The 24-hour sleep-wake cycle is an example of a circadian rhythm. Have you ever experienced jet lag? Or felt disoriented when changing from a day shift to night shift at work

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  • Your post must be written in your own words 
  • When you refer to sources, use APA format citations (in-text citations and a reference list; see the APA resources in Canvas)
  • Respond to 2 other students’ posts. Your responses have no specific length requirements, but you need to refer to something in the student’s post, showing that you read it (something like “I agree” or “Interesting!” is not enough for the points). If you respond to a student that initially responded to you, that also counts as one of your responses (the idea is obviously to generate discussion here)

GRADING:

10 points for your own post: You get the full points if you respond to questions 1 and 2 with at least 10 sentences for each part. Your opinions, ideas and experiences are not graded for “accuracy”

REFLECTION TOPICS:

This week’s assignment has two parts: sleep and psychoactive drugs. Each part is 5 points: respond to both for the full 10 points. Both parts must be 10 sentences or more.

1. Sleep (5 points)

For part 1, pick ONE of the topics below (A or B) and respond to it with about 10 sentences or more: 

A) SLEEP-WAKE CYCLE

The 24-hour sleep-wake cycle is an example of a circadian rhythm. Have you ever experienced jet lag? Or felt disoriented when changing from a day shift to night shift at work? Or felt groggy from spending a lot of the day in the dark? Been sleep-deprived for various reasons? What was your experience, how did it feel? Sources are not required, but if you refer to sources, cite them in APA format as always.

OR:

B) SLEEP DISORDERS

Research a sleep disorder and report what you discovered. If you have personal experiences or know someone who suffers from a sleep disorder, feel free to discuss your experiences or observations. If you have tried or heard about possible treatments or tips for what helps with insomnia or other sleep disorders, you can discuss those too. If you cite a source, use APA format as always.

2. Psychoactive drugs (5 points; respond with about 10 sentences or more)

Pick a psychoactive drug (e.g. marijuana, alcohol, heroin, LSD or some other hallucinogenic drug, anesthetic drugs etc.) and investigate its effects on the brain and consciousness. Cite at least one reliable outside source using APA format. Report about how the drug affects the brain and what its primary psychological effects are. Feel free to discuss other interesting information about the drug (history, medical use, legal issues, cultural or religious use, etc.)

Alternatively, pick another type of activity that potentially alters consciousness (e.g. hypnosis, meditation), and investigate its effects on the brain, cognition and consciousness. Cite at least one reliable outside source using APA format.

If you want, check out this Mouse Party (link below): select a mouse, drag it to the chair and view the brain effects of the drug that the mouse has taken (this all makes sense when you go through the exercise!). Mouse Party used to require Flash which is no longer supported. It didn’t function for a while, but now it’s back. I noticed that it was easiest to use this new version with Internet Explorer. Firefox worked too, and Chrome was the hardest although it worked after multiple tries. I had some trouble placing the mouse on the chair, but it succeeded when I dropped the mouse right on top of the right side of the chair. Play around with it and see if you can view it:

Describe any barriers you may need to overcome to be successful and identify individuals who can assist you within your personal support system (e.g., family, friends) and professional network (e.g., classmates, colleagues, other professionals you know from LinkedIn or general life).

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Careers in Early Childhood Education Reflection

In our course so far you have been informed about potential careers and considered your personal career aspirations. Knowing which area in the field or career you want to pursue is an important first step to tackling your job search and career goals. However, simply identifying an ideal position will not propel you to achieve these goals. To successfully attain your goals, there are action steps for you to take and Ashford University has a Career Services program to support you in this exploration! For this reflective assignment, you will explore the requirements for your potential career path, assess your current skill set in regard to curriculum planning, and identify what action steps you can take to make your career goals more attainable. Take these steps to prepare your journal response:

Next, create your journal using the instructions below.

