Demography - American Sociological Association

Grading:
A Midterm Exam that will count for 20 percent of your grade. It will be a combination of
multiple-choice and essay questions. Review questions will be handed out prior to the exam.
Note that there is no makeup exam. If you have a valid excuse for missing the midterm exam, the
weight of the missed exam will be added to the final exam.
A Take-Home Final Exam that will count for 25 percent of your grade. It will be comprehensive
in nature. It will be handed out on the last day of class and will be due one week later during final
exam week (see the Course Calendar).
A Set of 3 Assignments, incorporating the use of the Internet and the World Population Data
Sheet. Each assignment will be worth 5 percent of your grade; so all 3 combined will count for
15 percent of your grade in the class.
A Term Project that will involve your choosing between one of the two options listed at the end
of this syllabus. You will need to let me know what you are going to do by the 22 nd of
September. On that date you will be required to turn in to me a one-to-two paragraph proposal
for your project. The term project will count for 30 percent of your grade.
Class Participation will count for 10 percent of your grade. This means that I expect that you will
attend class and participate mentally, even if not necessarily verbally.
Note that while the requirements are the same for graduate and undergraduate students, I will hold
graduate students to a higher standard for grading purposes on each of the class assignments.
Course Calendar:
Week 1: No Class-Labor Day
Week 2:
Topics:
Introduction to the class
Overview of the world’s population problems—where are we and how did we get here
Readings:
Weeks Preface, 1
Newbold Introduction
Video: Population Growth
Week 3:
Topics:
Overview of population problems, continued
Overview of the interaction of population growth and environmental change
Demographic data and resources—how do we know what we know
Overview of Census 2000 in US and Mexico
Readings:
Skim Weeks 12
Weeks 2
htttp://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf, Chapter 1 “Size and Composition”
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