Heroic Imagination Project Education Impact Report: 2014

Transcription

1 1 Heroic Imagination Project Education Impact Report: 2014 HIP- United States Engagements 1. HeroTown/Flint Initiative The Heroic Imagination Project has teamed up with HeroTown USA - Flint, MI to bring our education modules to Flint, Michigan and the greater Genesee County region. With the generous support of Diplomat Pharmacy and other local funds, HIP provided materials for 2 lessons and training to 15 local teachers, community leaders, and non-profit organizations in September. The program will be implemented in schools across the county starting in the Fall and hope to expand to all 6 lessons by next year. Additionally, HIP returned to participate in the 2nd Hero Roundtable conference held this year at Whiting Auditorium which doubled it's reach this year! We are proud to be part of making Flint, Michigan HeroTown USA! 2. HIP's work with the Exploratorium During the past year Clint Wilkins, HIP's founding director of education, has worked closely with the Exploratorium in San Francisco to develop ten activities and games for classroom teachers (K-12) as part of a major grant the museum received from the National Science Foundation called "Science of Sharing." These activities -- which complement some exhibitions on the museum floor -- are based upon core concepts from social psychology and game theory -- such as The Tragedy of the Commons and The Prisoner's Dilemma. HIP interns Monique Lipman and Tyler Langenbrunner, as well as Bryan Dickerson, HIP's associate director of education, were instrumental in the design and the implementation of these activities.

2 2 3. HIP and Psi Beta During the academic year, several Psi Beta chapters participated in the Heroic Imagination Project. The project has become an excellent service-learning activity in which teams of psychology honor students present lessons on the bystander effect to high school, college, and community groups. In a new development, the Psi Beta chapter at Irvine Valley College (CA), through it's CONNECT Classroom Peer-Mentor Program, has been applying the Heroic Imagination Project's Mindset lesson. The CONNECT Program trains Psi Beta members to serve as peer-mentors to Introductory Psychology classes. The peer-mentors encourage new college students to become engaged in campus life, use tutoring and other services available to them, and form into study groups to prepare for upcoming exams. The mentors also present 90-minute, highly interactive Heroic Imagination Project workshops on Carol Dweck's mindset theory. The freshmen students are encouraged to embrace a growth mindset with regard to learning challenges they'll be facing in college and beyond. Besides serving as a highly meaningful service-learning project, The CONNECT program includes a comprehensive research component designed to assess the positive impact of the program's components on academic success. Data from the spring 2014 semester reveals that, when compared to students in non-intervention control sections, the CONNECT students reported being more connected to the campus, and achieved significantly higher grades in their Introductory Psychology course as well as all courses taken during the spring term. This study has become an important success intervention effort for the college, a great service-learning project for the Psi Beta students, and an interesting Science of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project for the psychology department's faculty. The department also has plans to assess the extent to which Psi Beta students who serve as HIP presenters and/or peer mentors are achieving learning outcomes that APA's Guidelines 2.0 suggests for students majoring in psychology. HIP-Asia efforts 1. Make a Difference Workshops in Hong Kong (September 27 29, 2013). HIP personnel worked closely with leaders of the Make a Difference (MaD) Foundation to deliver two transformational workshops to an audience consisting of

3 3 university students, social entrepreneurs, and passionately involved members of the community. The first was a three-hour master class titled The Psychology of Growth, which focused on harnessing motivation and failure for personal growth in oneself and others. The second was a two-day intensive workshop titled Unlocking Your Heroic Potential, covering most of HIP s major topics (Bystander Effect, Conformity, Situation Blindness and Mindset). 2. Make a Difference Forum in Hong Kong (January 10-12, 2014) Hong Kong s annual MaD Forum brings together over 1600 young leaders and change makers from all over Asia. Dr. Zimbardo was very warmly received as the keynote speaker in the 2013 Forum. This year, HIP delivered two high-level workshops, each two hours long. They were titled Redefining Heroism: How Ordinary People Can Do Extraordinary Things and Transforming Conformity: How to Mobilize Groups for Good. The workshops were very popular, both exceeding the expected 60person limit. 3. Social Innovation Guangzhou (April 5-6) The HIP Asia team was invited to take part in an innovation festival at the Yi-Gather co-working space in Guangzhou, China. First, HIP trainers engaged in a 2-hour community discussion on the topic Can Psychology Make You a Superhero? The second day, they delivered a 3hour workshop titled Modern Tools for the Everyday Hero, which explored ways that young leaders could be more aware, resourceful and courageous in driving innovation in their communities. 4. Pineapple Awards in Hangzhou, China (April 12) HIP was invited to participate in the annual Pineapple Awards, a Chinese equivalent of the Ig-Nobel Awards. Dr. Zimbardo was asked to present the award in Psychology. Since he was not able to attend in person, Dr. Zimbardo presented the award via video. The HIP Asia team joined the Yosum Psychology group in featuring an interactive psychology booth at the Pineapple Awards Science Market.

