psychologists treated some of the children poorly over a period of five months, telling them things like “You must try to stop yourself immediately. Don’t ever speak unless you can do it right.”

You can imagine how that made the children feel!

This study helped create guidelines for ethical treatment in experiments. The guidelines include:

Respect for Individuals: Whether it's a dog in Pavlov's lab or a child in Mischel's study room, every participant—human or animal—deserves respect. They should never be subjected to harm or undue stress. For humans, informed consent (knowing what they're signing up for) is a must. This means that if a child is participating, they, along with their guardians, should understand what the experiment entails and agree to it without being pressured.

Honesty is the Best Policy: Researchers have a responsibility to be truthful. This means not only being honest with participants about the study but also reporting findings truthfully, even if the results aren't what they hoped for. There can be exceptions if an experiment will only succeed if the participants aren't fully aware, but it has to be approved by an ethics committee .

Safety First: No discovery, no matter how groundbreaking, is worth harming a participant. The well-being and mental, emotional, and physical safety of participants is paramount. Experiments should be designed to minimize risks and discomfort.

Considering the Long-Term: Some experiments might have effects that aren't immediately obvious. For example, while a child might seem fine after participating in an experiment, they could feel stressed or anxious later on. Ethical researchers consider and plan for these possibilities, offering support and follow-up if needed.

The Rights of Animals: Just because animals can't voice their rights doesn't mean they don't have any. They should be treated with care, dignity, and respect. This means providing them with appropriate living conditions, not subjecting them to undue harm, and considering alternatives to animal testing when possible.

While the world of psychological experiments offers fascinating insights into behavior and the mind, it's essential to tread with care and compassion. The golden rule? Treat every participant, human or animal, as you'd wish to be treated. After all, the true mark of a groundbreaking experiment isn't just its findings but the ethical integrity with which it's conducted.

So, even if you're experimenting at home, please keep in mind the impact your experiments could have on the people and beings around you!

Let's get into some ideas for experiments.

1) Testing Conformity

Our primary aim with this experiment is to explore the intriguing world of social influences, specifically focusing on how much sway a group has over an individual's decisions. This social influence is called groupthink .

Humans, as social creatures, often find solace in numbers, seeking the approval and acceptance of those around them. But how deep does this need run? Does the desire to "fit in" overpower our trust in our own judgments?

This experiment not only provides insights into these questions but also touches upon the broader themes of peer pressure, societal norms, and individuality. Understanding this could shed light on various real-world situations, from why fashion trends catch on to more critical scenarios like how misinformation can spread.

Method: This idea is inspired by the classic Asch Conformity Experiments . Here's a simple way to try it:

• Assemble a group of people (about 7-8). Only one person will be the real participant; the others will be in on the experiment.
• Show the group a picture of three lines of different lengths and another line labeled "Test Line."
• Ask each person to say out loud which of the three lines matches the length of the "Test Line."
• Unknown to the real participant, the other members will intentionally choose the wrong line. This is to see if the participant goes along with the group's incorrect choice, even if they can see it's wrong.

Real-World Impacts of Groupthink

Groupthink is more than just a science term; we see it in our daily lives:

Decisions at Work or School: Imagine being in a group where everyone wants to do one thing, even if it's not the best idea. People might not speak up because they're worried about standing out or being the only one with a different opinion.

Wrong Information: Ever heard a rumor that turned out to be untrue? Sometimes, if many people believe and share something, others might believe it too, even if it's not correct. This happens a lot on the internet.

Peer Pressure: Sometimes, friends might all want to do something that's not safe or right. People might join in just because they don't want to feel left out.

Missing Out on New Ideas: When everyone thinks the same way and agrees all the time, cool new ideas might never get heard. It's like always coloring with the same crayon and missing out on all the other bright colors!

2) Testing Color and Mood

We all have favorite colors, right? But did you ever wonder if colors can make you feel a certain way? Color psychology is the study of how colors can influence our feelings and actions.

For instance, does blue always calm us down? Does red make us feel excited or even a bit angry? By exploring this, we can learn how colors play a role in our daily lives, from the clothes we wear to the color of our bedroom walls.

• Find a quiet room and set up different colored lights or large sheets of colored paper: blue, red, yellow, and green.
• Invite some friends over and let each person spend a few minutes under each colored light or in front of each colored paper.
• After each color, ask your friends to write down or talk about how they feel. Are they relaxed? Energized? Happy? Sad?

Researchers have always been curious about this. Some studies have shown that colors like blue and green can make people feel calm, while colors like red might make them feel more alert or even hungry!

Real-World Impacts of Color Psychology

Ever noticed how different places use colors?

Hospitals and doctors' clinics often use soft blues and greens. This might be to help patients feel more relaxed and calm.

Many fast food restaurants use bright reds and yellows. These colors might make us feel hungry or want to eat quickly and leave.

Classrooms might use a mix of colors to help students feel both calm and energized.

