CogSci Inc. Lesson Plan
Designing a class on adverse childhood experience using cognitive and multimedia principles
As part of our final project for Foundations of Cognitive Science class, we were tasked to design a lesson plan for learners above the age of sixteen on a topic of our choice. Working with a group of other NYU students, we designed a lesson plan on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
What is Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)?
ACEs are potentially traumatic experiences that could occur in a child’s life before they turned eighteen. It is both a sensitive topic and one that needs to be discussed about. In designing our lesson plan, we leveraged on a series of cognitive and multimedia principles to make sure that the lesson is effective. This includes applying Bloom’s revised Taxonomy, the theories we learned about in class as well as redesigning an existing multimedia material on ACEs to support the lesson delivery.
Throughout the course of working on the project, my main role focuses on bringing together the visuals that we will use throughout the lesson plan.
Our lesson kicks off with an advance organizer. An advance organizer is a catalyst for change. Following Mayer’s principles, the goal of an organizer is to provide learners with the means to generate logical relationships between the information that they’re learning. Keeping this in mind, there were two design decisions that we made. The first is choice of visual. ACEs is a sensitive topic, so we need to be mindful that representation that we chose doesn’t trigger learners in a negative way. What we need to do instead is help learners make the connection between ACEs and its impact on human development. This is why we chose a picture of a tree. Visually, a tree represents growth. The growth of a tree is also highly dependent on the environment it is planted on.
Our intention is that by showing this picture, learners will be able generate questions around what and why ACEs can impact a person’s growth. To help learners understand the cause and effect of ACEs and its surrounding factors, we propose to use contrasting cases. Following Bransford’s recommendation, contrasting cases help learners notice and differentiate the relevance of new information. This is why we plan on showing two types of trees; one whose growth is hindered by bugs, and another that flourishes from being watered. The bugs represent risk factors, while the water represents protective factors. We hoped by showing this picture, learners will be able to inspired to reflect upon the different factors in that affects ACEs and how it could be treated.
The final redesigned storyboard:
Fundamentally, the goal of our redesign video is to help learners reflect and generate ideas on a sensitive subject and to build schema representation on the impact of ACEs on human development. The principles that we apply help us manage cognitive load of learners and to make sure that the information we presented are sequenced in a way that can help learners build better connection between conceptual knowledge.
Acknowledgements:
Courses
EDCT-GE 2174 Foundations of Cognitive Science
Professor
Yoav Bergner
Team Members
TzuChin Chen
Tanya Smith-Sreen
Athia Fadhlina
Tanya Smith-Sreen
Athia Fadhlina