A hands-on introduction to psychology for high school students.
This summer, UBC’s Department of Psychology will offer three new Mini Schools as part of the UBC Future Global Leaders (FGL) program. Designed for high school students ages 15–18, these programs introduce psychology as a scientific discipline through research-based learning, social activities, and exposure to university-level study.
Each session offers a distinct focus—from research methods and measurement to moral reasoning and social bias—while giving students opportunities to engage directly with current research and instructors from UBC Psychology’s graduate student community.
These instructor Q&As offer a closer look at each mini-school and what students can expect.
Session 1: Measuring Minds (July 6–17, 2026)
Instructor: Zhichun Qi is an MA student in the Rights Lab, a quantitative methods lab focused on improving statistical and methodological practices in psychological research. Her work centres on data analysis and research design, and she has led undergraduate lab sessions in behavioural data analysis and research methods.
“Everything is guided, collaborative, and designed for curious beginners.”
What can students expect to learn or experience in your mini school?
In this mini school, students will discover how psychologists have measured the mind over time, from early experiments in psychophysics to modern personality and intelligence tests. We’ll talk about key ideas in the history of psychometrics, like how researchers tried to quantify traits such as reaction time, IQ, and the Big Five personality dimensions.
Students will also get a gentle, hands-on introduction to R. Using simple, step-by-step code, they’ll learn how to organize data, run basic analyses, and create clear graphs to tell a data story. No prior coding experience is needed. Everything is guided, collaborative, and designed for curious beginners.
What makes this mini school a valuable choice for high school students who are curious about psychology?
In this mini school, we show students why psychology is a science, not just a set of facts. We share the stories behind studies and tests so that ideas feel like part of a bigger journey, rather than isolated theories.
Students also get an early, gentle introduction to basic data analysis, which is a very important part of university study. By seeing data analysis as a practical tool for understanding the world rather than something scary, high school students can feel more confident when they encounter it later. The course is designed as a low-pressure way to explore psychology and data, ask questions, and build confidence before starting university.
How does your teaching or research background shape the way you approach this course?
My research area is quantitative psychology, so I work a lot with data and statistical methods. I also help other research labs with their data analysis, which means I’m always thinking about how test scores and numbers relate back to real questions about people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.
At UBC, I’ve led lab sessions for courses on analysing behavioural data and advanced research methods. These experiences have taught me how to break down complex ideas into clear, step-by-step explanations. I’ve also tutored middle school students before, so I’m comfortable working with younger learners and creating a supportive, encouraging classroom environment where it’s okay to be curious, ask questions, and learn by trying things out.
What is one unique activity, lab component, or hands-on experience that students will get to try during the program?
One of the activities is a mini research lab, where students design a short survey, collect responses from classmates, and analyze the results in real time. They’ll see how psychologists move from a question to actual data, and then create graphs to tell the story of their findings. Students get to make decisions as researchers: how to word questions, how to judge reliability, and how to interpret patterns. This activity shows how psychological science is done step-by-step and gives students a sense of ownership over real data.
Session 2: Psychology of Morality (July 20–31, 2026)
Instructor: Irein Thomas is a PhD student and a researcher in the MAGIC Lab at UBC. Irein’s research in the MAGIC lab examines the intersection of moral psychology and politics, ranging from divisive Twitter exchanges to conflict-ridden moral groups. Broadly, her research focuses are three-fold: the nature of moral beliefs, the liberal-conservative divide, and potential interventions to attenuate intergroup conflict.
“Because the moral is also personal, students can also expect to introspect into their own values while learning about the discipline of psychology.”
What can students expect to learn or experience in your mini school?
The students have been learners of morality their whole lives, but through the mini-school, they will be able to map psychological theories as an additional layer to understand the moral world around them. Because the moral is also personal, students can also expect to introspect into their own values while learning about the discipline of psychology.
What makes this mini school a valuable choice for high school students who are curious about psychology?
I can personally witness to the power of experiences like the mini-schools; I participated in a similar experience in both high-school and college, and the ability to learn about psychology with other students, do hands-on-experiments, and see the application of psychology into everyday life compelled me into going to grad school for psychology. Having an immersive, communal, and learning-oriented experience is invaluable, and exactly the kind of experience that will help students understand themselves and the world around them in a richer way.
How does your teaching or research background shape the way you approach this course?