3) Testing Music and Brainpower

Think about your favorite song. Do you feel smarter or more focused when you listen to it? This experiment seeks to understand the relationship between music and our brain's ability to remember things. Some people believe that certain types of music, like classical tunes, can help us study or work better. Let's find out if it's true!

• Prepare a list of 10-15 things to remember, like a grocery list or names of places.
• Invite some friends over. First, let them try to memorize the list in a quiet room.
• After a short break, play some music (try different types like pop, classical, or even nature sounds) and ask them to memorize the list again.
• Compare the results. Was there a difference in how much they remembered with and without music?

The " Mozart Effect " is a popular idea. Some studies in the past suggested that listening to Mozart's music might make people smarter, at least for a little while. But other researchers think the effect might not be specific to Mozart; it could be that any music we enjoy boosts our mood and helps our brain work better.

Real-World Impacts of Music and Memory

Think about how we use music:

• Study Sessions: Many students listen to music while studying, believing it helps them concentrate better.
• Workout Playlists: Gyms play energetic music to keep people motivated and help them push through tough workouts.
• Meditation and Relaxation: Calm, soothing sounds are often used to help people relax or meditate.

4) Testing Dreams and Food

Ever had a really wild dream and wondered where it came from? Some say that eating certain foods before bedtime can make our dreams more vivid or even a bit strange.

This experiment is all about diving into the dreamy world of sleep to see if what we eat can really change our nighttime adventures. Can a piece of chocolate or a slice of cheese transport us to a land of wacky dreams? Let's find out!

• Ask a group of friends to keep a "dream diary" for a week. Every morning, they should write down what they remember about their dreams.
• For the next week, ask them to eat a small snack before bed, like cheese, chocolate, or even spicy foods.
• They should continue writing in their "dream diary" every morning.
• At the end of the two weeks, compare the dream notes. Do the dreams seem different during the snack week?

The link between food and dreams isn't super clear, but some people have shared personal stories. For example, some say that spicy food can lead to bizarre dreams. Scientists aren't completely sure why, but it could be related to how food affects our body temperature or brain activity during sleep.

A cool idea related to this experiment is that of vivid dreams , which are very clear, detailed, and easy to remember dreams. Some people are even able to control their vivid dreams, or say that they feel as real as daily, waking life !

Real-World Impacts of Food and Dreams

Our discoveries might shed light on:

• Bedtime Routines: Knowing which foods might affect our dreams can help us choose better snacks before bedtime, especially if we want calmer sleep.
• Understanding Our Brain: Dreams can be mysterious, but studying them can give us clues about how our brains work at night.
• Cultural Beliefs: Many cultures have myths or stories about foods and dreams. Our findings might add a fun twist to these age-old tales!

5) Testing Mirrors and Self-image

Stand in front of a mirror. How do you feel? Proud? Shy? Curious? Mirrors reflect more than just our appearance; they might influence how we think about ourselves.

This experiment delves into the mystery of self-perception. Do we feel more confident when we see our reflection? Or do we become more self-conscious? Let's take a closer look.

• Set up two rooms: one with mirrors on all walls and another with no mirrors at all.
• Invite friends over and ask them to spend some time in each room doing normal activities, like reading or talking.
• After their time in both rooms, ask them questions like: "Did you think about how you looked more in one room? Did you feel more confident or shy?"
• Compare the responses to see if the presence of mirrors changes how they feel about themselves.

Studies have shown that when people are in rooms with mirrors, they can become more aware of themselves. Some might stand straighter, fix their hair, or even change how they behave. The mirror acts like an audience, making us more conscious of our actions.

Real-World Impacts of Mirrors and Self-perception

Mirrors aren't just for checking our hair. Ever wonder why clothing stores have so many mirrors? They might help shoppers visualize themselves in new outfits, encouraging them to buy.

Mirrors in gyms can motivate people to work out with correct form and posture. They also help us see progress in real-time!

And sometimes, looking in a mirror can be a reminder to take care of ourselves, both inside and out.

But remember, what we look like isn't as important as how we act in the world or how healthy we are. Some people claim that having too many mirrors around can actually make us more self conscious and distract us from the good parts of ourselves.

Some studies are showing that mirrors can actually increase self-compassion , amongst other things. As any tool, it seems like mirrors can be both good and bad, depending on how we use them!

6) Testing Plants and Talking

Have you ever seen someone talking to their plants? It might sound silly, but some people believe that plants can "feel" our vibes and that talking to them might even help them grow better.

In this experiment, we'll explore whether plants can indeed react to our voices and if they might grow taller, faster, or healthier when we chat with them.

• Get three similar plants, placing each one in a separate room.
• Talk to the first plant, saying positive things like "You're doing great!" or singing to it.
• Say negative things to the second plant, like "You're not growing fast enough!"
• Don't talk to the third plant at all; let it be your "silent" control group .
• Water all plants equally and make sure they all get the same amount of light.
• At the end of the month, measure the growth of each plant and note any differences in their health or size.

