Choose-your-own-Adventure: Final Projects

Color photo of a worn wooden arrow sign with snowy mountain in the background. Photo by Jens Johnsson, downloaded from Pexels.

Final projects are one of those things in teaching that can either be the bane of existence or the most fun thing ever. I have felt this way in previous classes, both as a student and as the instructor. I think from the instructor perspective, the thing that makes final projects the “bane of existence” is the repetition; whether it’s seeing the same topics repeatedly or wading through the same literature review paper assignment in each of your courses. To break this boredom, I came up with a “choose-your-own-adventure” format for a final project, allowing students to flex their creative muscles and take ownership of their work.
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Here are some fun ideas I came up with for a social psychology class (with help from various sources, particularly conference presenters). While these are specific to my social psychology course, they could be easily adapted for other course content: ​

Social Psychology and Law
Develop a graphic organizer to explain social psychological research that is relevant to current state legislation that includes:

• identification and summary of the proposed legislation
• identification and explanation of social psychological concepts that a relevant to the issue
• relevant examples and applications of concepts within the "real world"
• research based argument that argues for support or not of the legislation
• provide additional resources
• contains in-text citations or footnotes
• includes an APA style reference section

*This one came from a NITOP speaker from 2020?? If anyone remembers, let me know so I can give proper credit*

Create a Story
Create a children's book or a comic book depicting real life issues related to social psychology. It should include:

• a discussion of a “real world” issue
• explains the issue in age-relevant terms
• explains the social psychological concepts and research related to that issue
• uses images, drawings, or photos that illustrate the ideas and are age-appropriate
• provides age-appropriate additional resources
• contains footnotes
• provides an APA style reference section

Write a Chapter
Write your own open-source chapter for a social psychology textbook that describes social psychological research conducted with underrepresented groups.

• identify one of the course topics (e.g., relationships, groups, attitudes, etc.)
• conduct a literature search to identify research articles describing findings on that topic related to underrepresented groups such as: ethnic minorities, religious minorities, LGTBQ+ individuals
• organize your findings into a comprehensive narrative
• write this information into a textbook chapter that includes definitions of concepts, explanations of research, and examples/ applications.
• use in-text citations
• provide an APA style reference section

*This one came from Molly Metz


Social Media Campaign
Design (and implement...if you want) a social media campaign that seeks to inform people about real world issues and the underlying social psychological principles including:

• identifying and explaining a social issue 
• describing how the issue effects or is explained by social psychological concepts learned in class
• provides clear examples
• provides additional resources
• includes footnotes and APA style reference section
• identifies a call to action
• describes how the campaign would be/is launched including specifics such as who, what, when, etc. 

 

In addition to these ideas, I told students that they could come up with their own ideas, and that a project could be presented in non-written formats such as infographics, podcasts, films, etc. Students were also allowed to choose to work in groups or alone.

I would recommend coming up with a general rubric that could be applied to any project type, or specific rubrics for any choices you provide. I had students come up with their own proposal of how points should be allocated based on the guidelines provided as well as elements such as accuracy of information, creativity, and individual vs. group contributions. This worked out okay for my small group of students (20) but would be more difficult with a group that was larger unless they chose to work in groups. 

For more thoughts about engaging assignments, check out Jenel Cavazos' post from 2020 with some considerations and additional ideas. 

Written by Ciara Kidder