  • Career Goals: State your long-term career goals, noting what position you would like to be in in one to five years from now and the specific role you would like to pursue for your career.
  • Qualifications: Explore the skills and qualifications related to the type of role you’re aspiring to and describe the qualifications you have already achieved and what new skills, knowledge, certifications, or trainings you might need to gain employment in your desired role.
  • Action Plan: Describe how this course has assisted you already with regards to curriculum planning and reaching your career goals. In this section, also state the additional action steps you will need to take to be fully qualified for the position you would like to pursue and state reasonable timelines for each action step.
  • Resources: Reflect on what resources that you have currently to support you. Describe any barriers you may need to overcome to be successful and identify individuals who can assist you within your personal support system (e.g., family, friends) and professional network (e.g., classmates, colleagues, other professionals you know from LinkedIn or general life).

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal entries.

Assignment

Assessment Data to Guide Practice

As you learned from our discussion this week about informal assessments and from the required readings in the text, using informal assessments to guide curriculum planning and instructional decisions allows educators to best support children’s specific strengths and needs, as explained in the Jaruszewicz (2012) text, developmentally appropriate approaches to assessment include a comprehensive, systematic, and focused look at each and every child’s specific learning and development. In this assignment you have an opportunity to explore informal assessments further in relation to the use of data to drive the creation and delivery of those assessments.

Consider the following data for “Anna Smith” as a frame of reference for this assignment: You are an educator that has collected assessment data on a child, Anna Smith, in your program or classroom and now must create a curriculum plan based on the assessment data. Next, review the Week Three Instructor Guidance for additional help with this assignment and review the multimedia resources for Anecdotal Records, the Rating Scale, and the Checklist. Finally, use the instructions below to guide your creation of your curriculum plan for Anna Smith based on the assessment data in the resources. Remember to review the Grading Rubric associated with this assignment to understand how you will be evaluated. It is recommended you use the labels below as headings throughout your writing to organize sections (Tip: These would all be APA level-one headings.)

Instructions

  • Introduction (0.5 Points): Write a succinct introduction that informs the reader of the topic of the assignment and its organization. Remember, an effective essay introduction tells the reader what you will say.
  • Assessment Observations (3 Points): In one to two paragraphs, describe the observations that you made from the data on Anna Smith using several examples from the assessments.
  • Child Observations (3 Points): In three to four paragraphs, describe the strengths and areas of opportunity (i.e., weaknesses) for Anna Smith based on the assessment data.

  • Short-Term Goal (3 Points): In three to four paragraphs, explain three specific instructional decisions for a short-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.
  • Long-Term Goal (3 Points): In one to two paragraphs, explain one specific long-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.
  • Conclusion (0.5 Points): Write a succinct conclusion that informs the reader of the main points from the assignment. Remember, an effective essay conclusion tells the reader what you have said in a summary.
  • Length Requirement (0.25 Points): Two to three pages, not including the title and references pages.
  • APA Formatting (0.25 Points): Use APA formatting, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center, consistently throughout the assignment, which includes citations in the body of the assignment, the title page, and references list.
  • Source Requirement (0.25 Points): Reference three scholarly sources in addition to the text.
  • Syntax and Mechanics (0.25 Points): Display meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Write a research proposal for a feasibility report. The audience is whoever will be funding your research. This will be an unsolicited proposal and can be either an internal or an external report.

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Write a research proposal for a feasibility report. The audience is whoever will be funding your research. This will be an unsolicited proposal and can be either an internal or an external report. You must convince someone that a problem exists and that he or she should fund your research to discover a solution.

N.B.: You are asking someone for money to look into a problem (the big report). You do not need to come up with a solution to that problem yet. Your task here is convince your audience to FUND YOUR RESEARCH. Add an abstract at the beginning of your proposal.

Use the form in Markel’s Structure section (pp. 428-35 [10th 449-56]). Include the following items:

1. Summary(Abstract)

2. Introduction (give background about your problem here)

3. Proposed Program (this is NOT your solution!–save that for your big rpt. . . .

Instead, here talk about your problem and your plan for researching it. Include:

Methods–how you’ll look into it . . . and . . .

