Intellectual Sprawl

I primarily teach 12th graders; somewhere else on campus, they were given the opportunity to write a short note, and several chose to write to me. These are exceedingly kind, and I make note of them here only so that in darker days, I can look back on them.

"I've had so much fun in your class this year. My highlight of the day was always [Cognitive] psych and neuro because it has always been such a safe and fun classroom environment."

"I wanted to write… to thank you for everything you did for me in class in the first semester. Your class was the only reason I came to school. Seriously, I would look forward to fifth period so much and have never been more interested in a class before."

"Your realness and honesty is so appreciated."

"Thank you for being such an amazing teacher… You made everything so interesting while also making us feel supported."

Castro, E.E. (2026). Generative AI, Psychotherapy, and Secondary Education. In I. Katzarska-Miller, M. Jackson, and M. Fortner (Eds.) Integrating Generative AI in Psychology Courses (pp. 94–102). Society for the Teaching of Psychology. https://teachpsych.org/ebooks/genai

And my abstract:

Watching the Crew-kids practice was thoroughly impressive! The precision movements required reminded of the micro-movements of golf, paired with the coordination of synchronized swimming or cheer, paired with the strength of rugby. Really, it was thoroughly impressive to watch!

November Goal

On November 4, 2025, I submitted the following:

I will evaluate the effectiveness of transitioning from in-class, timed, weekly quizzes to at-home checks-for-understanding by conducting correlation analysis between students' formal assessment scores (ie, Midterms & Final) and their check-for-understanding performance to determine the impact on content recall and mastery. I'll use Pearson's correlation coefficient to see the relationship between students' self-check scores and their score on the Final Exam

Classes had started in mid-August, and for the first two chapters I had gone with the plan that I developed over the summer, in which students would complete an in-class quick-write in Lockdown Browser, based on the assigned chapter. This eliminated the chance of students using generative AI, and maximized the probability that their score on these formative assessments were an accurate measure of what students know and are able to do. But based on… students’ feedback… after the first two chapters and in-class quick-writes, I changed to the at-home self-checks.

December Analysis

Regular coursework has largely concluded at the point of this analysis (Dec 10, 2025). Few students will be taking the Final exam next week seriously, and so the analysis here will compare students’ Chapter-based self-check quiz scores against their two Midterm exam scores. 

There are two things to keep in mind regarding this analysis. First, our Social Science courses are offered in both Honors and non-honors format. All instruction and in-class activities are undifferentiated; the differentiation is in the formative and summative assessments. Second, the formative assessment “self-checks” allow unlimited attempts. Generally speaking students score the maximum number of points after four- to six-attempts on each of the eight chapter-based self-checks. Though the self-checks are graded on accuracy because of the unlimited attempts allowed, this is functionally a completion-based assignment. This, for the analysis below, rather than comparing self-check scores to midterm scores, I will instead compare by completion-rate.

The research question thereby becomes: "Does consistent engagement with low-stakes practice predict performance on high-stakes exams?"

For each group (Honors/ non-honors), the following was calculated:

Mean midterm scores for "completers" vs. "non-completers"

Sample sizes and standard deviations

An independent-samples t-test (Welch's, which doesn't assume equal variances)

Cohen's d effect size, which tells you the practical magnitude of the difference

Behavioral-Neuroscience

A Cohen's d of ~0.4 means that completing the self-checks is associated with roughly a 0.4 standard deviation improvement in midterm scores. In practical terms, if the midterm SD is around 15 points, completers scored about 5-6 points higher on average (which translates to a course grade 5-6% higher). At half-a-letter grade for the course, that's noticeable but not transformative.

This doesn't mean self-checks are ineffective or that I should abandon them and return to the original in-class quick-writes. A few important caveats:

Correlation ≠ causation. Conscientious students both complete self-checks and study more effectively elsewhere. The self-checks might just be a proxy for general engagement rather than the cause of better performance.

The unlimited attempts issue. Students can click through repeatedly until they hit 100%. This decouples the self-check score from actual learning—a student who struggles, reviews, and retakes thoughtfully looks identical in your gradebook to one who just guesses repeatedly until they pass.

Ceiling compression. Most of my "completers" cluster near 100%, which limits the ability to detect a dose-response relationship between how much someone learned from self-checks and their exam scores.

NeuroPsych TL;DR

Students who consistently completed the self-checks scored higher on midterms than those who didn't — and this held for both Honors and Regular sections. The relationship is statistically significant and in the expected direction.