The idea isn't brand new. Some experiments from the past suggest plants might respond to sounds or vibrations. Some growers play music for their crops, thinking it helps them flourish.

Even if talking to our plants doesn't have an impact on their growth, it can make us feel better! Sometimes, if we are lonely, talking to our plants can help us feel less alone. Remember, they are living too!

Real-World Impacts of Talking to Plants

If plants do react to our voices, gardeners and farmers might adopt new techniques, like playing music in greenhouses or regularly talking to plants.

Taking care of plants and talking to them could become a recommended activity for reducing stress and boosting mood.

And if plants react to sound, it gives us a whole new perspective on how connected all living things might be .

7) Testing Virtual Reality and Senses

Virtual reality (VR) seems like magic, doesn't it? You put on a headset and suddenly, you're in a different world! But how does this "new world" affect our senses? This experiment wants to find out how our brains react to VR compared to the real world. Do we feel, see, or hear things differently? Let's get to the bottom of this digital mystery!

• You'll need a VR headset and a game or experience that can be replicated in real life (like walking through a forest). If you don't have a headset yourself, there are virtual reality arcades now!
• Invite friends to first experience the scenario in VR.
• Afterwards, replicate the experience in the real world, like taking a walk in an actual forest.
• Ask them questions about both experiences: Did one seem more real than the other? Which sounds were more clear? Which colors were brighter? Did they feel different emotions?

As VR becomes more popular, scientists have been curious about its effects. Some studies show that our brains can sometimes struggle to tell the difference between VR and reality. That's why some people might feel like they're really "falling" in a VR game even though they're standing still.

Real-World Impacts of VR on Our Senses

Schools might use VR to teach lessons, like taking students on a virtual trip to ancient Egypt. Understanding how our senses react in VR can also help game designers create even more exciting and realistic games.

Doctors could use VR to help patients overcome fears or to provide relaxation exercises. This is actually already a method therapists can use for helping patients who have serious phobias. This is called exposure therapy , which basically means slowly exposing someone (or yourself) to the thing you fear, starting from very far away to becoming closer.

For instance, if someone is afraid of snakes. You might show them images of snakes first. Once they are comfortable with the picture, they can know there is one in the next room. Once they are okay with that, they might use a VR headset to see the snake in the same room with them, though of course there is not an actual snake there.

8) Testing Sleep and Learning

We all know that feeling of trying to study or work when we're super tired. Our brains feel foggy, and it's hard to remember stuff. But how exactly does sleep (or lack of it) influence our ability to learn and remember things?

With this experiment, we'll uncover the mysteries of sleep and see how it can be our secret weapon for better learning.

• Split participants into two groups.
• Ask both groups to study the same material in the evening.
• One group goes to bed early, while the other stays up late.
• The next morning, give both groups a quiz on what they studied.
• Compare the results to see which group remembered more.

Sleep and its relation to learning have been explored a lot. Scientists believe that during sleep, especially deep sleep, our brains sort and store new information. This is why sometimes, after a good night's rest, we might understand something better or remember more.

Real-World Impacts of Sleep and Learning

Understanding the power of sleep can help:

• Students: If they know the importance of sleep, students might plan better, mixing study sessions with rest, especially before big exams.
• Workplaces: Employers might consider more flexible hours, understanding that well-rested employees learn faster and make fewer mistakes.
• Health: Regularly missing out on sleep can have other bad effects on our health. So, promoting good sleep is about more than just better learning.

9) Testing Social Media and Mood

Have you ever felt different after spending time on social media? Maybe happy after seeing a friend's fun photos, or a bit sad after reading someone's tough news.

Social media is a big part of our lives, but how does it really affect our mood? This experiment aims to shine a light on the emotional roller-coaster of likes, shares, and comments.

• Ask participants to note down how they're feeling - are they happy, sad, excited, or bored?
• Have them spend a set amount of time (like 30 minutes) on their favorite social media platforms.
• After the session, ask them again about their mood. Did it change? Why?
• Discuss what they saw or read that made them feel that way.

Previous research has shown mixed results. Some studies suggest that seeing positive posts can make us feel good, while others say that too much time on social media can make us feel lonely or left out.

Real-World Impacts of Social Media on Mood

Understanding the emotional impact of social media can help users understand their feelings and take breaks if needed. Knowing is half the battle! Additionally, teachers and parents can guide young users on healthy social media habits, like limiting time or following positive accounts.

And if it's shown that social media does impact mood, social media companies can design friendlier, less stressful user experiences.

But even if the social media companies don't change things, we can still change our social media habits to make ourselves feel better.

10) Testing Handwriting or Typing

Think about the last time you took notes. Did you grab a pen and paper or did you type them out on a computer or tablet?

Both ways are popular, but there's a big question: which method helps us remember and understand better? In this experiment, we'll find out if the classic art of handwriting has an edge over speedy typing.

