Development: Journey of a Lifetime

This multimedia tool guides students through the process of human growth and development through videos, animations, and audio clips and interactive pedagogy and quizzes.

Development: Journey of a Lifetime is comprised of 12 units and is a fun, educational, multimedia teaching tool that literally brings development to life. Through the use of unscripted, real video footage, students will get a chance to see everything from a baby taking its first breath to a teen mom discussing how her life has changed since becoming a mother. The numerous animations included on this CD teach students visually about the inner workings of the human body, including the reproductive organs, conception, and pregnancy.

Dr. Kelly Welch is a professor in the School of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University, where she teaches the large introductory course, Human Growth and Development. Dr. Welch has received numerous university teaching awards, including the Presidential Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching, that recognize her enthusiastic, innovative classroom techniques and pedagogy.

Each chapter includes “Mad Minutes,” “Journal,” and “Flashcards.”

1. Studying Human Growth and Development.

2. Interactive Development.

3. Nature or Nurture?: An Age-Old Debate.

4. Beginnings.

5. Infancy and Toddlerhood.

6. Early Childhood: The Play Years.

7. Middle Childhood: The School Years.

8. Adolescence.

9. Early Adulthood.

10. Middle Adulthood.

11.Late Adulthood.

12. Dying and Death.

• Learning Launch—Learning Launch is where students find the foundation of a topic discussion, such as psychosocial development in infancy and toddlerhood and cognitive development in adolescence. Points made in Learning Launch are often followed by illustrative videos or animations.

• Videos—Each video on this CD-ROM is real-life footage filmed by Dr. Welch. The videos allow students to see key course concepts brought to life and show how development affects children and adults at different developmental stages. The videos also show how important education is when making life decisions.

• Animations—3-D and 2-D animations are used to illustrate many biological processes, functions, and changes.

• Quizzes—Each unit has multiple-choice quizzes, consisting of an average of 10 questions each, or drag and drop quizzes.

• Mad Minutes—This free writing exercise asks students to read a critical thinking question and on a two-minute time clock free write their responses without editing themselves. This assignment is helpful for capturing immediate reactions that can be interesting fodder for classroom discussion.

• Journal—Students are provided with a topic or question to write about in a journal. They may write for as long as they wish, and they are encouraged to supply thoughtful and lengthy answers. Because the videos and discussions on this CD-ROM are designed to help students think about themselves and their own lives, a journal will develop their thoughts and feelings and connect fact to emotion.

• Student Activities—Student activities include drag-and-drop exercises, asking students to click and drag key terms into their respective “realms” of development (cognitive, biological, psychosocial), Web research assignments, and handwritten or drawn activities.

• Glossary List and Flashcards—Each unit ends with a list of glossary terms and definitions that are mentioned in the unit discussion. Students may access the glossary list as a traditional text document, or they may use the Flashcards feature, which tests them on their knowledge of terms and definitions.