A service-learning project puts to action the theory that learning can be facilitated by teaching, and that the community can be served at the same time. I have a senior level Psychology of Perception class for which I will include a service-learning component. The class content covers physical properties (stimuli), physiological properties (nervous system), and psychological properties (subjective awareness) of the 5 different senses. The service-learning component will require the students to take what they learn in class and lab and share it with groups in the community. Practical applications of this knowledge would include better design of equipment, communications (brochures, web pages, etc.), etc.. Also, knowing about the senses and how they change through the life span can help people better understand themselves and others. Last year, students in this class exclusively worked with groups in nursing homes. We had one-on-one interactions where the students explained perceptual demonstrations and collected some basic perceptual data. This coming year we will expand the number / type of groups with which the students interact. In order to better appreciate the perceptual system changes across the life span, we will interact with children in middle school, middle age adults, and older adults. The students will demonstrate and explain perceptual phenomena and collect basic data (see below for details). Hopefully these interactions will be a fun learning experience for all involved.
Major Focus
(for interactions with middle school children and middle-aged adults)
There will be several goals for our visit. First, we hope to increase the participants' understanding of their senses by performing and explaining some demonstrations. Such demonstrations might include visual illusions, color after-effects, depth perception demos, motion after-effects, smell tests, etc.. Second, we will collect some basic data from the participants; this may include acuity tests, touch sensitivity tests, color vision tests, etc.. The data will be used by the students to compile a summary of perceptual abilities / changes seen across the lifetime. (Data from visits with other groups will complete this summary. We will protect confidentiality of the data.) Third, we will discuss how the senses change as a person gets older. Because most children have grandparents with whom they interact, it may be useful for them to appreciate some of these perceptual changes (e.g. "grandpa is not ignoring me, he simply did not hear me"). In turn, the middle-aged adult group might have parents or friends (or even themselves) who are starting to experience some of the perceptual changes discussed. In order to facilitate appreciation, we will have some demos / activities that help simulate perceptual loses seen in the elderly.
Major Focus (for interactions with the elderly):
As with the other groups, we hope that our visit will increase the participants' understanding of their senses by sharing demonstrations and collecting data. There will be some modifications of our methods when interacting with the elderly. First, there will be an emphasis on one-to-one interactions rather than group presentations. Again, the students will be instructed to provide explanations of the perceptual demonstrations, but they will also be encouraged to allow the interactions to be somewhat directed by the interests of the persons with whom they are interacting. As with the other groups, we plan to collect some data. If a participant is tired or simply not interested, they will not be pressured to participate. Finally, we will not perform the sensitization procedures, since many of these participants will already be experiencing the loses that are simulated in such procedures.