LESSON PLAN: FEELINGS AND MOLECULES

DATE: the 9th of January, 2017GRADE: the 11thTEACHERS: Francisco Pérez GarcíaTHEME: Feelings and molecules Crosscurricular activity involving communication in a foreign language (English), sciences, biology, computer sciences and art COMPETENCES:- Use the main primary sources of scientific information to find information on neurotransmitters and feelings- Understand the relationship between feelings and molecules- Understand and analyse the United Nations Happiness Index (UNHI)- Compare the factors related with happiness according to different scientific articles and UNHI: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perception of corruption, dystopia, etc.- To understand the vocabulary and the concepts measured with Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory for adolescents (MMPI-A test) and perform the test- Design by using HTML5, CSS and Javascript libraries in order to create an online PANAS questionnaire- Understand programming conditional statement to show their images at different scores of a questionnaire at www.arteducation.eu/panas- Understand statistical methods to compare results of psychological tests mathematically (e.g. comparing results of the test in males and females)- Expressing feelings/emotions, ideas, thoughts, points of view by using art approach: molecules found in protein data bank

TYPE OF LESSON: Combined lessonTYPES OF INTERACTION: teacher – student, student – student, computer-studentTEACHING TOOLS: the blackboard, the projector and a computer room with software: GIMP

TIME: 4 lessons of 50 minutes

WARMERAt home, the student must use http://scholar.google.com and http://www.ncbi-nlm-nih.gov to find out what is the relation between molecules (neurotransmitters) and feelings.

They are asked to review their mobiles and the internet to find this information.

LEARNING STRATEGY

Learning strategy is based in recognizing factors involved in feelings from United Nations Happiness Index and other scientific articles.Then do some activities using computer tools in order to create innovative emoticons and mobile apps relating art masterpieces and feelings.

FORMULATION OF THE SUBJECTStudents will be informed that during this lesson they will learn some English instructions in Javascript, HTML5 and CSS to create objects to express feelings.COMMUNICATION OF KNOWLEDGE

Activity 1- World Happinness Index

To understand the factors affecting happiness according to United Nations: GDP peere capital, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to male life choices, generosity and perception of corruption (World Happiness Index 2016)

Figure 1. World Happiness Index (United Nations, 2016)

Activity 2. Discussion of the happiness formulaThe Happiness Formula H=S+C+V

Seligmand and Lyubormirsky (2013) considers in the formula for happiness as: half being genetically determined, up to an additional 40 percent comes from the things that have occurred in our recent past, and 12 percent under our control.HappinessFormulaTheir formula is H = S + C + V whereH: HappinessS: Our biological set point

C: Conditions of livingV: Voluntary actions or choices we make daily

Based on their research they arrived at the following breakdown:S – 50% Our biological set pointC – 10% Conditions of livingV – 40% Voluntary actions or choices we make daily

The conclusion this leads to is that at least 40% of our happiness is based on actions and choices we make daily and are under our control. These actions and choices consist of using our strengths to do meaningful, good and pleasant things in our lives.

Discuss in groups of 5 if there are discrepancies in the exact happiness formula using the scientific article “The paradox of happiness: Why are we not doing what we know makes us happy?” by L. Parker Schiffer & Tomi-Ann Roberts http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2017.1279209http://sonjalyubomirsky.com/files/2012/09/Lyubomirsky-Layous-20132.pdf

Activity 3 – aim: to promote discussion about related emotions and neurotransmitters

To understand how neurotransmitters regulate our emotions

Figure 2. Lövheim cube of emotions (Lovheim, 2012)

Figure 3. Emotions and the levels of neurotransmitters

To understand the relationship between level of neurotransmitter and feelings.

References:Lövheim, H (2012). "A new three-dimensional model for emotions and monoamine neurotransmitters". Med Hypotheses. 78: 341–348. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2011.11.016. PMID 22153577.

Activity 4. Understand the concepts measured with MMPI-A test and perform the test

MMPI is a widely used and researched standardized psychometric test in adults. A specific test is used for adolescents called MMPI-A (Archer, 2016), The test involves 478 true/false items. It measures 15 indicators:

Anxiety – Physical and emotional symptoms of intense worry or nervousness.21 items

Obsessiveness – Unreasonable worrying about trivial matters, ruminative thoughts or counting unimportant items. 15 items

Depression – Physical and emotional symptoms of intense negative emotion.26

Health Concerns – Numerous physical problems that interfere with enjoyment of after school activities and contribute to significant school absences. 37

Alienation – Considerable emotional distance from others. 20 Bizarre Mentation – Strange thoughts and experiences and/or hallucinations.

