Taking a trip down memory lane, AP Psychology students are making a scrapbook of their lives from the past, present, and even the future as part of the development psychology unit. Students will learn how their pasts have shaped their presents, and how the presents will shape the future.

“We’re going over development and the stages that you go through as a human being,” Johannes said. “So each student is coming up with a photo scrapbook of their life. But many kids don’t remember a lot of their childhoods so they have to go talk to their parents and then relate it to psychology. It’s easy to put a photo in a scrapbook but what does that mean about who you are as a person today.” 

While remembering one’s childhood may be difficult, sophomore Tierany Scott believes another part of this project is as well.

“The scrapbook is basically about recording your life through pictures, interviews, and stories so you can reflect on them,” Scott said. “The difficult part of this project is being able to find information that applies to our psychology terms in this unit. We were so little we just don’t remember much of ourselves when we were younger, especially not enough to apply it. So we have to ask the people who were there and explain it through psychology and photos.”

Johannes also believes that also learning about a parent’s parenting style will teach students about themselves. 

“Student’s have to interview the people who raised them and see how their parents taught them and how they taught them to be human beings,” Johannes said. 

For sophomore Annaliese Burkle, this unconventional project is an entertaining way to learn the unit. 

“The fun part about this unit will be interviewing my parents, because I have a lot of questions I want to ask them,” Burkle said. “It’s really interesting to learn about how parents can affect you and the rest of your life. It’s important remembering where you came from as well as who we are now, and this project gives us some insight to that.”