• Divide participants into two groups.
• Present a short lesson or story to both groups.
• One group will take notes by hand, while the other will type them out.
• After some time, quiz both groups on the content of the lesson or story.
• Compare the results to see which note-taking method led to better recall and understanding.

Studies have shown some interesting results. While typing can be faster and allows for more notes, handwriting might boost memory and comprehension because it engages the brain differently, making us process the information as we write.

Importantly, each person might find one or the other works better for them. This could be useful in understanding our learning habits and what instructional style would be best for us.

Real-World Impacts of Handwriting vs. Typing

Knowing the pros and cons of each method can:

• Boost Study Habits: Students can pick the method that helps them learn best, especially during important study sessions or lectures.
• Work Efficiency: In jobs where information retention is crucial, understanding the best method can increase efficiency and accuracy.
• Tech Design: If we find out more about how handwriting benefits us, tech companies might design gadgets that mimic the feel of writing while combining the advantages of digital tools.

11) Testing Money and Happiness

We often hear the saying, "Money can't buy happiness," but is that really true? Many dream of winning the lottery or getting a big raise, believing it would solve all problems.

In this experiment, we dig deep to see if there's a real connection between wealth and well-being.

• Survey a range of participants, from those who earn a little to those who earn a lot, about their overall happiness. You can keep it to your friends and family, but that might not be as accurate as surveying a wider group of people.
• Ask them to rank things that bring them joy and note if they believe more money would boost their happiness. You could try different methods, one where you include some things that they have to rank, such as gardening, spending time with friends, reading books, learning, etc. Or you could just leave a blank list that they can fill in with their own ideas.
• Study the data to find patterns or trends about income and happiness.

Some studies have found money can boost happiness, especially when it helps people out of tough financial spots. But after reaching a certain income, extra dollars usually do not add much extra joy.

In fact, psychologists just realized that once people have an income that can comfortably support their needs (and some of their wants), they stop getting happier with more . That number is roughly $75,000, but of course that depends on the cost of living and how many members are in the family.

Real-World Impacts of Money and Happiness

If we can understand the link between money and joy, it might help folks choose jobs they love over jobs that just pay well. And instead of buying things, people might spend on experiences, like trips or classes, that make lasting memories.

Most importantly, we all might spend more time on hobbies, friends, and family, knowing they're big parts of what makes life great.

Some people are hoping that with Artificial Intelligence being able to do a lot of the less well-paying jobs, people might be able to do work they enjoy more, all while making more money and having more time to do the things that make them happy.

12) Testing Temperature and Productivity

Have you ever noticed how a cold classroom or office makes it harder to focus? Or how on hot days, all you want to do is relax? In this experiment, we're going to find out if the temperature around us really does change how well we work.

• Find a group of participants and a room where you can change the temperature.
• Set the room to a chilly temperature and give the participants a set of tasks to do.
• Measure how well and quickly they do these tasks.
• The next day, make the room comfortably warm and have them do similar tasks.
• Compare the results to see if the warmer or cooler temperature made them work better.

Some studies have shown that people can work better when they're in a room that feels just right, not too cold or hot. Being too chilly can make fingers slow, and being too warm can make minds wander.

What temperature is "just right"? It won't be the same for everyone, but most people find it's between 70-73 degrees Fahrenheit (21-23 Celsius).

Real-World Implications of Temperature and Productivity

If we can learn more about how temperature affects our work, teachers might set classroom temperatures to help students focus and learn better, offices might adjust temperatures to get the best work out of their teams, and at home, we might find the best temperature for doing homework or chores quickly and well.

Interestingly, temperature also has an impact on our sleep quality. Most people find slightly cooler rooms to be better for good sleep. While the daytime temperature between 70-73F is good for productivity, a nighttime temperature around 65F (18C) is ideal for most people's sleep.

Psychology is like a treasure hunt, where the prize is understanding ourselves better. With every experiment, we learn a little more about why we think, feel, and act the way we do. Some of these experiments might seem simple, like seeing if colors change our mood or if being warm helps us work better. But even the simple questions can have big answers that help us in everyday life.

Remember, while doing experiments is fun, it's also important to always be kind and think about how others feel. We should never make someone uncomfortable just for a test. Instead, let's use these experiments to learn and grow, helping to make the world a brighter, more understanding place for everyone.

Related posts:

• 150+ Flirty Goodnight Texts For Him (Sweet and Naughty Examples)
• Dream Interpreter & Dictionary (270+ Meanings)
• Sleep Stages (Light, Deep, REM)
• What Part of the Brain Regulates Body Temperature?
• Why Do We Dream? (6 Theories and Psychological Reasons)

