Introduction to Sociology using Computers
A93.0001.003
Professor Caroline Hodges Persell
Department of Sociology, New York University
Fall 2005
Group Project and Assignments
Revised last 8/24/05
________________________________________________________________
In your labs, each of you will be randomly assigned to a project group
comprised of four to six people. You will work in this group to research,
analyze, write, and orally present your group research project. There are
a number of reasons for working in groups. Since you are studying groups
and societies, you will get some chance to apply sociological understandings
you are obtaining. You will also be developing intergroup
skills that will be very useful to you in your work, community, and family
lives after college. Finally, you will be able to do a more extensive
project than one person working alone could do, and you will learn a great deal
from each other in the process.
This page includes five parts: 1 )
Possible Questions to Investigate in Your Project, 2)
Elements of the Project and the Final Report, 3) A Summary of Group Project
Steps, 4) A Timetable of Tasks and Intermediate Assignments, 5) Hints for
Working Well in Groups, and 6) Useful Library Resources and Links.
1) Possible Questions to Investigate in
Your Project
1) What is the
status of women and men in society, and how has it changed?
2) Is education related to the social characteristics
of the communities in which it is offered?
How? With what
possible consequences?
3) What social factors are related to medical epidemics,
and how do they operate?
4) Do
Democrats and Republicans mean the same thing by moral values? Why or
why not?
5) What social
factors are related to natural disasters, and with what consequences?
6) How does
the U.S. compare to other countries in the world with respect to wealth and earnings
inequality? How might you explain any
differences that have been observed?
7) What are the likely consequences of wealth and earnings
inequality in a society?
8) How do the “rules of
the game” affect the distribution of valued resources in a social system?
9) What
is happening to crime rates? What explanations exist for changes in the
rates of criminal activity and how do they relate to crime rates?
10) Is the middle class in the United States under stress? If so, how and why?
11)
What sociological explanations are there for school shootings? How do they compare with other types of
explanations that have been offered?
12)
How have the news media and politics been related to each other over the
history of the U.S.? Have changes occurred in that
relationship? How or why have they
happened?
13)
Do all immigrant groups fare equally well when they migrate to the U.S.?
Why or why not?
14)
Can images affect social change?
How can we tell if they do?
Through what processes might they operate?
15)
Is the big media in the U.S. collapsing? Why, or why not?
16)
Are laws about voter eligibility related to racial threat? If so, how or why?
2) Elements of the Project and the Final
Report
I.
A refined statement of your question. What is already known about this
question in the research literature?
II. Definitions of the relevant concepts
in your question and articulation of relevant theories. Statement of hypotheses or questions based on those concepts and
theories. What is your
independent and dependent variable? How
are those variables operationalized? Who or what are you going to compare in your
analysis? Why?
III. What data are most useful for addressing your
question? What relevant data did you find and analyze to address your
question? Present that data in your report. How do you interpret those data? What
are the limitations of the data?
IV. What are the limitations of the analysis you have done?
V. How does what you have found relate to what you
have learned in this course? Be
specific.
VI. What new sociological questions does your work
suggest?
VII. A full bibliography of all sources cited, using American
Sociological Association style for citing references.
Parts I-V need to be connected. The final
paper needs to have coherence, flow, advance an argument, and support it with
data (of various kinds).
3) Summary of Group Project Steps
Rank
order preferred research questions.
Receive
research question you will investigate.
Group Project 1 Refine
and reformulate the research question.
Group Project 2 Locate
relevant abstracts of refereed journal articles.
Group Project 3 Assess
and review the most relevant abstracts you have found. Critically review the literature that
pertains to your research question.)
Read the articles of the most relevant abstracts. Keep an on-going bibliography with full
citations to the sources you are using.
Group Project 4 Revise the way you formulate your
research question in light of what you have learned from the literature.
Group Project 5 Find data that are relevant to your
newly formulated research question.
Group Project 6 Write
up the analysis of the data you have found.
Outline
the project.
Write
a complete draft of the project report.
Revise
the draft of your report in light of feedback received.
Prepare
the final draft of your written report.
Prepare
and present the oral report on your project.
4)
A Timetable of Tasks and Intermediate Deadlines
Fri.
9/16: Get group member assignments from the course Blackboard
(BB) website.
9/20
& 22: Rank the questions listed
above according to your preferences for working on them. It is very
important that everyone in the group have a voice in ranking the
questions. Perhaps you can have group members rank their individual
preferences so that even if everyone does not get his/her first choice s/he
could at least work on an issue of interest.
Fri.
9/23: Group project questions are
assigned. See BB.
10/4
& 6: Meeting of groups in lab. Work on 1) Stating a refined version of your question(s), 2)
defining the relevant concepts, 3)
identifying your independent and dependent variable, 4) articulating the
sociological theories you think may be relevant, and 5) stating hypotheses or
questions based on those concepts and theories. 6) Indicate who or
what you think you may be going to compare and say why. Individual group
members, prepare for this meeting in advance so you have something to
contribute. Turn in a typed statement of your current reflections on
these five points at the end of lab.
