Year 13 Psychology

10 Mar Year 13 Psychology

A-level Psychology students were asked to attend “Brain Day” at the beginning of this month, an interactive and extremely interesting insight into the workings of the brain and how it interlinks with our psychology specification. We arrived at Eastbury Community School and were greeted by Dr Guy Sutton.  He is a lecturer at the University of Nottingham, who works with various mental health patients and is also the director of the Medical Biology Interactive.  He was very experienced and confident in his field of work and kindly gave a presentation on neurotransmitters and the brain’s functions.

Following this insightful presentation, we were fortunate enough to observe him conducting a dissection on a brain (sheep’s brain obviously). Some particularly brave students were given the opportunity to hold the brain.  One student told me that it felt like a soggy chicken fillet, which was a very disturbing image for me.

After a short break, we were asked to visit websites such as “Mouse Party”, showing the effect of recreational drugs on mice and “Lick Your Rats”, an interactive animation describing how a mother’s contact can cause an infant rat to be less stressed in later life. The final part of the day involved Dr Sutton telling us about some tremendously violent crimes and how the criminal’s brain activity can explain why they conducted them.  They were pretty graphic so I’ll spare you the intimate details.  I am very grateful to Dr Sutton and the staff of Eastbury for making us feel so welcome and giving us such a great day.  As a Psychology student, it really made me aware of how important the biological explanations for behaviour are, and I am sure that the information Dr Sutton taught me will be very beneficial in the exam.

If you want to attend the ‘Mouse Party’ or even ‘Lick a Rat’, then please follow the links below:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/mouse/

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/rats/

Mel Day

Year 13 Psychology Student