Upholding a yearly tradition, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School held its annual Psychology Fair for the 2025-2026 school year on January 15 and 16.
This interactive event, held in the high school’s main gymnasium, offers AP Psychology students an opportunity to apply their classroom learning to real life. Additionally, students were able to experiment with core psychological concepts while teaching their peers the key concepts they have learned so far in the course.
In this showcase, students designed and conducted experiments to explore core psychology concepts such as senses, perception, memory and social influence. By transforming the school environment into a living laboratory, these students had the opportunity to teach their peers about psychology through hands-on demonstrations.
Each group of students covered two psychology topics and used demonstrations to convey their explanations. (Bruce Moran)
In preparation for this fair, students worked in groups to choose two main topics to research, experiment and construct projects to demonstrate at the fair. Students participated in creating posters that displayed background information about their project, fun facts and the overall purpose of these experiments and how these topics can be applied in daily life. This project allowed participants to have a deeper understanding of the human mind and behavior, while the AP students refined their understanding of the course material.
One specific project presented at the event focused on confirmation bias and thermoreceptors. Their group incorporated the idea of thermoreceptors through an experiment that required participants to place their hands in 3 bowls of water at different temperatures to clearly observe how the pain and thermoreceptors in the hands respond to stimuli. To test confirmation bias, the project’s second stage featured a taste test using identical chocolate samples. By falsely labeling them as different, researchers demonstrated how prior assumptions can skew objective experience.
Maanvita Konka, a student who participated in the psychology fair, reflected on her experience.
“I found the psychology fair to be helpful in interacting with different students and learning more about how these psychology ideas fit into our world. It was a fun experience and helped with social interactions and public speaking,” she said.
There were several engaging demonstrations displayed at the AP Psychology fair.
Overall, the psychology fair was a huge success, sparking the AP Psychology students’ curiosity and encouraging other students to learn more about human behavior. This engaging event allowed students to discover diverse psychology projects alongside their friends, creating a memorable experience through meaningful peer interaction.