AP Psychology Extra Credit Mr.

Duez Atascocita High Brain Unit Projects

1. Create an Edible Brain

You and/or your study group are in a contest with other class members to create, using any edible medium, the best brain. You will need to label the various parts and their respective functions. Effectively illustrate all of the parts or regions (see complete list below), and show the brain from two different perspectives a whole brain and sliced brain perspective. Your brain should be a minimum of twice the size of the actual human brain. Brain parts/regions: 1. Brainstem medulla (oblongata) cerebellum amygdala 2. Hypothalamus cerebral cortex basal ganglia pons 3. Frontal lobes parietal lobes occipital lobes 4. Temporal lobes motor cortex sensory cortex Brocas area 5. Wernickes area corpus callosum 6. Pituitary gland thalamus optic chiasm pineal gland 7. Hippocampus ventricles limbic system 8. Reticular activating system (RAS)/reticular formation angular gyrus association areas

2. Hemispheric Collage
Create a collage of advertisements that seem to appeal to the left hemisphere, to the right hemisphere, or to both hemispheres. You will need 5 advertisements for each category (left, right, and both) with captions for each advertisement. These captions should explain why you selected the advertisement and how it appeals to the respective hemisphere or to both hemispheres. You may do this with TV commercials just be sure to include a description of the commercial itself with the caption. You could even create it in video format. Be sure to include text in the video to describe each. Use your creativity to display your collection of advertisements (or commercials). You should have a total of 15 advertisements/commercials in all with 15 captions.

3. Sketching Your Brain

Your overall task is to sketch your brain based on the thoughts that you have on a daily basis. It must include: 1. List all of the things that you think about during the course of a normal day. 2. Assign percentages to each of these items that reflect how much time and cognitive energy is devoted to each item. Percentages should add up to 100%. 3. Sketch the outline of a normal brain, from a lateral perspective. 4. Fill your brain with your thoughts, devoting the appropriate amount of space to each thought based on the percentages determined in step 2. 5. Additionally, you should apply your knowledge of brain anatomy by determining where within the brain these thoughts might occur. [For example, if you devote a large amount of your day to thinking about TV (a visual activity), you might have a correspondingly large area in the rear of your brain devoted to TV, as this is where the occipital lobe is. 5. Color your brains so that these distinct thoughts (and regions) are highlighted.