Social Experiments?

Question

Any suggestions as to a social experiment that can be used in a high school classroom setting? I know this is an open ended question, but any easily applied experiments will be accepted. I'll take any Internet links that would help with this. Thanks.

Answer 1

Place an egg on your desk. Prop it up somehow. Tell the class as long as that egg doesn't get broken before the end of the school year. Everyones grade will be increased. Example: B to an A. Or some other reward. Watch them band together as a group to protect this egg. But inevitably or on purpose by you when the time is right. Break that egg. Then have everyone write a paper on why the egg is broken and how did it make them feel. After it's over maybe let them in on the fact it was a social experiment. You can still give the extra credit for the learning experience and torturing their emotions. You should have fun too. =)

Answer 2

Try this. This test is a test for social conformity- something that highschool kids are notorious for.
You will need: 1 student as a secret co-conspirator. pick a kid that is either popular or really smart.
Draw three lines on the board of exact equal length. Try to draw the lines small and far apart vertically. Tell your students that this is a visual acquity test- or some crap like that.
Ask the students to come to a conclusion as a group about which is the longest line. Tell them that if they get it right as a group then the whole class gets extra credit.
Your class will immediatley say they are all the same. This is when your secret student starts. Your secret student's job is to say that one of the lines is longer than all of the others knowing that they are all the same.
Make sure that your secret student keeps insisting that the one line is longer and eventually one kid is bound to take his or her side. Once one student changes thier mind, watch the effect that it starts to have on the opinions of the other students.
See how far the experiment goes, how many kids change thier mind despite what thier eyes are showing them?
When you end the experiment you should facilitate a discussion with your students. Ask why some students changed thier minds and introduce the concept of conformity. good luck.

Answer 3

That really does depend on the subject at hand and the lesson you are trying to teach.

One of my favorite deals with racism: the class is brought together and each student is given a "race" (black, white, asian, latino), sealed in an envelope. All the students of that race must stay in their neighborhood (quadrants of the classroom marked off with masking tape), with offenders being thrown in "jail" by the "cops" (one or two non-participating students). Each group is given a set amount of money, with the "white" group getting the most, the "asian" group get the next most, "the "black" group receiving the second least, and the "latino" group receiving the least. The purpose of the exercise is to use this money to build up their neighborhood--using buildings sold by the "bank" (which, incidentally, is a "white" group business)--to the point where it is self-sustaining and capable of supporting its residents. The ultimate agenda of the experiment is to see if any of the groups--without being told--will join together by pulling up their boundary tape and pool their resources to buy better facilities and services. (This almost never happens.)

I hopes this help. You can always look up "social experiments" or "teaching aides" in your search engine to find more ideas.

Answer 4

There is a simple thing you can do in your classroom.

Ask everyone to sit in a circle. Then start by telling the one sitting next to you a message.

Each person who hears this message must pass it on to the person sitting next to them.

The last person to hear the message must tell everyone what it is.

Does what they say match what you said to the first person?

This is the anomaly of history! What happened yesterday is not the what we know today!

Answer 5

Try "paying it forward", do really good things for three other people and request each do the same.

Answer 6

study a ripple effect of when someone talks, or keep doing something loud in the class repetetively and see how many people notice