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=Welcome!= Welcome to our class wiki, named after C. Wright Mills' famous work "The Promise of Sociology." This internet platform will serve as an online community space for us to collaborate on sociological research. It will be used primarily for your group projects, but may be used also to generate study guides, clarify concepts, or ask and answer one another's questions. While everyone is welcome to read, I ask that only students currently enrolled in my SO101 course will edit the contents of these pages.

I particularly hope that we can use this space to generate a community that does not need to flow through me. That is, I hope that this format will provide an opportunity for students to develop relationships, hash out concepts, and learn from one another without having to look to the professor as a central authority. To that end I hope you will feel free to (respectfully and responsibly) generate pages of your own. Perhaps a study guide discussion for the first test? A discussion on a relevant topic on campus or from the news? I will only edit such pages for offensive content or organizational purposes (However, the contents of these pages will be held to the same academic standards as any other written or group work on campus).

=Group Projects:= = This semester Introduction to Sociology students will engage in a series of small research projects. These projects are meant to help students achieve several learning goals: =


 * 1) Sufficient mastery of sociological concepts such that they may be applied to the "real" world
 * 2) The ability to use sociological knowledge to generate new information about the social world
 * 3) The ability to work generate comprehensive, professional written work

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In groups of six, students will generate five wikis throughout the semester on a variety of topics. These wikis will follow the format of a professional sociological paper and will count for 20% of your final grade. They will be graded according to the following criteria: ======


 * 1) Professionalism of Writing (no grammar mistakes, clear and concise writing, appropriate citations)
 * 2) Mastery of Concepts (appropriate usage of terms, appropriate definitions, ability to discuss issue using __class__ concepts)
 * 3) Synthesis of Work (clear point to your wiki, tells a story, flow between concepts/sections, comprehensive treatment of concepts/literature)
 * 4) Evidence of Group Work (evidence of collaborative thinking, annotated bibliographies from each group member)

Below you will find a list of the topics for each wiki (this information is also available on Blackboard). Links from this page to your wiki pages will become active as you begin work on each assignment. On your individual group pages I will be able to assess your group work, individual contributions, and mastery of the concepts. At the conclusion of each learning module I will choose the three best wikis (one using each theory) to post as the definitive answers to our research questions. The members of these groups will have earned a 100% on their wiki while all other groups will be judged according to that standard (NOTE: I reserve the right to choose less than 3 if the work does not meet my expectations).
 * 1) @Obesity in the United States and Atchison, Kansas
 * 2) Best Practices for Crisis Pregnancy Centers
 * 3) Understanding U.S. Social Stratification
 * 4) Addressing Educational Inequality
 * 5) Creating Social Change