19 Anger – Considerable anger control problems. May get into trouble from

breaking or destroying things. 17 Cynicism – Distrust of others motives and generally feeling misunderstood.

22

Conduct Problems -May have delinquent peers and be entertained by criminal behavior. 23

Low Self-Esteem – Very negative opinions of self. May not feel capable of planning own future.

Low Aspirations – Not interested in being successful, quickly give up when things go wrong. 16

Social Discomfort – Very uncomfortable around others and shy. May prefer to be alone and have difficulty making friends. 24

Family Problems – Considerable problems with parents. Lack of love, understanding, and limited communication in these families. 35

School Problems – Poor grades, suspension, truancy, negative attitudes toward teachers, and a dislike of school. 20

Negative Treatment Indicators – Negative attitudes toward doctors and mental health professionals. Unwilling to discuss problems. 26

Activity 5. Psychological tests to measure feelings PANAS Scale

PANAS Scale is simpler than Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Student will perfom the PANAS scale to better know their feelings

Figure 4. PANAS Scale

Activity 5. Explain the statistical test Student t test in the happiness previous study

Student’s t test has a key role to decide if two groups of data are equal or different. Explain why.Find the formula of Fisher’s F and explain why it is so important if we are comparing 3 groups-

Correlation: relationship between two variablesExplain how is possible to introduce art in statistics. Explain this image

Create your art masterpiece using R statistical software (www.r-project.org)

Figure 4

# Code using R. You need to install R from CRAN and RStudio//Circle lengthsj = seq(0.1,1.9,.08) par(bg = "black")plot(-2,-2,pch=".",xlim=c(-2,2),ylim=c(-2,2),col="white") # How many dots around the circle?dots = 1000 # Create an offkilter circlerads = seq(0,2*pi,2*pi/dots) for(aLength in j) {

# Pick a random colormyCol =

paste("#",paste(sample(c(1:9,"A","B","C","D","E","F"),6,replace=T),collapse=""),collapse="",sep="") 

# Start at length = 1, then walk.myLength = rep(aLength,dots)

 for(i in 2:dots) {

myLength[i] = myLength[(i-1)] + rnorm(1,0,sd=.005) 

# Closer we are to end, faster we return to where started so circle closes

dist = aLength - myLength[i]

myLength[i] = aLength - (dist*((dots-(i/4))/(dots)))}for(i in 1:dots) {

cat(myLength[i]*cos(rads[i]),myLength[i]*sin(rads[i]),"n")

points(myLength[i]*cos(rads[i]),myLength[i]*sin(rads[i]),col=myCol,pch=20,cex=2)

}}

Activity 6. Create a new image from neurotransmitter receptor related to feelings

To undersand the different levels of organization of the brain: from the neuron to the neuron to the synapsis and there you find the receptor proteins.http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do

Figure 5. Transmembrane view of human dopamine 3 receptor linked to a drug http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/explore.do?structureId=3pbl

http://www.faseb.org/Resources-for-the-Public/Scientific-Contests/BioArt/Past-Winners/2016-BioArt-Winners.aspx

Concerning proteins you can analyze all the neurotransmitter receptors and many other protein with polymorphisms: Serotonin Transporter Promoter or FK506 Binding Protein-5, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Receptor 1, Catechol-O-Methyltransferase,

Cannabinoid Receptor Type 1 and Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 14 (Halldorsdottir and Binder, 2017)

From biology to bioartYou can use protein data bank to find more than 40000 proteins. Some of these proteins are receptors of neurotransmitter you can use these images as an art inspiration to draw about feeling. This will help to understand the physiological and pharmacological basis of emotions that are related with the specific binding of the neurotransmitters and drugs to some of the proteins we have in our cell membranes.

Halldorsdottir T and Binder EB. Gene × Environment Interactions: From MolecularMechanisms to Behavior Annual Review Psychology 68:215–41 (2017).