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to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!   last edited by 3 years ago -> In the Classroom: Social This is a segregation simulation based on Nobel Prize Winner, Thomas Schelling. This is based on Schelling's (1971)  n, and later Clark's (1991) paper,  .    (courtesy of Joseph Swope via PSYCHTEACHER listserv 9/10/13)  Either wait for or construct a situation where a student leaves the room for a few minutes.  While he is outside of the classroom, instruct the other students to stand up when the student returns and sits in his seat.  As soon as the returning student sits down in his seat, he will see his classmates immediately rise.  For added effect, have the classmates rise with their notebooks and continue with the lecture.  Chances are the student will stand.  A less dramatic but a more sure-fire result is to have the students already standing when the student returns.  If class continues and the lecture proceeds with the rest of the class ignoring him, the returning student will go back to his seat, continue standing, blend in and remain standing.  Note, if the class is aware that the lesson is on conformity, the student might be wise to the gag.    (courtesy of Ali O'Malley via Twitter 7/18/13) A class could be instructed to play “Guess Who?” with the prompts on the video. The second half of the video includes a summary of study results and reference to a recently published article.   Social Knowledge: The Game This smartphone app (  or  ) offers a statement on social psychological research every day, with elaborate explanations (and the references!) the day after and feedback on whether the person was correct or not. This game could be a weekly icebreaker, source of fun/friendly competition, and/or way for Social Psychology students to stay connected to course material outside of class.   If you are looking for a good active learning lesson to teach fundamental social psychology concepts, this is it. Bleske-Rechek, A. L. (2001). Obedience, conformity, and social roles: Active learning in a large introductory psychology class. (4), 160-262.   ( , 2009, Vol 4)   ( , 8/1/2012) Students are often very interested in relationships and how to make them last. This column on breaking up before going off to college is likely to hit home and encourage discussion. However, the column provides only anecdotal evidence and suggestions. While the topic may serve as a springboard into discussion, it may also help students think about what types of empirical evidence should support the suggestions and claims in the column. Also, students could be instructed to craft their own correlational and experimental research studies to test some of the topics in the column.     , Professor of Psychology at  , Naperville, IL Topics include Aggression, Attitudes and Behavior, Attraction and Relationships, Conflict, Conformity, Genes, Gender and Culture, Group Influence, Helping, Methods, Persuasion, Prejudice, Social Beliefs and more.   Insert links to other pages or uploaded files. Loading... To turn text into a link, highlight the text, then click on a page or file from the list above. Comments ( 0 ) You don't have permission to comment on this page. PBworks / Help Terms of use / Privacy policy / GDPR About this workspace Contact the owner / RSS feed / This workspace is public STP Homepage About ToPIX Teaching Resources  (Peer-reviewed) Project Syllabus  (Peer-reviewed) Teaching of Psychology journal (Peer-reviewed/STP members only) Mentoring Service Departmental Consulting Service Recent Activity Bipolar Disorder Therapy Center When To See a Therapist Types of Therapy Best Online Therapy Best Couples Therapy Managing Stress Sleep and Dreaming Understanding Emotions Self-Improvement Healthy Relationships Student Resources Personality Types Sweepstakes Guided Meditations Verywell Mind Insights 2024 Verywell Mind 25 Mental Health in the Classroom Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Crisis Support The Most Famous Social Psychology Experiments Ever Performed Social experiments often seek to answer questions about how people behave in groups or how the presence of others impacts individual behavior. Over the years, social psychologists have explored these questions by conducting experiments . The results of some of the most famous social psychology experiments remain relevant (and often quite controversial) today. Such experiments give us valuable information about human behavior and how group influence can impact our actions in social situations. At a Glance Some of the most famous social psychology experiments include Asch's conformity experiments, Bandura's Bobo doll experiments, the Stanford prison experiment, and Milgram's obedience experiments. Some of these studies are quite controversial for various reasons, including how they were conducted, serious ethical concerns, and what their results suggested. The Asch Conformity Experiments What do you do when you know you're right but the rest of the group disagrees with you? Do you bow to group pressure? In a series of famous experiments conducted during the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch demonstrated that people would give the wrong answer on a test to fit in with the rest of the group. In Asch's famous conformity experiments , people were shown a line and then asked to select a line of a matching length from a group of three. Asch also placed confederates in the group who would intentionally choose the wrong lines. The results revealed that when other people picked the wrong line, participants were likely to conform and give the same answers as the rest of the group. What the Results Revealed While we might like to believe that we would resist group pressure (especially when we know the group is wrong), Asch's results revealed that people are surprisingly susceptible to conformity . Not only did Asch's experiment teach us a great deal about the power of conformity, but it also inspired a whole host of additional research on how people conform and obey, including Milgram's infamous obedience experiments. The Bobo Doll Experiment Does watching violence on television cause children to behave more aggressively? In a series of experiments conducted during the early 1960s, psychologist Albert Bandura set out to investigate the impact of observed aggression on children's behavior. In his Bobo doll experiments , children would watch an adult interacting with a Bobo doll. In one condition, the adult model behaved passively toward the doll, but in another, the adult would kick, punch, strike, and yell at the doll. The results revealed that children who watched the adult model behave violently toward the doll were likelier to imitate the aggressive behavior later on.