Social-Cognitive Psychology

Something different and interesting is happening with the CogPsych students; they seem to be using the self-checks differently. 

Honors (d = 0.89): A large effect. For these students, even moderate engagement with self-checks is strongly associated with exam performance. This is the clearest evidence that the self-checks "matter."

Regular (d = 0.05): Essentially no effect. Completion vs. non-completion at the 60% threshold tells me almost nothing about how Regular students performed on midterms.

Honors students may be engaging in genuine retrieval practice: reviewing mistakes, spacing attempts, treating it as study. Regular students may be more likely to click through for completion credit without the reflective component that drives learning.

CogPsych TL;DR

I, again, asked students to choose a political issue that was important to them, think of how it intersects with their study of psychology, research this issue, and write a letter to their elected representatives, sharing their policy or funding hopes. This assignment resulted in 471 letters being written and sent to various local, state, and federal politicians.

I am just interested in developing a habit of civic engagement, and I am in no way interested in what their policy or funding requests are. But, I am curious as to the general topic these 17- and 18-year-olds chose to write about. Feeding their letters into Claude for thematic analysis, I got those following.

1. School-Based Mental Health Services (~11-12 letters)

Students wrote extensively about the need for more counselors, psychologists, and mental health professionals in schools. They referenced specific bills like the PEER Mental Health Act (H.R. 1448), Senate Bill 224 (Mental Health Support in Schools Act), Senate Bill 531, and H.R. 5557. Students emphasized inadequate counselor-to-student ratios and the need for early intervention.

2. Mental Health/Healthcare Access and Affordability (General) (~11-12 letters)

Many students advocated for broader mental health coverage and affordability, addressing issues like insurance coverage for mental health treatment, Medicaid expansion, Medicare reimbursement rates, and reducing financial barriers to therapy and counseling services.

3. Social Media Impact on Youth Mental Health (~9 letters)

A significant number of students wrote about the harmful effects of social media on teenagers, including anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. They supported legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the Stop the Scroll Act, and called for stronger regulations, warning labels, and age verification systems on social media platforms.

4. Immigration Reform and Mental Health (~7 letters)

Students connected immigration policies to mental health, focusing on the psychological trauma of family separation, the need for family unity, and access to mental health services for immigrant families. They referenced bills like the Reuniting Families Act and Assembly Bill 495.

5. Veterans Mental Health Services (~5 letters)

Students advocated for expanded mental health care for veterans, addressing PTSD, depression, housing instability, and the need for better VA services, including methadone clinics and outreach programs.

6* Social-Cognitive Psychology lesson on observational learning from September 3, 2025.

Began with a review worksheet on classical and operant conditioning, which had been the previous meeting's topic; this in-class check-for-understanding allowed students to work in a small group (or, as can be seen, individually). Then there was lecture on Bandura's research on observational learning. And finally a demonstration of Bandura's four stages of observational learning wherein students watched a video of me folding a paper airplane, which they copied — and then tested in a nearby open space (the observation deck).

This is how I would like many of the our class period's to go: there is individual work and small group work; there is direct instruction reinforcing key elements from the assigned readings; and there is a personal experience for students of the psychological principles being learned. It doesn't always work out that way though. There is a lot of material in a cognitive psychology class for high school students to learn; and not all of it can be experienced by students in a high school.

Years ago "full-time" meant four classes for faculty where I teach now. Then that was changed to five classes. Since starting at the school in 1998, our median class size has also increased. This year, I've finally had to change some instructional practices that were too costly in regards to time.

For example, when teaching four classes, a reading quiz in one of my psychology courses could be the following:

Grading these, however, was just too time-consuming when there are other demands – such as an added course, and, some semesters, three distinct courses to prep.

Since school let-out at the beginning of June, I've been debating as a summer project: moving this blog from Tumblr to Wordpress. Years ago, when I started this blog, I chose Tumblr because it allowed me to use my domain name with the blog for free. Other solutions cost extra money to use a personal domain, and since I was already paying for the domain, I didn't want to pay more… you know, being lowly school teacher

A student found this blog this past semester, and rather than remark on the contents of the blog at all, they just made a big deal about me having "a Tumblr."

Using Wordpress wouldn't change much from the current setup; I'd still be using the blog for the exact same things — it just wouldn't be branded by/ identifiable as "a Tumblr."

