High schoolers bring psychology basics to elementary students

McALLEN — Dressed in a suit and wearing sunglasses and a badge, Cameron Crane could easily be mistaken for an authority figure.

The 17-year-old junior enrolled in Lamar Academy’s International Baccalaureate program used that perception as a tool to convince fifth-grade students visiting the campus Wednesday to snap a rubber band worn by another student who had both his hands placed through holes cut out of cardboard.

Though an overwhelming majority of students obeyed Cameron, some heeded the warnings of Vincent Honruvia, a 17-year-old junior at Lamar, and chose to shake the student’s other hand.

“All you have to do is look the part,” said Cameron. “Looks can be deceiving.”

Cameron and Vincent are two students in the IB program’s psychology class who volunteered to teach the younger ones basic concepts in psychology as part of the school’s seventh annual psychology fair. They were among several volunteers who taught the children about obedience.

Lamar, which houses the IB middle year and diploma programs, invites the McAllen school district’s elementary schools that have the IB primary years program to showcase what the high school students are learning and to have its students educate the younger ones.

“It helps my students really understand because they have to teach it,” said Marissa Sarabando, the IB psychology teacher at Lamar.

The daylong event included several activities, including a taste test in which elementary school students were given orange juice with food coloring in it to drink, knocking over plastic pins with a ball while wearing goggles that impaired their vision and playing musical chairs.

“I really like it,” said Andrea Romeros, a 17-year-old junior at Lamar. “It’s interesting to see how little kids can be so interested in psychology.”

Andrea and her group conducted the experiment with the dyed orange juice to show the elementary students how the five senses are connected. The youngsters were told to hold their noses before drinking the beverages and guess what they were drinking. Some were dyed green, others brown.

“We heard it was slime, chocolate milk (or) coffee,” Andrea said.

That experiment didn’t fool fifth-graders Zef Hinojosa and Kayce Lowe, who both attend Milam Elementary School. They said they could taste that the substance they were drinking was the popular breakfast beverage.

Overall, the fair was fun, they said.

“All these things are so fun and you want to learn all of them,” Kayce said.

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Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.