​ The Impact of Bandura's Social Psychology Experiment The debate over the degree to which violence on television, movies, gaming, and other media influences children's behavior continues to rage on today, so it perhaps comes as no surprise that Bandura's findings are still so relevant. The experiment has also helped inspire hundreds of additional studies exploring the impacts of observed aggression and violence. The Stanford Prison Experiment During the early 1970s, Philip Zimbardo set up a fake prison in the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department, recruited participants to play prisoners and guards, and played the role of the prison warden. The experiment was designed to look at the effect that a prison environment would have on behavior, but it quickly became one of the most famous and controversial experiments of all time. Results of the Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford prison experiment was initially slated to last a full two weeks. It ended after just six days. Why? Because the participants became so enmeshed in their assumed roles, the guards became almost sadistically abusive, and the prisoners became anxious, depressed, and emotionally disturbed. While the Stanford prison experiment was designed to look at prison behavior, it has since become an emblem of how powerfully people are influenced by situations.   Ethical Concerns Part of the notoriety stems from the study's treatment of the participants. The subjects were placed in a situation that created considerable psychological distress. So much so that the study had to be halted less than halfway through the experiment. The study has long been upheld as an example of how people yield to the situation, but critics have suggested that the participants' behavior may have been unduly influenced by Zimbardo himself in his capacity as the mock prison's "warden."   Recent Criticisms The Stanford prison experiment has long been controversial due to the serious ethical concerns of the research, but more recent evidence casts serious doubts on the study's scientific merits. An examination of study records indicates participants faked their behavior to either get out of the experiment or "help" prove the researcher's hypothesis. The experimenters also appear to have encouraged certain behaviors to help foster more abusive behavior. The Milgram Experiments Following the trial of Adolph Eichmann for war crimes committed during World War II, psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to better understand why people obey. "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" Milgram wondered. The results of Milgram's controversial obedience experiments were astonishing and continue to be both thought-provoking and controversial today. What the Social Psychology Experiment Involved The study involved ordering participants to deliver increasingly painful shocks to another person. While the victim was simply a confederate pretending to be injured, the participants fully believed that they were giving electrical shocks to the other person. Even when the victim was protesting or complaining of a heart condition, 65% of the participants continued to deliver painful, possibly fatal shocks on the experimenter's orders. Obviously, no one wants to believe that they are capable of inflicting pain or torture on another human being simply on the orders of an authority figure. The results of the obedience experiments are disturbing because they reveal that people are much more obedient than they may believe. Controversy and Recent Criticisms The study is also controversial because it suffers from ethical concerns, primarily the psychological distress it created for the participants. More recent findings suggest that other problems question the study's findings. Some participants were coerced into continuing against their wishes. Many participants appeared to have guessed that the learner was faking their responses, and other variations showed that many participants refused to continue the shocks. What This Means For You There are many interesting and famous social psychology experiments that can reveal a lot about our understanding of social behavior and influence. However, it is important to be aware of the controversies, limitations, and criticisms of these studies. More recent research may reflect differing results. In some cases, the re-evaluation of classic studies has revealed serious ethical and methodological flaws that call the results into question. Jeon, HL.  The environmental factor within the Solomon Asch Line Test .  International Journal of Social Science and Humanity.  2014;4(4):264-268. doi:10.7763/IJSSH.2014.V4.360  Bandura and Bobo . Association for Psychological Science. Zimbardo, G. The Stanford Prison Experiment: a simulation study on the psychology of imprisonment . Le Texier T.  Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment.   Am Psychol.  2019;74(7):823-839. doi:10.1037/amp0000401 Blum B.  The lifespan of a lie .  Medium . Baker PC. Electric Schlock: Did Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiments prove anything? Pacific Standard . Perry G.  Deception and illusion in Milgram's accounts of the obedience experiments .  Theory Appl Ethics . 2013;2(2):79-92. By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book." Inclusive Teaching: Spotting Social Isolation in the Classroom We evaluate an intervention designed to increase teachers’ awareness of social isolation by providing them with their own students’ social network and information on developmental risks associated with social exclusion. Using friendship data and incentive-compatible measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, we find that the intervention reduces social isolation and antisocial behavior without improving prosocial behavior. The reduction in antisocial behavior leads to better economic outcomes in treated classrooms, measured by average payoffs and the Gini coefficient. Our findings highlight the personal and communal benefits of alleviating social exclusion and antisocial peer relationships in schools. The project has obtained IRB approval from Harvard University. We acknowledge financial support from the JPAL-European Social Inclusion Initiative. Marinella Leone also acknowledges financial support from European Union’s - Next Generation EU program through the Italian PRIN 2022, grant n.20228W79W3, CUP F53D23002980001. