SO 184:  Population

Course Syllabus:  Spring of 2008

Sean's Brazil Project

Review Groups

Project Outline

Population Comparisons:  Africa and Europe;  Russia and the United States;  India and China

Program of the Annual Meetings of the Population Association of America, 2008, New Orleans, April 17-19


Dennis Hodgson:  DMH 214, ext. 2785, hodgson@mail.fairfield.edu
Office Hours, Spring 2008
Tuesdays: 8:30 - 9:30 AM
Wednesday: 8:00 - 8:45 AM
10:00 - 10:45 AM
Friday 10:20 - 11:00 AM
and by appointment

Registered Students:  Please fill out the Student Information Form for So 184 and then take a Population Quiz

Find out your grades in the course (your "class password" is needed):  So 184 Grades

Basic texts:

Population, 10th edition (2008), by John R. Weeks.  Visit the author's website for additional Internet resources for each chapter's material.

World Population Prospects the 2006 Revision (United National, Population Division, 2007).  Web Edition.
This work is available Online.  You can either print it, or simply read it Online.  Just about all the data that we will be using in our country comparisons will be coming from the United Nation's World Population Prospects:  The 2006 Population Database.   World Population Prospects the 2006 Revision provides chapters that briefly highlight world and regional patterns for the demographic trends and projections that you will be examining for your two countries.  Knowing these trends will be very useful when you try to determine how distinctive your particular countries' patterns are. 


Special Classroom and Schedule:

So 184 will meet once a week on Tuesdays, from 2:00 to 4:30 P.M.   The class will be limited to 20 students and we will be using an especially equipped classroom, CNS 304.   Each student will be working on their own networked computer.  Every class meeting will include a variety of activities:  discussion of readings, project activities, Internet searches, and demographic exercises.

PROJECT --  60% of Final Grade

This course is built around an on-going  project.  During the first class you will be given two countries, one economically developed and one less developed.  Throughout the course you will apply what you have learned to a comparison of your two countries' populations.  Part of each class session will be spent compiling the data needed for your weekly comparison.  Each week a section of the project will be due.  I will grade and return it the following week.   You will need to have a "USB Drive" that you bring to class.  A projection "section" will be a Word file containing all the charts, analysis, and additional material required in the project description. You will email it to me before class and also save it on your USB Drive.  You also need to keep and have ready access to all the completed sections of your project since many times one week's project work will use data/analysis from earlier sections.

Policy on the submission of sections:

  1. sections have to be e-mailed to "hodgson@mail.fairfield.edu" before the beginning of class.  Of course, you can submit these sections earlier.
  2. a section submitted after the beginning of class on its due date will be reduced a letter grade when evaluated.
  3. a section will not be accepted if submitted more than a week late, and will be evaluated as an "F."
See a list of country choices:  Country Pairings
See a detailed description of the project:  Project Outline.

QUIZZES --  30 % of Final Grade

There will be a short quiz on the readings each week.  If you take all the quizzes, then your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

Each week one of four "Review Groups" will present a 30 minute reviews of the readings for that week before the class takes the quiz.  This entails members of the Review Group closely reading the assignment for the week and formulating questions that cover the reading's basic points.  These questions you will ask fellow class members to answer... so try and make them reasonable ones.   A reviewer should have his or her questions written on an index cards that contain the question, the answer, and the page of text from which it comes.  A reviewer can also make use of the Power Point presentation that is available for each chapter in the textbook.  A reviewer should be prepared to answer any questions that students have about the reading.  A reviewer can begin his or her review by asking me to clarify any difficult points or ideas that are covered in the reading.  

Participation/Attendance  --  10 % of Final Grade

The participation of all students in class activities is essential for accomplishing the goals of this course.  Attendance will be noted carefully.  Since missing one class constitutes missing a week of class, please count on attending every class.

Attendance Grade
Number of Missed Classes
Percent of Participation/Attendance Component Possible:
0 classes missed
Entire 10%
1 class missed
8%
2 classes missed
5%
3 or more classes missed
0%

Course Schedule 
Date Topic
 Readings Project
Jan. 15
 Course Overview --- Country Assignments
Research Section 1:  Country Profiles
Jan. 22 Population Growth
Review Group 1
 Weeks:  Chapter 2
U.N.:  Population Growth
 E-mail in Section 1
Research Section 2:  Population Growth
Jan. 29
 Mortality
Review Group 2
 Weeks:  Chapter 5
U.N.:  Mortality
 E-mail in Section 2
Research Section 3: Mortality
Extra Material:  New York Times article:  "So Big and
Healthy Grandpa Wouldn't Even Know You"
 Feb. 5
 Fertility
Review Group 3
 Weeks:  Chapter 6
U.N.:  Fertility
 E-mail in Section 3
Research Section 4: Fertility
Feb. 12 Migration
Review Group 4
 Weeks:  Chapters 7
U.N.:  Migration
 E-mail in Section 4
Research Section 5: Migration
Feb. 19 no class
(monday class schedule)
 .
 .
Feb. 26
 Age-Sex Composition
Review Group 1 		Weeks:  Chapter 8
E-mail in Section 5
Research Section 6: Age/Sex Composition
Mar. 4 no class
Spring Break		 . .
Mar. 11
 Preparing for Population
Projections
Review Group 2 		Weeks:  Chapter  1 E-mail  in Section 6  
Research Section 7
Mar. 18 Population Projections
Review Group 3 		Weeks:  Chapter  4
U.N.:  Projections 		E-Mail in Section 7
Research Section 8/LDC
Extra Material: GIS and Census Combined::
"Historical US Country Census Maps
Mar. 25
 Demographic Theory
Review Group 4 		Weeks:  Chapter 3
 Research Section 8/MDC
Apr. 1
 Gender
Review Group 1		 Weeks:  Chapter 10 E-mail in Section 8
Research Section 9: Gender Equity
Apr. 8 Urban Revolution
Review Group 2 		 Weeks:  Chapter 9 E-mail in Section 9
Research Section 10: Urbanization
Apr. 15
 Population & Development
Review Group 3 		Weeks:  Chapter 11 E-mail in Section: 10
Research Section 11: Population/Development
Apr. 22
 Population Policy
Review Group 4		 Weeks:  Chapter 12
U.N.:  Aging
 E-mail in Section 11
Research Section 12:  Population Policy
Apr. 29
 Policy Presentations
Course Assessment
 no readings
 		E-mail in Section 12
Putting the 12 sections together, Front page template

Course web page: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so184/So184syl.htm.   You can type this line directly into the "location" box on your web browser and hit enter.  You can also get to this page by following a trail from Fairfield University's web site (http://www.fairfield.edu):  Go to "Academics," "The College of Arts and Sciences," "Sociology and Anthropology," "Course Home Pages," "Dennis Hodgson," "So 184: Population."

mailto:hodgson@mail.fairfield.edu   hodgson@mail.fairfield.edu

To  So 184 Project Outline Page