Jordan's Twitter Account

A couple of weeks ago we talked about role models. I posted an image of Neil deGrasse Tyson, and asked if people knew who he was. Folks didn't know him, be certainly everyone knew who Michael Jordan was. The really cool thing about the image above is that Michael Jordan appreciates Neil Tyson, and a great deal more. Jordan, via his Twitter account, seems like a much more complete role model than his basketball fame would suggest.

Just an interesting connection that I ran across today.

Plenty of Opportunity

Several folks expressed concern about wanting to finish with a better grade than they currently have. I want everyone to be clear that there is still plenty of opportunity to improve. There are still about 40 pts of extra credit available, plus improvement between the midterm and final, plus the remaining assignments. You can get a rough estimate of you will likely do on the final grade by adding your current score to your estimate of the # of points you expect from the remaining assignments.

Friday!

Announcements:

1. 2 surveys (brandon's facebook survey and Jeannette's a journalism student) for 10 pts extra credit each. If you didn't get it in your email send an email to brandonbrooks1@gmail.com
2. Gapminder make-up assignment is due next friday.
3. Evaluations for the course can be found on blackboard. Please fill those out
4. Group Projects due March 12th!

Have a great weekend!

Assignment for Tomorrow

This assignment is due in class.

Type up and print your answers to these questions and bring them to class on Friday.

Sociology Notes for Thursday, February 3, 2010

Today, we talked about development and social change. Social change is defined as a change in the distribution of resources, goods, roles, ideas or relationships at a large scale. Social change is often related to institutions, rules, laws and infrastructure.

Development is defined as the growth or creation of new and better systems of exchange as well as new and better systems of infrastructure. This allows for improvement in economic, social and bodily well-being.

Wikipedia Assignment Turn in Thread

Congratulations! You made it!

When you are done with your Wikipedia editing assignment, write it up and post it in the thread below. Make sure you check out the requirements, but basically you need to include urls to the pages you edited, to your user page, and write up your answers to the questions raised in the assignment description.

See recent thread about the assignment: http://sociologynotescomments.blogspot.com/2010/02/wikipedia-edit-assignment-replacement.html

If you have questions about the assignment, ask them in that thread. I will post an example with links in this thread, although I am not going to do the whole description part.

Notes for Monday, March 1st

Today, we talked about poverty. There are two perspectives on poverty: absolute and relative poverty.

Absolute poverty is when individuals do not have the means to secure the basic necessity of life. Relative poverty, however, is when individuals may be able to afford basic necessities, but are still unable to maintain an average standard of living.

Poverty is extremely important because it has repercussions for both the individual and the society. Individuals in poverty experience suffering and the possibility of the risk of ruin. Within society, poverty can lead to disorder, conflict, underproduction, and inefficiency.