Course Description

“Try first to understand.”  In our social world, there is much that
is disturbing and sometimes incomprehensible.  Our social world is
composed of many parts that we take for granted and rarely think
about, but which affect us significantly.  This course will help you
understand better your social world.  By understanding better, you
will be able to participate more effectively in your communities,
groups and society.

The course will use sociological concepts, theories, and data to help
in understanding the social world.  We will examine a variety of
current social issues and problems from a sociological perspective.
The practical aspects of sociological understanding will be
emphasized, but the theoretical interpretations will not be excluded.

The course will focus on student-centered learning.  Lectures will be
an important part of the class but will not be the sole form of
learning.  Through reading, writing, analyzing, and discussing the
class materials, the students will learn sociology rather than being
taught sociology.

Class Format

Each class will have three parts – a short quiz, a lecture, and class
discussion of the days assigned reading.  For each class, you will
prepare a one- to three-paragraph summary of the assigned reading.
The short quiz will be one question based on the assigned reading.
The reading summary can be used to help answer the quiz question.
The lecture will provide additional background on the reading.  The
class discussion will focus on a specific issue related to the
reading and the lecture.