Psychologist as Educator: Precapstone in Communicating Science through Public Engagement

Translating scientific knowledge is a vital public service, and there is a large body of psychological and social science research that can have positive effects in people's lives, such as the psychology of learning and habit change, positive psychology and improving well-being, psycho-education, and avoiding cognitive biases and logical fallacies. However, there are many barriers to effective education of the often technical and complex outputs of scientific research. In this course, we explore principles of learning and education, common barriers to understanding, effective teaching methods, and modes of communication in the modern world. During this course students devise, workshop, and revise a proposed capstone project. A successful proposal for a capstone project is an academic paper that highlights the need for your project and establishes a plan for your project's implementation. A capstone project includes two components: the project prototype and the academic report. The prototype is a specific product designed to address a real-world problem. Prototypes can take a variety of forms (for example, an in-person workshop, online training, publishable article, application, informational website, book, or printable materials). Capstone projects build on specific interests of each student and are developed in consultation with the instructor.