Dr. Deborah T. Gold
Spring, 2003

Course Requirements

Your grade will be based in large part on your performance on two major assignments: a mid-term paper and a final, longer research paper. The midterm paper can be on any topic discussed in class prior to its due date and should illustrate how well you apply concepts that we learn in the course to this point. This ability is more important than memorizing factual material. The subject matter of this course, how materials are presented, and the readings are all better suited to papers than to other testing formats. In addition, this course has a W (Writing) designation for Curriculum 2000 which is better served by papers.

The final research paper will be on a topic of your choice related to aging and health. I reserve the right to veto topics, so you should get yours approved before you begin. The paper will be due on the final day of class (April 22) at the beginning of class and should be approximately 20 pages in length. Peer-reviewed journal articles provide the best sources; Internet sites are unacceptable for academic research. NOTE: If you provide a URL (e.g., www.XXXX.com) in your bibliography, your grade on the paper will be lowered one grade.

In addition to the papers, you have a Journal Article Review requirement (explained on page 3) and a LEAPS requirement (explained below).

LEAPS (Learning through Experience, Action, Partnership, and Service)

In addition to your papers and journal article assignments, this class has a required LEAPS or Service Learning component. If you are unfamiliar with LEAPS, you will learn quickly as someone from the LEAPS program will also be in to talk with us very soon. LEAPS gives you the opportunity to "learn while doing" and also exposes you to sides of human development and life that you might not otherwise see. For this class, the LEAPS coordinator will help you find a volunteer placement at a local organization serving senior citizens (nursing home, life care community, senior center or whatever). To meet the LEAPS requirement for the class, you must do the following:

1. Spend a minimum of two hours a week or 20 total hours during the semester at an approved LEAPS site. (Week 1 of classes and spring break do not count.)

Keep a journal of those 20 hours, recording special circumstances or experiences and identifying what you learn while volunteering. This is not a diary; simply listing your activities is insufficient. The journal must have 10 entries, 1 per 2 hour block. Each entry should be 1 handwritten page in length. If you prefer to type, that's fine. Journal due the final day of class (April 22).

2. Reflection sessions will be held at intervals during the semester. These are sessions run by the LEAPS student coordinators that give you an opportunity to discuss your experiences as well as hear about those of the other students. It is also a place where gripes can be discussed (though they shouldn't just turn
into gripe sessions). You will need to attend four (4) reflection sessions during the semester. The leaders will keep attendance records and give them to me at the end of the semester.

Students who have participated in this before have not only learned a great deal from it but have also really enjoyed it! If you have questions, please feel free to ask. Questions about grading should go to me; questions about volunteering and placements should go to the facilitators.

Grades will be calculated on the following basis:

Borderline grades can be positively affected by participation in class discussion.

Books: We have three required books this year.

Austad, S.A. (1997). Why We Age. New York: John Wiley & Sons. (Paperback)

Warshofsky, F. (1999). Stealing Time: The New Science of Aging. New York: TV Books.

Koch, T. (1990). Mirrored Lives: Aging Children and Elderly Parents. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Syllabus

Journal Article Bibliography

Directions: On your syllabus under readings, some of the topics have "journal article" listed. For those days, you should look the topic up on pages 4-6 of this syllabus, find suggested journal articles, and read at least one article.

There are eight (8) sessions with "journal article" as the reading assignment. For each one, you need to type on a single page, the authors' names, the year, the title of the article, the name of the journal (underlined), the volume number (underlined), and the page numbers. Then type a one paragraph brief description of the study or studies described in the article (or the topic of discussion in the article). Finally, type a single paragraph on whether you agree or disagree with the article and why.

These journal article summaries are due on the date on the syllabus, and their cumulative total will be worth 10% of your grade. You will get either a plus (A), a check (C), or a minus (D) as a grade on each of these.

Choices of journal articles are available at the Sociology web site under Soc 163. They are all in .pdf format that you can copy to your computer or print. They are labelled with both topic and number (Coping, the 5th topic, has four possible articles called Coping 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4. )

If you have questions about these assignments, please see Dr. Gold.

Sample Heading for Journal Article Page

Your name
Sociology 163
Date

Journal Article #?

Gold, D.T. (2002). Fly fishing in America. The Fly Fishing Quarterly, 4, 110-121.

Articles submitted without proper citations as headings will be returned for correction.

Sociology 163: Journal Article Topics