Requirements
How your final grade is calculated
Special note
Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Students in need of disability accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have been approved by the Office of Disability and Support Services, as indicated in your DSS accommodation letter.
Attendance and class participation
Attendance in class is mandatory. Missing more than two classes will affect your final grade. Class participation involves (a) doing the readings by the day they're assigned, (b) joining in class discussions, and (c) bringing to class a set of empirical questions or interests that you'll refine and pursue through class discussions, Moodle activities and the final research proposal.
A note about using technology in this course: I'm happy to let you use laptops and iPads to do the electronic readings and to take notes. Please be conscientious when using these technologies. If you find your reading comprehension suffers because you don't have a hard copy to write notes in, then print the electronic readings out. And please limit your use of laptops and iPads in the classroom to note-taking and internet browing of course materials only. If your use of these technologies distracts yourself, other students, or me, you may be asked to turn off your wi-fi or your device.
Student CHIP assignment
You'll select one of the chapter sub-sections after Chapter 1 (i.e., #4-29) in Carter's Doing Sociology with Student CHIP and answer all of its questions. Hand in a paper (or print out the pages of the digital textbook) with final answers and all required crosstabulations and graphs.
Survey evaluation
You'll evaluate the original Poughkeepsie Plenty food security survey. Further instructions will be given out in class.
Midterm
An open-book midterm will be given out in two parts. On March 3, a question based on the reading will be handed out at the end of class. You'll come to class on March 5 with your work on that question on a laptop, then answer another question during the class period and e-mail the completed essay to me at the end.
Fieldwork exercise
You'll conduct field research in an open public setting and turn in a report containing detailed field notes, several hypotheses based on your observations, and a discussion of your fieldwork's sociological relevance. Further instructions will be given out in class.
Poughkeepsie survey essay
You'll administer surveys in the City of Poughkeepsie on one of the Poughkeepsie food security "survey days" scheduled on April 11 and 18 (both Saturdays). From this experience, you'll write a 4-5 page essay discussing the effectiveness of structured surveys and the ethical issues raised by survey administration. Extra credit for taking part in more than one Survey Day!
Research proposal
In a 10-15 page paper, you'll propose an original research project. You'll briefly explain its sociological relevance; discuss the existing scholarship on your topic by finding and reviewing two sociology journal articles; formulate testable hypotheses; discuss questions of objectivity, ethics, and sampling; and design a measurement instrument (e.g., a survey, fieldwork methods, experiment, content analysis) that could actually be used to carry out the research.
For specific instructions on this assignment, click here.
Take-home final exam
A take-home exam will be distributed on the last day of class, May 8, to be turned in on May 12. |