Recently, psychology classes have been learning about the causes and effects of emotions such as stress and happiness. AP Psychology teachers Mrs. Laura Miniard and Mrs. Tiffany Stewart gave out new extra credit assignments of gratitude and had a de-stress lab day.

One assignment was writing at least two things you were grateful for for five days and the other was writing a thank you letter to someone you wanted to say thank you to. Students could choose to do either or both and got 10/10 for doing one and 15/10 for doing both.

The extra credit assignments on gratitude were a new idea the psych teachers tried this year and were an attempt to help students be more thankful and happy in their lives, in relation to stimulating subjective well-being and reversing relative deprivation.

Some students wrote to teachers they have always wanted to thank. Senior Teddy Weng takes AP Psychology and wrote his letter to a teacher that he has “always wanted to thank for so long” but “never really had the chance/never really had that push” and found the assignment worthwhile.

In addition, AP Psychology students took a day to de-stress on Tues., Feb. 19. They all went to the Commons to spread out and do two of four de-stressing activities such as following a meditation video and coloring a coloring page.

“It was calming for most of the lab. Coloring is something that needs to be done in more classes,” said Adam Kossen, 12, who takes AP Psychology.

The de-stress lab was very relaxing and a nice breath of fresh air from the usual busy, fast-paced school work.