SOC 352 Course Project – Social Change Summary Plan

Part of thinking about social change involves examining how you personally relate to thematerials. The goal of this project is to analyze a social problem at your community level, anddevise a summary plan for making social change, which should include statistics from the U.S.Census (or the U.N. statistics for international students and students living abroad) andconnections to at least 3 major concepts from the Massey text that fit with your summary plan.You may also choose to optionally include additional peer-reviewed, academic sources to supportyour plan.The project should utilize the summary plan template available for download in theCourse Project Guidelines section. There are 4 steps to the assignment:Step 1: Locate Your Social Problem StatisticsGo to the U.S. Census website to find community-level data on your hometown, current citywhere you live, or another city that you would like to explore. If you would like, you may choose1) to focus only on the one city of your choice, or 2) do a comparative study of your city vs.another city that may be smaller or larger, more rural or urban, etc. Go to the U.S. CensusAmerican Factfinder and enter the city or zip code in to the search box:http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtmlOnce you have found the data you will use, create a graph or chart in your Word document tographically depict the numbers and be sure to add a graph title, proper labels, and provide asource citation for the Census data. From the Word toolbar, simply select to insert a chart andenter the numbers from the data on the U.S. Census page to create your graph. If you need helpwith this, please visit the Microsoft page for how to insert a chart. (I recommend making a barchart but it is up to you how you choose to graphically present the data.)International students and students living abroad only: You may choose a U.S. city youare interested in exploring, or you may choose to focus on a social problem in your area. Use theUN statistics website instead of the U.S. Census to research your social problem and find data inyour area. The website is:http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/wphc/default.htmYou may also choose to use Census statistics from the country’s website. If you find statistics ona different website than the U.N. or U.S. Census listed above, send me an email with theinformation to gain approval for using it. Failure to get approval to use statistics from a differentwebsite than listed here may result in zero or reduced credit for the project. Follow thedirections above for creating your graph and move on to Step 2 once you have located your data.Step 2: Research Course Concepts to Support Your Social Change PlanIncorporate at least 3 major concepts/topics from our course to build your project, and cite theMassey textbook (at least 3 times) in your summary plan. You may also choose to use outsideacademic sources as well if it helps to build your plan. (See the helpful information in the CourseProject section below these guidelines for strategies on using the library database to search foracademic, peer-reviewed articles.) SOC 352 – Jennifer L. Harrison, PhD 1 Step 3: Research Existing Community OrganizationsLocate at least 2 organizations that help provide change for the social problem you are focusingon. Are these accessible directly in your community? If yes, how are they involved? If they aren’tinvolved in your community, how might they or an organization similar to it be able to help?What steps can be taken to further help and for you or others to get involved in making change? Step 4: Write Your Social Problem Summary and Plan for Social ChangeNow that you have found your social issue, statistics that show how it is a problem, and thearticles and research to help explain your perspective, it is time to write up your report.Download and follow the template provided for each of the sections, which include the following:•• • Introduce your topic and the community (or communities) of your choice. Give adescription of the social problem, and include your graph. Why is it significant to makechanges?Lay out a plan for change. How do you see the best course of action for makingchanges? What specifically do you think needs to be done? What do you think will bedifficult to overcome, and what can we do about it? Are there organizations alreadyhelping, and what would be most helpful?Provide a conclusion that wraps up your summary and plan and provide ideas for futureinvolvement. Grading Rubric for Course ProjectThere are 6 components on which the final project is judged that add to a total of 45 points.