In addition to offering free KS3 and 4 Debate Kits the “I’m A Scientist” web site also features a dedicated Psychology Zone, funded by The British Psychological Society, (other Zones – Health, Helium and Molecule – are available should you be interested), the main purpose of which is to enable students to participate in short question-and-answer sessions with real, live, psychologists.
Each session lasts a maximum of 40-minutes and has to be booked in advance through the web site. This is free for schools, presumably because the Zones are sponsored. The one drawback here is that each Zone is only available at specific times during the year, with the next Psychology Zone scheduled for June 2022.
The session includes some suggested Lesson Plans that help teachers and students understand the general process and all Chat is moderated by the site. Only students registered with your class can participate in each Chat session and a transcript of all the questions asked – and their answers – is available for download at the end of the session.
While the Zone is up-and-running, which typically seems to be for about a month at a time, your students can submit follow-up questions through the site, participate in any after-school Chats that have been arranged (these are open to all participating students, not just the ones in your class, but they are fully-moderated) and vote for their Scientist of the Week (who can win a £500 prize – presumably for being the most-helpful / charming / amusing – I’m not sure, really).
Finally, at the end of the Zone run the student who asked the best question wins a gift voucher. How this works I have no idea but it’s probably worth it if you win.
