On Friday, November 14th, I went to Friday is Writing Day.  Here, Developmental Psychology students discussed the work that they had done throughout the semester.  There were a variety of different projects that students covered, ranging from an essay over what things the student learned from their parents and how it applied to developmental psychology to a simulation which raised a virtual child from birth until age eighteen.

The first student gave his presentation over the things his parents taught him while he was a child.  He talked about how many of the things that he had learned in his developmental psych class, including how to be firm without being domineering.

The next student did a series of interviews with people in different stages of their lives, a child, an adult, and an elderly person.  The goal of the paper was to record perspectives on life from people all across the age spectrum.  The child he interviewed was very optimistic about the future, and the adult was worried about what world his children would be growing up in.  The old man who was interviewed was more focused on the things which would directly and immediately impact his life, rather than the broad picture.

Lastly, a student gave their presentation over the challenges associated with raising a virtual child.  The student used an online simulator to raise a child from birth to the age of eighteen.  Using the methods she learned in class, the student chose to use an authoritarian style of parenting, focusing on strong leadership and explanations for punishments.

While these presentations didn’t directly relate to this class, they, like the staff writing discussed in a previous campus event journal, showed a variety of different ways to communicate and learn.