When summer hits and I'm no longer teaching, my brain rebels at its idleness, and so I often make up little tasks for myself. For example, one year, I decided to walk from our condo to every branch of the San Francisco Public Library. This year, I created a photo scavenger hunt of sorts for some online-friends. This is a Flickr-thing, really, but I share it here as an archive of my "work".

Flickr post:

Just living our lives, we end up in most parts of the City at some point. When you’re there, grab a nice photo of the baker’s dozen described below. There’s no need to add them to the GWSF pool, as these are not obscure City locations, and a bunch of people will be taking pictures of the same places. More details at the bottom

Thanks to SqueakyCleanDave for telling me about the Alley Cat races by the City’s bike messengers — that got me thinking of this.

It’s art

It might be the middle of June gloom as I write this, but you may only need a sweater at the first destination; it can be quite balmy. This outdoor gallery transforms a simple alley into political canvas.

I like raisin snails

Bring a coffee and a pastry to where the land ends, and think about Eduardo.

Not the destroyer of worlds

It doesn’t have a keyboard but this musical instrument does have one or more pipe divisions.

Crux immissa

The stars-and-stripes were raised at the City’s highest point to signal that the Civil War had ended with a Confederate surrender.

The Gruff Brothers' Former Pasture

This tiny summit — named for its former inhabitants — is home to California saxifrage, but we’ll miss its February to April-bloom

Heptad of saltwater sanctuaries

The ocean always reclaims its own, once the playground of a mining millionaire.

“What am I? A duck?”

Near Anthony R Grove High School, these elegant risers offer stunning bay views earned through cardio commitment.

1966 Sit-in to 1973 slide

A sign reads “No adults unless accompanied by children,” but if you’re just taking pictures, you won’t need cardboard, and you don’t need kids.

A simple park now but once quite Nobel

You might be looking for our forktail damselflies, our garter snakes, or a Mission Blue, but you’ll probably just see a lot of chert and greenstone

Our own Braceros program

Find the whimsical wooden sculptures carved by a former city gardener in this neighborhood park.

70-foot Gnomon

Thanks to Tony Hawk, this park is a real dish again

Any ceramic climb

These community art projects bloom with ceramics and volunteer hours throughout the City. Spend time at any of of them

Franklin’s idea, but Burnham’s gift to the neighborhoods

Some are Beaux-Arts, mine was just a leased storefront at 45 Leland Ave. Go to yours, or your favorite, or one of the 31 you haven’t been to yet (like the new kiosk?)

Quest Guidelines:

2025: Most of us have pictures of these locations in our archives, but for the purposes of this, please get a new picture :)

Documentation: Take a nice picture of/ at the general destination hinted at above

Reveal Strategy: Make your photos Public on/ around January 9, 2026, and tag them GWSFsidequests2025. On Saturday, January 10th, I’ll tally the entries and see who’s completed all the side quests

Since the Fall of 2019, I have been having students use PeerWise for their reading quizzes. They had a two-part assignment to complete at PeerWise for each chapter they read. First, they created original multiple-choice questions based on the chapter's content, and then they answered questions that had been developed by classmates.

The second part was just good old-fashioned low-stakes retrieval practice; they were graded on completion not on accuracy. It was the first part that I found the greatest educational benefit in. Actually writing multiple-choice questions that their classmates would respond to and rate, and authoring the explanations for the correct responses, was where the real learning reinforcement occurred. There was an added element of a leaderboard which ranked students by the number of questions authored, answered, accuracy when answering, and peer-rated quality of original questions, which motivated some students to do more than required.

Unfortunately, with generative AI, the best part of the assignment – students struggling to translate material they read in the textbook into a quiz question – is gone now. Students can simply have generative AI crank-out questions, and submit them as their own.

So, for next semester, I will no longer be using PeerWise, and instead will have a two-part assignment/ assessment for each chapter.

After students read the assigned chapter, first, they will complete a "Chapter X self-check." That will consist of five multiple-choice questions pulled from a bank, relating strictly to the content in the chapter. This will look like a quiz but it will not be in a secure testing environment (eg, Lockdown Browser for Canvas, which is what we use). Students will be able to retake the quiz as many times as they like until they get a score they're satisfied with. These are done outside of the classroom and class time.

The Genesis of an Idea

When we – Yosup Joo and I – designed the Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience course, we wanted it to be more than just memorizing vocabulary… which is what the AP Psychology course had been, largely. We wanted students to live the concepts they were studying. That's how I ended up assigning James Clear's "Atomic Habits" as a semester-long project — not just to read, but to implement.

