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All TRAILS Resources
All TRAILS Resources
May 31, 2023

Browse the entire collection of TRAILS resources here.

Stranger Danger
Yvette Jean
Stranger Danger: Everyday Life in Public Space
February 5, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Community, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Urban Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This class activity helps students think sociologically about interacting with strangers in public. Students work collaboratively to identify taken-for-granted behaviors and share breaches of Civil Inattention during informal class presentations. This activity...

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Students studying in a library
Michel Estefan
Classical Sociological Theory
February 4, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Theory
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 100
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines theories about how the modern world emerged. In other words, this course is about how the world you live in came into existence. These theories have defined sociology as a discipline and continue to...

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The exterior of a museum
Alyssa Lyons
Experiential Learning in Sociology: Exploring the Role of Settler Colonialism in Museum Education
January 31, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Education, Knowledge, Race, Class and Gender, Visual Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Essay
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:

Experiential learning helps students apply sociological concepts to the social world (Holtzman & Menning, 2015). This experiential project was developed for an upper-level sociology course exploring global and cross-cultural perspectives on education and...

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Zombies trying to break through a door
Sheri-Lynn Kurisu
Zombie Sociology
January 31, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Criminal Justice, Criminology/Delinquency, Education, Family, Labor and Labor Movements, Law and Society, Medical Sociology, Other, Penology/Corrections, Race, Class and Gender, Sex and Gender, Social Control, Teaching and Learning in Sociology, Work and Labor Markets
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
Any Level, College 400
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

Zombie Sociology invites students to exercise their sociological imaginations by using the lens of a zombie apocalypse to critically examine social institutions and social structures.

In the last decade, zombies have invaded popular culture,...

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Scrabble pieces spell out the words social media
Jacqueline Zalewski
Verbal Social Media Posts Assignment
January 31, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Urban Sociology, Work and Labor Markets
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the verbal social media post assignment is to get students to reflect on and discuss current social issues in a conversational “town hall” format. The assignment is designed to strengthen students’ sociological...

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Portrait Photo of Woman Holding Up a Magnifying Glass Over Her Eye
Angel Navarro, Kristen Discola
Shifting Lenses: Invoking the Sociological Imagination to Explore How Social Positions Shape Interpretation
January 2, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Other, Social Psychology, Visual Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This class activity utilizes an online discussion board to enhance students' understanding of how social positions influence individual interpretation. Students analyze a single image from the perspectives of two contrasting social categories, fostering...

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Pennies falling out of a vase across a table
Zach Rubin
Life Still Happens
November 21, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Economic Sociology, Family, High School Sociology, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Race, Class and Gender, Social Welfare/Social Work, Sociological Practice, Stratification/Mobility
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, High School
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

An update to Dr. Tracy Ore’s “Life Happens” activity (2015), “Life Still Happens” is a class activity designed to illustrate and help students apply the sociological concept of life chances (Weber 1978). Students create or are assigned to “families” tasked with...

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Two students studying
Maria Scaptura
’Learning Sociology through Social Research’: A Research Methods Course Syllabus
October 24, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Other, Qualitative Methodology, Quantitative Methodology, Research Methods
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

The Social Research course is a semester-long (15-week) course at the 3000-level. It was designed as 6-units walking students through the process, methodologies, analysis, evaluation, and finally, real-world applications of social research. At the beginning of the...

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A pile of Pokemon cards
Edward Smith
Teaching Durkheim’s Sociology of Religion through Pokémon
October 24, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Religion, Teaching and Learning in Sociology, Theory
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity, Lecture, PowerPoint
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to examine Emile Durkheim’s structural framework from his book on Elementary Forms of Religious Life to explore Pokémon Platinum and its religious elements present within the game. Using Durkheim's theoretical framework from...

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spoons on a plate
Anna Penner
Spoon Theory: An In-class Activity Examining Disability and Ableism
October 9, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Disabilities
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This disability activity uses the sociological imagination and the social model of disability to highlight how society disables chronically ill and disabled individuals. Utilizing the spoon theory, students work through a week of their life with varying numbers of...

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