AP psych students make a zombie run for test review

By: Annebeth Ahrenholz

Melissa Rogers’ AP psychology classes are studying for a test in a new way. As they finish up their unit on the parts and functions of the brain, they have been testing out a technological twist to reviewing for the test.

Rogers’ is trying out the app Aurasma, which is the industry-leading augmented reality app that lets users create and share their own augmented reality experiences.

How the app works is she took a picture of something in the school, such as a bulletin board or vending machine, and she then hooked it up to the app so that once the students put their phones over those places, it showed a clue.

Each of these different clues, spread throughout the school, helped students in reviewing for the test.

She got the idea from a facebook group of other psychology teachers, and she said she thinks it is a useful new way to actively learn and review information.

“Once I work out the kinks and figure out something that doesn’t have a glare, it will be better,” she said.

“I thought this way of studying was amazing. We got to use a real life application to see how the brain would respond in our everyday lives. Well, actually, it’s how the brain would react during a zombie apocalypse. Even though we were supposed to keep it civilized, my group ended up doing more of a zombies vs. humans, where we chased each other around the school but learned first-hand how each part of the brain would work while running for our lives. Even though this was a little deviant, Mrs. Rogers managed to teach us in a significant way because I learned so much from this experience,” senior Andrew Nurse said.