The premise was simple: over 18 weeks, students would select, develop, and maintain a single habit while connecting their experience to neuroscience principles. What unfolded was far more complex and revealing than I anticipated.

The Assignment Structure

I divided the project into six parts, mirroring Clear's book:

Introduction & Part One: Students reflected on who they are versus who they want to become

Part Two - Make it Obvious: Implementation intentions and environmental design

Part Three - Make it Attractive: Temptation bundling and community support

Part Four - Make it Easy: The two-minute rule and friction reduction

Part Five - Make it Satisfying: Tracking and accountability

Part Six - Advanced Strategies: Personality alignment and long-term sustainability

Each submission required 3-4 paragraph responses, encouraging moderate reflection rather than surface-level reporting.

Linked here are the six assignments.

What the Students Taught Me

The Universal Struggle with Technology

Nearly 70% of my students identified procrastination as their primary challenge, with phone addiction as the universal villain. One student wrote with striking honesty: "Apps like Opal to reduce screen time are too easy to override, just like Apple's built-in time limit." This wasn't just a side issue—it was the issue that undermined nearly every other habit attempt.

The Power of Identity-Based Change

Students who grasped Clear's concept of identity-based habits showed remarkable insight. One wrote: "I want to become a person who is confident, kind, and resilient...someone who stays calm under pressure, trusts themselves." They weren't just trying to do things differently; they were trying to become someone different.

The Emotional Undercurrent

What surprised me most was the vulnerability in their responses. Behind the academic language were stories of:

Burnout: "I have been working hard for most of my entire life...but now I just feel so tired of it all"

Social anxiety: "I rarely raise my hand, even when I know the answer"

Self-doubt: "I frequently doubt my instincts and question whether I am making the right choices"

This wasn't just a habit-formation exercise; it was a window into their struggles with life, identity, and growing up.

For the complete analysis of student responses across all six assignments, see this summary by Claude.

What Worked Well

The Two-Minute Rule

This concept resonated universally. Students discovered that "the hardest part is honestly just starting," and the two-minute rule made that starting achievable. One student noted: "Usually, once I begin, I naturally keep writing more."

Environmental Design

Students who reorganized their physical spaces saw immediate results. Simple changes—moving phone chargers away from beds, placing yoga mats beside their beds, reorganizing kitchens for meal prep—created powerful behavioral shifts.

The "Never Miss Twice" Rule

This principle was transformative for many. As one student reflected: "This rule honestly changed how I deal with failure. Before, if I slipped up, even once, I'd feel like I ruined everything and just stop trying."

What Worked Less-Well

Overly Ambitious Initial Goals

Many students chose habits that were too complex or time-consuming. They needed more guidance on starting small and scaling up gradually.

Weak Neuroscience Integration

While students engaged deeply with behavior change, most didn't naturally connect their experiences to course concepts about neuroplasticity, dopamine pathways, or basal ganglia function. This was a missed opportunity for deeper learning.

The Weekend Problem

Consistency crumbled on weekends for many students. Different schedules, social pressures, and the absence of weekday structure created a recurring failure point.

Limited Peer Support

Despite Clear's emphasis on community, most students worked in isolation. Those who found accountability partners succeeded more consistently, suggesting we need better peer support structures.

Lessons for Next Year

Based on this year's experience, here's how I'll improve the assignment:

1. Mandatory Phone Management Module

Since technology addiction affected everyone, I'll add a dedicated class lesson on digital wellness before Part Two, with required phone management strategies regardless of chosen habits.

2. Structured Habit Selection

I'll provide:

A "Habit Feasibility Checklist" (Can it be done in under 10 minutes? Do you already have the resources?)

Categories with difficulty ratings

Required 2-minute versions for the first two weeks

3. Neuroscience Integration Checkpoints

Each submission will include explicit prompts connecting experiences to:

Habit loops and basal ganglia (Part 2)

Dopamine and reward systems (Part 3)

Neuroplasticity and repetition (Part 4)

4. Built-in Accountability Systems

I'll implement:

Mandatory habit buddy partnerships

Weekly micro-check-ins (2-3 questions)

A class discussion board for sharing wins and strategies

5. Weekend-Specific Planning

Students will create separate implementation intentions for weekdays versus weekends, acknowledging these as different contexts requiring different strategies.

