I love engaging my students by asking them questions as part of my teaching approach. In this video clip from my lecture on "Brain, Body, and Health," I show a TEDTalk that explores the long-term health impacts of childhood trauma. Before revealing that trauma is the focus of the video, I ask my students to guess what might be causing the health issues discussed (e.g., lung disease, heart disease, cancer). Regardless of whether their answers are correct or not, I ensure my responses are thoughtful and supportive. I do this by building off of their guess to help guide them to the correct answer, so they feel confident to continue asking questions throughout the lecture and in future ones. The video clip also demonstrates how I incorporate videos into my lectures, but still interact with students throughout the video to keep them engaged.

This video is an example of a class activity students complete as part of their random attendances. Students are administered a memory test where 15 short words are shown on the screen. These words are all related to sleep (e.g., bed, dream, snooze) but sleep is not on the list. Despite this, about a third of students will 'recall' sleep being on the list! Students then learn how our brains can create false memories to fill in memory gaps.