I am a social psychologist, meaning that I am very curious about how the environment and social groups influences a person, so a lot of the lessons will explore how people's morality is influenced by their social world. My research also has a cultural angle, so a cultural understanding of morality will also be a very present dynamic in the course. I am also deeply formed by a liberal-arts education, and so in learning about morality, I will help connect ideas in psychology to literature, philosophy, film, as it so fits. Lastly, it is a deep value of mine that learning be interactive and relational, and not just brute inputting of information, so a lot of the mini-school will be conversational, and filled with group activities to give students a chance to connect while learning—to form a learning community.
What is one unique activity, lab component, or hands-on experience that students will get to try during the program?
One theme of the mini-school is the intersection of morality and technology, and so students will get to explore that theme by learning about in multiple ways: one way will be by analyzing the themes in the film Wall-e; another way is to put their futurist hats on to imagine how technological advances will provoke different kinds moral questions, and what kind of experiments psychologists will need to do to understand the world.
Session 3: Psychology of Social Groups (August 4–14, 2026)
Instructors:
Jessica Lee is a PhD student and a researcher in the Social Cognitive Development Lab at UBC. Jess’s research focuses on children’s understanding of social status and leadership. Prior to joining the lab, she completed an M.A. in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago and a B.Sc. in Honours Biology with a minor in Psychology at McMaster University.
Gabrielle Ibasco is a PhD student and a researcher at the Emotion and Self Lab / Centre of Applied Moral Psychology at UBC. Her research focuses on the role of emotions and beliefs in shaping how we view social identities. Originally from the Philippines, Gabrielle spent a significant chunk of her life in Hong Kong, the United States, and Singapore. She has a B.A. in Psychology (with Honours) from Yale-NUS College and an M.A. in Psychology from UBC.
“Social biases are multi-faceted, and can exist not just within individual people, but also as part of the broader institutions or systems we live in.”
What can students expect to learn or experience in your mini school?
Through this course, we hope students can get a deeper understanding of the psychological science underlying social biases—why, and to what effect, people might treat or judge others who have certain identities differently. We'll cover evidence for the psychological origins of these biases, discuss research on specific biases (e.g., based on gender, race, class), and examine their consequences for relevant outcomes like inequality and cooperation. Finally, we will discuss experimental evidence for strategies that aim to change or reduce these biases. Social biases are multi-faceted, and can exist not just within individual people, but also as part of the broader institutions or systems we live in. In this course, we hope to examine the ways biases might manifest at these different levels of society.
What makes this mini school a valuable choice for high school students who are curious about psychology?
For students interested in dipping their toes in psychology, this course could be a helpful entry point because it tackles a topic that is very relevant to many real-world issues in society (e.g., inequality, conflict). Examples for the psychological theories and research that we will discuss in the course can be easily observed in the world around us, and students may find something in this course that they can strongly relate to. More broadly, this course will demonstrate how psychology can have implications for understanding and solving real-world issues. Students who are interested in pursuing a degree or career that deals directly with these social issues, ranging from social justice to diversity initiatives, could find this course especially valuable.
How does your teaching or research background shape the way you approach this course?
As the co-instructors of this course, both Gabrielle and I (Jess) are passionate about research on social biases. We are both Ph.D. students in the psychology department here in UBC, and have spent the last 3-4 years leading, designing, and executing experiments on this topic. As part of the Social Cognitive Development Lab, I have expertise in studying how children develop biases related to social status and leadership. Meanwhile, in the Emotion and Self Lab, Gabrielle has focused on the role of emotions and beliefs that could lead to, and sometimes, reduce biases related to race and nationality.
For me, this is my second time teaching this course, and I am excited to use the positive feedback I received last year to designing an even better experience for mini-school students with Gabrielle. This past year, I was also an instructor for one of the introductory undergraduate psychology courses here in UBC, an experience that definitely taught me the value of hands-on learning in the classroom. So, our approach to this course will involve a variety of interactive activities (not just lectures). We hope we can use our research and teaching experience to make it fun and engaging for students.
What is one unique activity, lab component, or hands-on experience that students will get to try during the program?
During the program, students will get to take part in a real psychology lab meeting, where ongoing research on social biases at UBC will be discussed and presented. Here, students will have the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of psychologists and immerse themselves in the process of designing and evaluating a live research project. Throughout the course, we will also have a variety of interactive activities, such as participating in simulations of actual psychology experiments.
