Photo By Bryan Sorrell

It’s only the second week of school and AP Psychology teacher Mr. Andrew Chestnut has already put them to work. He frequents hands-on activities, which the students say have carried over from his AP Human Geography days. Each one correlates to the vocab terms and concepts the class is attempting to learn. 

 “I’ve already memorized some of the definitions, and I didn’t even know that I could quote them like that,” said sophomore Kassidy Ejene. “Visual learning allows learners to create mental images of the information they are learning, which can help improve comprehension and retention”, said writer Beslan Bakriev in an article about visual learning. Bakriev continues to point out that visual aids provide a helpful stimulating experience that students can look back on to recall information. 

One at a time, the activity participants put on drunk-driving goggles, grabbed a broom, and attempted to push a tennis ball into a dustpan. The activity was meant to teach about control variables and control groups in experiments. These variables teach the students to better analyze articles, which is a huge part of what the class is about. 

“I really want to learn about how we can implement psychology into our daily lives,” said senior Scarlett Dano. This won’t be the only experiment that immerses the students in vocab terms and brain functions, as they still look forward to the other wonders of Mr. Chestnut’s classroom. 

Hands-on activities like this are just one of the ways AP Psychology is unique. “This one is definitely high in vocabulary and memorizing certain definitions. In APHUG (Human Geography), it was a lot more map work,” said Ejene. Although, many students report that compared to other AP’s, the class has significantly less work but the same number of credits. 

Mr. Chesnut has found a way to make learning memorable and interactive while thoroughly preparing his students for tests and college.