This is Group Project 1. Include the names of all in your group who
worked on it.
10/11
& 13: Groups work in lab searching Sociological Abstracts for theoretical
and research abstracts that relate to your group's question. Turn in
copies of your abstracts at the end of lab. Keep a copy to work on next
week in lab. This is Group Project
2. (See Lab Assignments for more
detail.)
10/18
& 20: Groups work in lab,
refining the key terms used in their searches, sorting the abstracts they have
found with respect to whether they are theoretical or research papers.
For the research papers, have at least two members of your group
analyze each abstract, using the thirteen questions in the lab assignment for
this date. By the end of lab, turn in at least four abstracts that are relevant
for your project, and your typed analyses of them. Do you need to find
more abstracts for your project? This is Group Project 3.
10/25
& 27: Does what you learned from
Group Project 3 change what you wrote in Group Project 1? Discuss this in
lab and turn in a revised version of the six issues addressed in Group Project
1, using Track Changes in MS Word to indicate what is new. This is Group Project 4.
11/1
& 3: In lab this week you will be investigating data
sources that may be used to shed light on the question you are investigating.
What census data resources help to describe the variables in your
question? (See ssdan.org, and CensusScope.) Can you use the General Social Survey (GSS) to
analyze any hypotheses that bear on your project or to describe trends through
time? Look through Healey et al. to see if any of the chapters,
exercises, or projects may relate to your project. Print out and turn in
the GSS and Census data you have found that you think are relevant for your
project. If not, where else might you find relevant data for your
project? Ask us if you need help. This is Group
Project 5. Keep a copy to work on in your groups next week.
11/8
& 10: If you continue to think the data you have found are
relevant for your project, work on analyzing the data
in relation to your question. How does it bear on your question?
Write up this analysis. This
should be the data analysis for your paper.
If you aren’t at this point, ask for help now. In your discussion consider what new
questions your analysis suggests and what are the limitations of your analysis?
This is Group Project 6.
11/15
& 17: Continue to work on your
group projects, investigating other data sources if needed, finding other
theoretical resources, analyzing other abstracts, or whatever else your project
needs. Plan and outline the written
report of your project.
11/22: Complete a draft of the written report of
your project. If you turn in your draft by
class on 11/22, we will give you
feedback by 11/29. Otherwise we will not
be able to give you feedback.
12/6: All final papers are due. Based on the feedback you receive on the
draft of your final paper, revise it as needed.
Prepare group oral presentations, overheads, Powerpoint,
graphs, etc.
12/6,
12/8, 12/13: Oral presentations.
5) Hints for Working Well in Groups
Research on collaborative groups in education and the workplace suggests that
groups work well when:
1) Each member attends
all group meetings (in this case labs and classes).
2) Each member comes
prepared to contribute productively to the tasks facing the group.
3) Each member
participates in group discussion, problem-solving, and work.
4) Group members
treat each other with respect and civility at a minimum, or better yet in a
friendly way.
5) Group members
realize their interdependence, i.e., that the group will not do well unless
every member contributes his/her best effort.
6) Every member
does a fair share of the work.
7)Groups consider assigning roles to
members, such as facilitator, either for a given day or a period of time.
Roles may rotate through time.
8)Group members keep in communication
with each other.
6) Useful Library Resources and Links
Basic Library Links that may be helpful
to you:
Bobst Library Home Page
at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/
Find a book
Search BobCat (NYU’s online catalog)
to find a book, journal title, video, and more, at: http://www.bobcat.nyu.edu/
Step-by-step guide
to finding a book at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/info/instruct/book/
Find an article
Search a database to
find an article on your topic at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/database.htm
Step-by-step
guide to finding articles is at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/info/instruct/article/
Virtual Reference Shelf
Use online dictionaries,
encyclopedias, almanacs, and more at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/vrs.htm
If you are connecting from off-campus
Instructions for
Connecting from off-campus http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/database/proxy.htm
Proxy Configuration
Instructions (call 212-998-3333 if you have problems doing this): http://www.nyu.edu/its/faq/connecting/proxy.html
Sociology Resources
Librarian's
Subject Guide for Sociology by Jim Terry at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/soc/sociolog/
All of Bobst
Library's Social Science-related Databases at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/database/d_soc.htm
Evaluating Web and Print Sources:
Evaluating
Web Sources, a guide prepared by NYU Libraries at http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/info/instruct/evaluate/webeval.htm
Style Guides for Citing Materials:
A general link for
style manuals : http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/vrs/writing.htm
The American Sociological Association Style Guide for preparing papers: http://asanet.org/page.ww?section=Sociology+Depts&name=Quick+Style+Guide+for+Students+Writing+Sociology+Papers
Need
help?
Take a library tutorial
at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/howto.htm
Ask a Librarian at
http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/ask/aska.htm
Take a short
library class (Here's the schedule) http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/info/instruct/sched.htm
Acknowledgments:
I
would like to thank Paula Feid, Jim Terry, and
the other librarians at Bobst Library for their help
with these library weblinks.