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. MARC RIS BibTeΧ Download Citation Data randomized controlled trials registry entry More from NBER In addition to working papers , the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter , the NBER Digest , the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability , the Bulletin on Health , and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship  — as well as online conference reports , video lectures , and interviews . International Education Jobs Schools directory Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search Social Story Cleaning Up the classroom, cleaning up special education lesson Subject: Special educational needs Age range: 5 - 10 Resource type: Lesson (complete) Last updated 16 September 2024 Share through email Share through twitter Share through linkedin Share through facebook Share through pinterest Social Story: Cleaning Up. Our children and students sometimes find it challenging to remember to clean up after they have completed an activity, whether it be learning or play. This social story describes the process of cleaning up, including what it looks like, how to do it, and why it is important to keep our space neat and tidy. This social story conveys these themes using practical examples, engaging visuals, and developmentally appropriate language. It is best suited to K-6, and special education settings. We hope this social story helps you, help the children you work with! 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Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: Apple AirPods 4 review iOS 18 is now available for these... Meta Connect 2024: Expect Quest 3S and... watchOS 11 is out now iPhone 16 vs. iPhone 16 Pro Social Media Meta bans Russian state media outlets on Facebook and Instagram The ban on outlets like rt will take effect over the coming days.. Meta has banned RT and other Russian state media outlets on its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram. "After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets," the company told Engadget in a statement. "Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity." Meta shared briefing materials with Reuters , in which the company said it found evidence in the past that Russian outlets took steps to prevent their foreign interference activities online from being detected. It said it expects the outlets to continue with their deceptive practices. The ban will be enforced over the coming days. The company's announcement comes days after the Biden administration publicly accused RT of spreading propaganda and disinformation online. Authorities said that RT is spreading propaganda and information to justify and back its invasion of Ukraine using media outlets catering to locals, such as ones targeting Africa and France. Meta restricted Russian state media's access to Facebook in Ukraine back in 2022 at the request of its government, in order to limit the spread of those outlets' content. In response, Russia blocked Facebook in the country a few days later and opening a criminal case against the company. A judge later found Facebook and Instagram guilty of "extremist" activity , effectively banning Meta from opening offices and doing business in Russia. Advertisement 234 IMAGES Learner's Output Interesting social experiment The Fascinating World of Social Experiments: Understanding Human Social Experiments (conducted by students) Social Science Experiments Ideas 17 Social Experiments That Led To Unexpected Results VIDEO Social experiment social experiment Social experiment/What would you do? The Social Experiments: The Founders Cut Social experiment/Would you help? Top 10 Educational Science Experiments for Kids COMMENTS 8 Effective Social Psychology Experiments & Activities For High School Here are a few interesting experiments and activities for high school students to learn about social psychology : 1. Bystander effect simulation. The bystander effect [1] is a social psychology phenomenon that studies how an individual is unlikely to help in an urgent situation if surrounded by other people. Students can conduct experiments to ... Great Ideas for Psychology Experiments to Explore Examples of famous psychology experiments that might be a source of further questions you'd like to explore include: Marshmallow test experiments. Little Albert experiment. Hawthorne effect experiments. Bystander effect experiments. Robbers Cave experiments. Halo effect experiments. Piano stairs experiment. Social issues in the classroom: Ideas for activities Social issues in the classroom: Ideas for activities. sue_frantz. Expert. 0 0 7,420. 01-13-2016 04:00 AM. As a psychology instructor it is clear to you the myriad ways in which psychology can be used to both understand social issues and speak to solutions. In fact, the APA Guidelines for the Major (2013; see below) encourages us to help our ... 13 Powerful SEL Activities Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit's academic ... Social Experiments and Studies in Psychology A social experiment is a type of research performed in psychology to investigate how people respond in certain social situations. In many of these experiments, the experimenters will include confederates who are people who act like regular participants but who are actually acting the part. Such experiments are often used to gain insight into ... How to Conduct Your Own Conformity Experiments Other conformity experiments that have been performed include: Having a group of people stare up at a building. Picketing with blank signs and pamphlets for no specific cause. When one student leaves a classroom, the teacher has everyone else stand up when the student returns and sits down. TOPSS Classroom Activities Activities are available for the following topics. Click on the topics below to find the full TOPSS unit lesson plan. Biological Bases of Behavior (PDF, 333KB) Careers, Education and Vocational Applications in Psychology (PDF, 290.2KB) Cognition 1. Consciousness (PDF, 342.48KB) Social Psychology Experiments: 10 Of The Most Famous Studies It has since become a classic social psychology experiment, studied by generations of students and recently coming under a lot of criticism. 5. The Milgram Social Psychology Experiment. The Milgram experiment, led by the well-known psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, aimed to test people's obedience to authority. High School Sociology Experiment Ideas Students taking sociology in high school often perform experiments as part of course requirements or in science fair presentations. Experiment ideas should focus on the social lives of individuals or groups and how they function in society. Teenage perceptions add curiosity and a unique perspective. High School, Sociology Projects, Lessons, Activities Explore human society and social behavior with sociology science experiments. ... Explore classic and cutting-edge high school science experiments in this collection of top-quality science investigations. Jump to main content. Menu. Science Projects. ... for personal and classroom educational use. When printing this document, you may NOT modify ... High School, Sociology Science Experiments (25 results) Fun science experiments to explore everything from kitchen chemistry to DIY mini drones. Easy to set up and perfect for home or school. Browse the collection and see what you want to try first! Sociology is the scientific study of social interactions, at both small and large scales. Sociologists ask big questions, such as "How are societies ... 