6. Formal "Habit Pivot" Protocol

After Week 4, students can officially change their habit with structured reflection on why the change is necessary—normalizing adaptation rather than viewing it as failure.

Running the assignment and every student submission through Claude, a more complete (and thorough recommendation) was generated; that's available here.

The Bigger Picture

This assignment revealed something profound: behavior change isn't just about willpower or technique—it's about identity, community, and self-compassion. Students learned that small changes compound, that environment shapes behavior, and that failure is data, not defeat.

One student's reflection captures the transformation: "By simply doing that, I've started off unconventionally, but at least I started." That's the real lesson—not perfection, but progress. I should know this! As a distance runner, I regularly tell myself – and any beginning runner who talks to me about it – that "running never gets easier; you just get better at it."

As educators, we often focus on content delivery and assessment. This project reminded me that sometimes the most powerful learning happens when students apply concepts to their own lives. The neuroscience they'll remember won't just be the textbook definitions but the lived experience of rewiring their own brains, one small habit at a time.

Looking Forward

Next year's students will benefit from this year's pioneers. I'll share anonymized success stories, create templates based on what worked, and address common pitfalls upfront. But I'll also preserve the space for vulnerability and self-discovery that made this assignment so powerful.

"Research Participation Requirements" are common in undergrad psychology courses – because the graduate students need participants for their studies. The requirement to participate in research is far less common in secondary education because most studies are designed for, or IRBs require, adults for consent. I submit that using the format below, 12th graders can be expected to participate in research studies to (a) help them better understand research methods in the social sciences, and (b) contribute data to Higher ED students and projects.

After reviewing submissions from students in both psychology courses that I teach (Social-Cognitive Psychology, and Behavioral-Neuroscience), it's clear that having students participate in real research surveys is an effective teaching approach. Instead of just reading about research methods in textbooks, these students actively took part in academic surveys they found online. They then analyzed these surveys, looking at elements like question design, response options, and ethical considerations (assignment details here). As one student noted when evaluating a survey on short TikTok videos: "The format was easy to follow, however, there were no open-ended questions, and a limited range of agreement. I dislike the check boxes that range from 'strongly disagree' - 'strongly agree', I find it doesn't always align with how I feel because I'm usually in the middle of two options, so I prefer a sliding scale of some sort."

The quality of student work varied considerably. Some submissions showed thoughtful analysis of survey methodology, with students identifying specific problems like unclear questions or limited response options. Others provided more basic observations about the surveys they completed. This range suggests that while all students gained exposure to research methods, some were better able to apply critical thinking skills than others. One student demonstrated sophisticated analysis in writing: "The survey on music piracy follows a clear and logical progression by beginning with introductory and demographic questions, then moving into thematically grouped sections focused on experiences, beliefs, and perceptions, which helps maintain respondent engagement and coherence. It uses branching logic to ensure relevance, guiding participants through only applicable questions."

What makes this assignment particularly valuable is how it connects classroom learning to real-world research. By experiencing surveys as participants and then evaluating them as critics, students develop a more complete understanding of research methodology. They can see both the participant and researcher perspectives. Students often identified issues that professional researchers sometimes overlook, such as cultural sensitivity in demographic questions. As one student observed: "At some point the survey asked what demographic I am a part of and it didn't have a section for others. I am mixed and I identify with all three of my ethnicities... It's always so hard to just identify as one ethnicity when I fit into multiple categories."

For educators, this approach offers a simple but effective way to teach research methods. It requires minimal resources while giving students authentic research experience. The variation in submission quality suggests that some students might benefit from additional guidance or examples before completing the assignment, but overall, this hands-on approach appears to successfully develop students' critical research skills while engaging them with diverse psychological topics.

At the end of the first year, I ran a simple survey of students on their experience with the assignment. Here are two interesting points from that:

My pilot of this new approach proved surprisingly effective, despite a minor technical hiccup with our Canvas setup. While I had configured the assignment to display word counts within the required 100-200 word range, this feature only functioned on laptops, not iPads. As a result, several students had to manually count their words or submit and revise their work, with one student needing to trim her response and others adding sentences to meet the requirements. Even with this technical wrinkle, my class of 12 students achieved a mean score of 98%, with an average writing time of just under 14 minutes. This actually surpassed the historical average of 93% for take-home assignments, though I have no data on how long students spent writing their paragraphs at home in previous years.