Take the thrill of the behavioral and social sciences to school!

What is Exploring Behavior Week?

The behavioral and social sciences are exciting and important- but the general public knows too little about them. Exploring Behavior Week is an outreach program to introduce the excitement and opportunities of these disciplines to secondary school students.

Using easy-to-access outreach materials, college faculty/students in the behavioral and social sciences can visit classrooms to talk about their work, helping to capture the imagination of secondary school students and channel the flow of their talent into the future-scientist pipeline.

When is Exploring Behavior Week?

Professional associations and university departments are invited to select a week of the year to designate as their Exploring Behavior Week and to encourage members, faculty, or graduate students to visit middle school or high school classrooms during that period. Targeting one special week for outreach each year will help generate energy, coordination, and visibility, though additional classroom visits are also welcome throughout the year.

What are the outreach materials?

An updated, complete, easy-to-use Exploring Behavior Week teaching package is currently available for psychology. The package includes slides/overheads and a presenter's instruction booklet for making a 45-minute classroom visit. The materials can be used "as-is" or modified to fit each presenter's own specialty.Forthcoming are similar lesson plan packages in each of the behavioral and social science disciplines, in cooperation with endorsing organizations that are participating in the Decade of Behavior.

How can you participate?

Visit a classroom to talk about work in your discipline, and encourage your colleagues to do the same!If you are a psychologist or a psychology student, you can use the psychology outreach materials to help you plan your talk.If you are in another social / behavioral science discipline, please encourage your professional association to develop similar materials!