7 Fun Social Studies Activities that Students Will Love 1. Daily Review. One of my favorite fun social studies activities that students love is daily review. At the beginning or end of each class, take a few minutes to review what was covered in the previous lesson. This can be done through a quick quiz, daily passage, a discussion, or even a game. Not only does this help reinforce the material, but ... 28 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for the Classroom Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which people develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. According to CASEL, research shows that integrating SEL activities in your lesson plans and classroom routines leads to positive outcomes, including better academic ... 48 Simple Social-Emotional Learning Activities for All Ages 41. Play Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) can be a fantastic classroom game, and it encompasses a wide range of social-emotional learning activities. Players need to work together, know their own strengths and weaknesses, make smart choices, and so much more. 20 Interactive Social Studies Activities for the Classroom 18. Archaeology Puzzle. This reconstruction project can be a fun family activity to introduce archaeology to your kids in a hands-on and engaging way. Get a clay pot, break it into pieces, and hide the pieces in the sand or dirt for your kids to dig up. Then help them clean the parts and piece the pot together. 30 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for Every Classroom 1. Daily Greetings. One of the simplest SEL techniques is starting the day with personalized greetings at the door. Have students choose the greeting (wave, fist bump, or thumbs up), or simply just say good morning to each student by name as they walk in. 2. Social Interaction Activities in the Classroom Social interaction classroom activities for middle school students. Middle school teachers should create a communication culture with a collaborative learning community. Teachers tend to generate an order type of teaching in the classroom to keep middle school students listening. However, it creates chaos and unwillingness to cooperate and ... 45 Social Emotional Learning Activities for Elementary Students In this post, we'll explore 45 engaging and easy social-emotional learning activities that are perfect for elementary students to practice and develop their social-emotional skills. So, buckle up and get ready to transform your classroom into a nurturing space where students can thrive, both academically and emotionally. 20 Interactive Social Studies Activities for the Classroom 10. State Fair Showcase: Assign each student a US state, and have them create posters with key facts about their assigned state's history, geography, economy, etc., for display during a class "state fair.". 11. Create a Classroom Museum: Students bring in artifacts or create replicas of artifacts related to the current social studies ... 11+ Psychology Experiment Ideas (Goals + Methods) The Marshmallow Test. One of the most talked-about experiments of the 20th century was the Marshmallow Test, conducted by Walter Mischel in the late 1960s at Stanford University.. The goal was simple but profound: to understand a child's ability to delay gratification and exercise self-control.. Children were placed in a room with a marshmallow and given a choice: eat the marshmallow now or ... Teaching of Psych Idea Exchange (ToPIX) / Social in the Classroom Social in the Classroom. This is a segregation simulation based on Nobel Prize Winner, Thomas Schelling. This is based on Schelling's (1971) Dynamic Models of Segregatio n, and later Clark's (1991) paper, A Test of the Schelling Segregation Model. Either wait for or construct a situation where a student leaves the room for a few minutes. Famous Social Psychology Experiments At a Glance. Some of the most famous social psychology experiments include Asch's conformity experiments, Bandura's Bobo doll experiments, the Stanford prison experiment, and Milgram's obedience experiments. Some of these studies are quite controversial for various reasons, including how they were conducted, serious ethical concerns, and what ... Teaching social influence: Demonstrations and exercises from the This 175‐page study guide is designed to accompany Pratkanis and Aronson's (Citation 2001) book Age of Propaganda.The guide contains behavioral objectives for each chapter of Age of Propaganda. In addition, the study guide presents questions for stimulating discussion of both applied and research aspects of social influence, recommended readings to develop an in‐depth understanding of ... Inclusive Teaching: Spotting Social Isolation in the Classroom We evaluate an intervention designed to increase teachers' awareness of social isolation by providing them with their own students' social network and information on developmental risks associated with social exclusion. Using friendship data and incentive-compatible measures of antisocial and ... 10 easy ways to use MirrorTalk in your classroom MirrorTalk has captured the attention of many educators on and off social media and for good reason. It's a simple AI-powered tool designed to facilitate meaningful reflection in just 5 minutes a day.Emphasis on the word simple because it truly is. Social Story Cleaning Up the classroom, cleaning up special ... This social story describes the process of cleaning up, including what it looks like, how to do it, and why it is important to keep our space neat and tidy. This social story conveys these themes using practical examples, engaging visuals, and developmentally appropriate language. It is best suited to K-6, and special education settings. Meta bans Russian state media outlets on Facebook and Instagram Meta shared briefing materials with Reuters, in which the company said it found evidence in the past that Russian outlets took steps to prevent their foreign interference activities online from ... essay homework paper phd project resume review study thesis