About
‘What Kind of Mind?’ provides teaching resources to introduce pupils to research ideas about animal minds. Over the course of the program, many questions will be explored, including:
What is a mind? What constitutes intelligence? What is evolution? Why is discussion about animal minds important? How do philosophy and psychology impact us? How do we find out about other minds? How should experiments be controlled? How do we compare to our ancestors? How can we find out about other minds? What is language? Why do we play? What is curiosity? How do researchers come up with a hypothesis?
About the resources
The lesson program is aimed at pupils aged approximately 8-12 (in Scotland – P5-P7).
The resources include lesson plans, presentations, detailed teacher notes, class activities and associated materials. The resources are listed to download under the individual lessons, but for ease the whole course can be downloaded in the Quick Download page, as well as printable student workbooks.
The aspects of the Scottish Curriculum which are used in the lesson are shown by SCN-numbers, listed in the skills section.
The materials are completely free to download and use, but we would be extremely grateful if you could send us any completed pre- and post- program questionnaires, completed by yourselves and the pupils. These questionnaires are embedded in the lessons and should be sent to [email protected] when completed. For more information about how they will be used, and for a complied list of the questionnaires, please visit our Contact us page.
To access the resources, follow the lesson tabs in the site navigation at the top or right hand side of the page.
The ‘What Kind of Mind?’ project and the associated resources have been produced by
the University of St Andrews, in conjunction with the Department of Philosophy and the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, using funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. For more information or contact details, visit the contact us page.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds world-class, independent researchers in a wide range of subjects: history, archaeology, digital content, philosophy, languages, design, heritage, area studies, the creative and performing arts, and much more. This financial year the AHRC will spend approximately £98 million to fund research and postgraduate training, in collaboration with a number of partners. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits and contributes to the economic success of the UK but also to the culture and welfare of societies around the globe.
Visit the AHRC website at: ahrc.ukri.org, on Twitter at @ahrcpress, and on Facebook search for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, or Instagram at @ahrcpress.
