The miracle of life! Sock babies were created in March of this year in the AP Psychology classes at Broad Run. Students have just finished the projects featuring their new family members, who serve as a way to teach them about raising a real child and the behavioral techniques required to do so.
Students were expected to document their baby’s life in a scrapbook, so they planned bonding activities with their children. Each scrapbook had pictures of their children, but also decorations and text describing the experience of raising a sock baby. An AP Psychology student from last year, senior Yasemin Saidoglu, described her experience: “[Sock babies are] hard to take care of because you have so many other responsibilities. This little inanimate object is holding the weight of your grade.” Mariam Zia, a current student, said her main takeaway was that “children are really difficult to deal with and raise,” a sentiment shared by many students in the class.
While reading about the psychology behind parenting is helpful enough for some students, the hands-on approach offered by this project allowed students to better understand these concepts. Their sock babies were a fun, engaging activity that allowed them to express their creativity and artistic side. The project’s creative elements seemed to be enjoyable: “[My favorite part was] getting to name my child, and then I developed an attachment to it,” Zia said of her sock baby Ferdinand. “Taking all the photos with the baby [was my favorite part]. That was fun,” shared Saidoglu, who presented her project in a physical scrapbook instead of a digital slideshow before changes to the project were implemented between last school year and this one.
The project wasn’t without its challenges, however. The most difficult part, according to Saidoglu, was “the written part. It took me forever.” She wasn’t the only one who felt this way—Zia said that the slides were “very time-consuming.” It wasn’t only AP Psychology students who encountered problems when documenting their children’s lives. Several children have gone missing, but some have been found. “I was coming back from Teacher Cadet, and I heard something go underneath my car wheel. It was someone’s sock baby in the middle of the road. #Ripbaby,” senior Aliya Street said. Evidently, there were some negligent parents this year—and last year, too. “I learned that [sock babies] are easy to lose,” Saidoglu admitted. Though she may have lost hers once or twice over the course of the project, she ended up with an adorable final product, as did most students this year.
Whether you’re a psychology student or just an observer watching new parents carry their bedazzled socks from class to class, this project can teach us all something about behavioral psychology—and amuse us, too. Be on the lookout for more sock babies before they all go home (or get taken apart).
