Socially Engaging Project

For our socially engaging project. We were challenged to do something that would help us understand ourselves and others better.  I really enjoyed this activity and would definitely do something similar in my classroom. I think it would be fun to  plan and do a project like this as a class. This could be used to teach students about things that are socially appropriate and inappropriate.  One way we could use it as a class is by using an experiment as a prompt and then taking a survey to see the response. I have attached my experiment, and the experiments of two of my classmates below.

For my social experiment  I decided to get to know information about strangers. I was at Disneyland over the weekend. I realized that it is so easy to be in a big place with so many more people yet to be absorbed in your family and self. It is interesting to see that the people that you go on rides with you are experiencing the same thing together yet you rarely interact. I decided that I would talk to people while standing in line and see what I could get to know about the people. 

Many of my interactions with others were quick and talking about what was going on when a ride had stopped or someone was in line. When a mom was yelling at her child in the line for corn dogs, I briefly made eye contact with someone and even without words we were able to share empathy for the child who was getting yelled at. Because of the awkwardness of the situation, our eye contact was brief but in an instant we related to each other and communicated.

Another experience I had was when I was in line for the haunted mansion, as we were walking through the beginning of the line, she seemed to be wandering around by herself. I decided to talk to her and the woman who had seemed to be upset tuned into this excited bubbly woman. She was telling me about how much she loves Disneyland and we talked about the emotions that we feel at disneyland. It was so wonderful to talk to a complete stranger about emotions. She admitted that every time she leaves she cries. As I was talking to this woman, my curiosity sparked about people and how everyone is individuals. And going through many different trials.

I had a very embarrassing as I was standing in line for California Screaming. As we were standing in line I chose to stand by myself so that I could get to know the person who I could stand by. As  I was standing in line a man came and stood by me and we began to talk. I found out where he was from and he as telling me about his wife and children. As we were talking my 7 year old nieces who were in the row next to us called out to me, and they were making kissing noises. I was mortified. It really made me aware of my inhibitions to talk to people because of them (and observers) questioning my intentions. At the time I felt so awkward that I completely turned away from him and didn’t make eye contact until the ride was coming to a close. I think it is important to realize how much we are bound down by our fears and inhibitions. I believe that by realizing these fears and inhibitions we will be able to break down the invisible social bonds that bind us. 

Realizing that I was being held back by fears I decided that I would talk to people in situations where I maybe felt a bit uncomfortable. In a line for Haunted mansion, I talked to a husband and wife who were with their severely handicapped granddaughter. As I were talking to to them I asked where they were from and it turned out that they were from my home town. It was interesting to see that we lived extremely close to each other and knew many of the same people. It really helped me remember that we are surrounded by people who we have things in common with yet we hold back because of the fear of feeling uncomfortable.  I really enjoyed this experiment and I have a new goal not to let social norms or my inhibitions hold me back from getting to know the children of God who I am experiencing life with. 

 I really liked Laura Davis's Experiment. I think this would be fun to do as a class!

For my project I left a bag of free candy at the duck pond south of campus and watched to see if anyone would eat it. I left a survey next to it to have people record their experience with the candy. It took 3 hours for all 40 pieces of candy to be eaten, but only 9 people wrote responses. Most people did not take a candy at all.

 I really liked Danielle Thompson's experiment as well!

For my socially engaged artwork, I used sidewalk chalk at a park near my house to invite people to "Make a Mark." I wrote this phrase with the chalk at the park near the playground where I knew many people would be this weekend with their families. My husband and I started the art with our own drawings. We left the chalk and came back the next day to see what people had drawn. There was everything from hearts and rainbows to jellyfish and peace signs. It was a lot of fun to see what people had drawn. If I would have done this again, I would have checked the results sooner because some of the chalk was already faded by the time that I got there. But it was still fun to see how people interacted with what I had left them. 

These first few pictures are what my husband and I drew and left for others to add to. 

The rest of these are some of the things that we found when we returned to the park the next day.

(This is a jellyfish and an octopus)

People had covered a lot more space than I expected with the chalk. I had started in a fairly small area, and thought that people wouldn't go that far, but there were drawings up and down the sidewalks.


Quite a few websites recommended this book to engage your class in the world around them.

Social experiments can be fun. Here is a video of some boys from Bountiful who wanted to see what it would be like to try to hold random people's hands: