Thinking Like A Scientist – Cornell Institute for Research on Children
Teacher volunteers wanted!
http://www.circ.cornell.edu

As TOPSS teachers know, psychology has the power to speak to today's high school students. Research in psychology is often applicable to the daily lives of these young women and men— “Does playing violent videogames make youth more violent?,” “What is the role of high self-esteem in success?,” and “How can we treat teenage depression?,” to mention just a few examples. By considering questions such as these, an innovative educational program developed at Cornell University helps high school teachers bring psychology alive for their students. This project, led by professor Wendy M. Williams, was funded by the National Science Foundation through a grant to the Cornell Institute for Research on Children, which Williams co-directs with Stephen J. Ceci.

Thinking Like A Scientist (TLAS) seeks to reach students through current hot topics in psychology, and train these students to think critically and to reason using the scientific method about problems in daily life. Traditional curricula in the basic sciences attempt to teach critical thinking, but often students find the topics remote from personal experience. Consequently, students sometimes fail to invest in the learning process. By engaging all students, including those who may have previously turned off to science, Thinking Like A Scientist attempts to increase the eventual representation in science careers of girls, people of color, and people from less-privileged backgrounds. In particular, its authors hope to encourage these students to continue their education beyond high school. The program also trains general scientific thinking and reasoning ability for use in other classes and in life outside the classroom, and increases awareness of science-related careers.

The authors began by scouring the scientific literature in psychology for key articles representing consensus positions on topics that were both relevant to the lives of teenagers and appropriate for teaching scientific thinking. The authors then developed a set of six themes around which to organize each lesson: 1. Ask: What is Science?, 2. Define the Problem: See Many Sides, 3. Distinguish Fact from Opinion: Understand What Constitutes Evidence, 4. Weigh Evidence and Make Decisions, 5. Move from Science to Society, and 6. Revisit, Review, Reflect, and Re-evaluate.

Using the same format for each lesson, Thinking Like A Scientist provides self-contained full lesson plans suitable for students in grades 8-12, as well as for community college students. Lessons may be taught in any order because each lesson's specific content is independent from the content of other lessons. Though several concepts are used in multiple lessons (e.g., “hypothesis,” “working definition”), each lesson adds its own unique piece to the puzzle. Key terms and concepts are emphasized and elaborated upon via special boxes in the margins. Lessons initially take about 2-3 class periods to teach. After a few lessons, students learn the gist of the procedure and lessons can be taught in 1-2 class periods. See below for two PDF samples of these lesson plans.

Effects of Violent Video Games: Do They Doom Kids To Mortal Kombat? .pdf [511kb]
Self-Esteem: Does It Come From Success, Or Is It The Other Way Around? .pdf [483kb]
(Requires Adobe Acrobat   free download)

Thinking Like A Scientist has been taught to rural working-class White high schoolers, inner-city African American and Latino youth (at a magnet high school and technical school), urban Catholic School students, 4-H youth of all ethnicities participating in a summer program at Cornell University, and middle-class high schoolers in Ithaca, New York. The project leaders are interested in finding teachers to help expand the program into new schools and communities. Participation can range from teaching self-selected portions of the program and providing feedback to the program's authors at year's end, to teaching the full program (which includes tests, quizzes, and homework assignments which are shared with the project leaders at Cornell). Stipends are available for teachers who wish to help in the program’s evaluation and further development. If you are interested, please contact Principal Investigator and TLAS author Wendy M. Williams (607-255-2537) or graduate fellow and TLAS author Matthew C. Makel (607-255-0828), and visit the website for the Cornell Institute for Research on Children.


Learn about TLAS authors Wendy W. Williams and Matthew C. Makel.

Wendy M. Williams is a Professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University, where she studies the development, assessment, training, and societal implications of intelligence and related abilities. She holds Ph.D. and Master's degrees in psychology from Yale University, a Master's in physical anthropology from Yale, and a B.A. in English and biology from Columbia University, awarded cum laude with special distinction. Williams co-founded and co-directs the Cornell Institute for Research on Children (CIRC), a National-Science-Foundation-funded research and education center that commissions studies on societally-relevant topics and promotes education in psychology and social science through the Thinking Like A Scientist program. Williams also directed the joint Harvard-Yale Practical and Creative Intelligence for School Project, and she was Co-Principal Investigator for a six-year, $1.4 million Army Research Institute grant to study practical intelligence and success at leadership. In addition to dozens of articles and chapters on her research, Williams has authored eight books and edited three volumes, including The Reluctant Reader (sole authored), How to Develop Student Creativity (with Robert Sternberg), Escaping the Advice Trap (with Stephen Ceci)--which was reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today--and Practical Intelligence for School (with Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg, Tina Blythe, Noel White, and Jin Li). She also writes regular invited editorials for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Williams's research has been featured in Newsweek, Business Week, Science, Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Child Magazine, among other media outlets. She is series editor for The Lawrence Erlbaum Educational Psychology Series and she served on the Editorial Review Boards of the journals Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Applied Developmental Psychology, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, as well as the book publisher Magination Press (part of American Psychological Association Books).

In both 1995 and 1996 her research won first-place awards from the American Educational Research Association. Williams is a Fellow of four divisions of the American Psychological Association (general psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, and media psychology), and she is currently serving a second term as Member-at-Large of the executive committee of the Society for General Psychology (Division 1 of APA). She was also program chair and dissertation award committee chair for Divisions 1 (general psychology), 3 (experimental psychology), and 15 (educational psychology) of APA. Williams received the 1996 Early Career Contribution Award from Division 15 (educational psychology) of APA, and the 1997, 1999, and 2002 Mensa Awards for Excellence in Research to a Senior Investigator. In 2001, APA named her the sole recipient of the Robert L. Fantz Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology in recognition of her outstanding contributions to research in the decade following receipt of the Ph.D.


Matthew C. Makel is a graduate student in Human Development at Cornell University. His research interests include how social factors influence cognitive development in educational settings, gifted identification and programming, and education-outreach to underserved minority youth. Makel received his B.A. in Psychology from Duke University in 2002. While at Duke, Makel taught classes in psychology for the Talent Identification Program for gifted high school students from across the United States. At Cornell, he has assisted several professors with courses in psychology and human development. He is first author of the Thinking Like A Scientist educational program, on which he has taught stand-alone courses to local middle school students, 4-H youth from underserved populations, and high school students. Makel’s publications include an article on the Thinking Like A Scientist project, a book review on technology in education, and an article on the nature of talent. His current research includes an investigation of the influence of prospective student and parent attitudes on participation in gifted programs.