4 4 5. Continued Programs in Hong Kong and China In summer 2014, HIP officially became a partner of Yosum Psychology, which has now become Yosum Consulting. Yosum, which translates to with heart in Chinese and implies psychological understanding, started as a community group for promoting psychology in China, but now has evolved into a full-time company that conducts events and offers consulting services. HIP Asia s trainers will continue to work with Yosum to promote HIP s mission and are able to deliver programs as needed. Engagements in Europe 1. Official Heroic Imagination Project s start in Poland April 2014 (Katowice, Poland) Professor Zimbardo came to Poland for his Zimbardo Youth Center opening. It is placed in Silesia Katowice Nikiszowiec an old mining district of this city. Young people can come here to play, dance, sing and learn a lot of stuff. More about it Heroic Imagination Project or as we called it in Poland Projekt Bohaterskiej Wyobraźni has started here too. Agnieszka Wilczyńska PhD, who is the leader of polish Z-Team, also started HIP with Professor Zimbardo in there. They have translated 6 lessons into Polish and established the Polish HIP website. They have also expanded the team by training two groups of trainers and three groups of teachers. Within this short period, Poland HIP has accredited 2 institutions (Metis 7 Filomata) where they can train other people such as teachers and pupils. They have also met three times with the Ministry of Education and received support in our HIP-UHN activities. They finished the first application for funds for our activities around Polandwe will complete it for 15 of October with Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Michal Brol and Agnieszka Skorupa. And they have a green light to start with Zimbardo center in Warsaw Praga- we just had meeting with government of City Warsaw too.

5 5 HIP pilot classes in Kłodzko April 2014 (Kłodzko, Poland) There is a small city in Kotlina Kłodzka in Poland. There are not a lot of people, and also not a lot of students, but it does not mean that they can t be heroes. One of schools Zespół Szkół Społecznych wrote and to Professor Zimbardo. It was some time ago. But they did not want to wait or should we say they can t stand waiting. Before they met with Professor Zimbardo, they started to prepare their school for the hero lessons. They only used materials, which they could find in the books, or on the Internet. Professor was really impressed, when they met him in Katowice. This particular school became very famous in our country, a lot of magazines wrote articles about them. Pilot lessons became very successful! Budapest Engagements Festival HERO in Budapest took place in June Special guests were Professor Zimbardo, Edith Eva Eger PhD and Agnieszka Wilczyńska PhD from Polish HIP Team. She led a lecture about Polish Heroic Imagination Project. During the festival there was a science conference and a meeting of HIP representatives from all over the world. They talked about project s implementation and their experience about it. Future endeavors in Budapest: By 5 years from now, we would like to achieve that, one-tenth of the Hungarian teachers (those are the ones who are the real teachers, and can affect the point of view of students) would get our training, and that they would practice it at least once a month. We will make trainings for companies and civil people who are interested. We re planning to build a network, also small communities all around Hungary

6 6 We re planning to organize our volunteers into a network, also implement a selection and TO REALIZE THE GOAL THAT a being a Heroes Square volunteer is a title to be proud of. We re planning a conference and a festival again. Upcoming Projects! We have accomplished so much within 2014 and we are looking forward to what the year 2015 has to bring! We already have several things planned and we are excited to see how these projects unfold. Planned projects within 2015: HIP in Sicily California State University-HIP partnership HIP UK Expansion of training opportunites