Resources–what items you’ll need to do your rsch.– for instance, office space, library budget,

a staff asst., perhaps a new computer, paper, ink, etc.)

4. Qualifications and Experience (why you are the best person to look into this problem)

5. Budget (be detailed/specific; be realistic about costs–this is where dollar amounts should go)

6. appropriate Appendices (include a Task Schedule here; a References sect. is not necessary)

Set the proposal up as a report, not as a memo. (It will be double spaced.) Your proposal will be similar to the sample on pp.436-42 [10th 457-62], but keep in mind that some sections will differ, since you are writing a grant proposal. Note that the sample does not follow the order listed above.

For grading criteria, refer to the writer’s checklist on p. 443 [10th 463]. You will also be responsible for having narrowed your topic sufficiently and for addressing a real-world problem with cost-benefit analysis.

–Length will vary, depending on amount

of preliminary research and other considerations (Avg.= 6-7 pp.)

 

Design a correlational study to investigate the relationship between these two variables. What is your hypothesis? How will you operationally define and measure the two variables?

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Discussion 1 Research Study Activity
In each of the following cases, identify which experimental design was used and why the researcher may have chosen that design.

  1. In order to compare the effectiveness of two different types of therapy for depression, depressed patients were assigned to receive either cognitive therapy or behavior therapy for a 12-week period. The researchers attempted to ensure that the patients in the two groups had a similar severity of depressed symptoms by administering a standardized test of depression to each participant, then pairing them according to the severity of their symptoms.
  2. To assess the difference in reading comprehension between 7 and 9-year-olds, a researcher recruited a group of each from a local primary school. They were given the same passage of text to read, and then asked a series of questions to assess their understanding.
  3. To assess the effectiveness of two different ways of teaching reading, a group of 5-year-olds were recruited from a primary school. Their level of reading ability was assessed, and then they were taught using scheme one for 20 weeks. At the end of this period, their reading was reassessed, and a reading improvement score was calculated. They were then taught using scheme two for a further 20 weeks and another reading improvement score for this period was calculated. The reading improvement scores for each child were then compared.
  4. In order to assess the effect of organization on recall, a researcher randomly assigned student volunteers to two conditions. Condition one attempted to recall a list of words that were organized into meaningful categories; condition two attempted to recall the same words, randomly grouped on the page.

Discussion 2 Conducting Research Activity
Pick one research topic and answer the following questions.

Research Topic #1: The relationship between audience members' opinions of a movie and their mood.

Research Topic #2: The relationship between the amount of time couples spend together and their relationship satisfaction.

Research Topic #3: The relationship between self-esteem and test performance.

Research Topic #4: The relationship between time spent listening to Heavy/Speed Metal music and aggression.

Directions:

  • Design a correlational study to investigate the relationship between these two variables. What is your hypothesis? How will you operationally define and measure the two variables?
  • How will you obtain a random sample of participants?
  • Assume that your study produces a correlation of .56 between the two variables (between liking the movie and audience members’ happiness). What are at least three possible causal explanations for this relationship?
  • Now design an experimental study to investigate these variables. What is your hypothesis? What type of hypotheses does the experimental method allow you to test that the correlational method does not?
  • What is your independent variable? What is your dependent variable?
  • How will you make sure that the study has high internal validity? Will you use random assignment to conditions?
  • Do any ethical concerns about the treatment of participants emerge from your experimental design?

Discussion 3  Research Study Discussion

Much of today’s research in Psychology comes from colleges and universities. Research your college or a near-by state institution and identify one current study that is under way. Provide a brief overview of the research and whether or not the findings of that research would be of value to you someday.

Discussion 4  Personality Disorder Activity

The traits associated with personality disorders are often prototypes of characters in book, movies, and television. Pick three characters from a book, a movie, TV show or a video game with personality disorders. For each, complete the following:

Describe the character, the situation and the disorder.
Describe the traits of that disorder.
Identify the traits of what the character does or says that indicates the disorder