AP Psychology Resources for Unit 2 Biological Bases

 Once you've set up your course and laid the solid foundation that is Unit 1 Scientific Foundations, it's time to take a bit of a turn into a more anatomy-focused unit.  One that I've always called "sciency" because of the focus on, well, science.

It's easy to get trapped in the tunnel of "What do I cover?  What don't I cover?"... more like a black hole you could spend three weeks in.

My biggest advice is to be sure you are focused on the standards as laid out by College Board's CED, and don't stray too far from that because then, you're just wasting time.

As with the first unit, I want to provide you AP psychology activities and resources in hopes that you get to focus your time elsewhere in being effective with your students - you are the number one influence on their learning after all.  So let's get to it.

Unit 2: Biological Bases

Whereas Unit 1 was focused on history and the mathematical basis of psychological research, Unit 2 is focused on the biological science of psychology.  The students have a lot of anatomy and functions they need to know, and the best way to get them to master these standards is with practice and application.

Practice

When I say practice, I really mean challenged or tested.  The best way to know if you ready for a test is to take a test - meaning, get rid of your notes or textbook, don't look up anything, it's just you and your brain... do you know it or not?!?

After providing the content of each major topic of the unit (which I lay out in a Unit Guide with all notes, reading guides, activities, and assessments in my AP Psychology Teacher Membership), students need to "test" their knowledge.  

With the Neuron, students have the option of how they essentially build a neuron, my favorite being the human neuron where they use their team and designated props to display neural communication (again, that activity is provided the membership).  With the Nervous and Endocrine systems, students simulate a stressful scenario with "Nervous Nellie" or "Endocrine Eddie."  Finally, with the brain, students use a drag and drop activity (linked below) that tests the basic placement and functions of each part of the brain.

Get students talking out loud to each other about the biological bases by testing their knowledge and remembering what does what and what goes where... then build upon that with application.

Application

This one is HUGE!  The reason being because CollegeBoard states that the FRQ WILL be application of concepts throughout the course.  What better way to get kids applying than to provide research and case studies (research being a previous unit, but one that you should revisit frequently due to its significance on the AP Exam in May) that students have to work through and discuss?

A book I use often in my psychology classroom is 40 Studies That Changed Psychology.  The article on the split brain procedure is a good one - it's long, so you could probably just use excerpts, but I like the visuals and the reading students need to work through.

Besides that, you really could just Google various topics and find some great stuff.  One patient I reference in the slides I link below is Patient H.M., a man who had his hippocampus removed in an attempt to help his severe epilepsy.

No matter if you find a case study or if you make one up, make sure students are writing about them and you are at least glancing at them to provide quick feedback on students understanding and writing.  It's great FRQ practice, but you can't make the practice too long, then it's not really practice, and it's just not manageable.

Resources & Support

I want to help you hit the ground running with biological bases resources, and AP psychology activities that will resonate with your students and help you focus on building relationships, rather than building slides and activities.  Check out each of my resources, each linked to my store and where you can find them, below.

Teacher/Lecture SLIDES!  Phew, yaaaaaas!  What would normally take you an INSANE amount of hours to produce.  Rest in having these at your fingertips (make sure to check out some speaker notes I include here and there ahead of time).  My goal in making these slides available to you is so that concepts are clearly conveyed and students feel pretty solid in their understanding because of the simplicity of the slides.

Also see the STUDENT notes (like guided notes) that accompany those slides.  They include images that are also in the slides so that students can see on paper exactly what they are learning about up on the screen in your classroom- this is super important when learning about the anatomical aspects of biological bases of psychology.  I give them space to think and ponder - the goal being that each page is FULL of their thoughts.  And that really should be your measure of quality note taking.  And, yes, I think that should some how be accounted for in a student's grade or formative check in working toward the test.  I explain more in my AP Psych Teacher Membership.

Now, depending on what textbook you use, I hope you can use these Reading Guides.  They correspond with Myer's Psychology for AP 1st edition.  I am working on getting updated versions of the textbook, but until then, I do include a Google Doc version on these slides linked in the PDF so that you can edit the page numbers as necessary.

But you'll need some AP Psychology activities to really back up what you are teaching through lecture and direct instruction, as well as what students are learning from their reading.  These biological bases activities focus on "testing"- meaning testing one's knowledge of what they've been learning.

Although this doesn't comprise a complete unit plan (although I do provide that in my monthly AP Psychology Teachers Membership), I hope it is a great place to start for you and your classroom.  I hope that you are able to not worry about the basic materials, which then gives you time to focus on building relationships with students and helping them better understand the material at hand.

Lastly, be sure to catch this quick workbook where I walk through 10 ways to get your AP Psych class set up in really effective ways you can be sure will have measurable impact on the students in your classroom.

Be sure to give me a follow on Instagram where you'll find some teacher and psychology specific inspiration, as well as follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store so you know when I post new materials.

I hope you are having a fantastic year with your students where you find your efforts effective, and your time used wisely so that you can have balance both professionally and personally.

All my best,