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TRAILS Featured Resources
TRAILS Featured Resources
February 23, 2023

TRAILS, the Teaching Resources and Innovation Library for Sociology, provides a way for you to easily locate peer-reviewed teaching materials, showcase your teaching ideas, develop professionally, and join a community of scholarly teachers. You will find great assignments, syllabi, lectures, and other teaching ideas at TRAILS. Please also consider submitting your great ideas for teaching. The Featured Resources include some of the newest additions to our collection.

-Stephanie Medley-Rath
TRAILS Lead Editor

TRAILS logo with gold star superimposed on the lower right corner. Logo is composed of four vertical bars in varying shades of blue.
A woman shopping in a grocery store reaches for produce
Trenton Ellis, Michael Hollingsworth
Grocery Run: Teaching the Social Model of Disability through a Virtual Field Experience Activity that Combines a Podcast with Google Street View
June 9, 2026
Subject Area(s):
Aging/Social Gerontology, Development, Disabilities, High School Sociology, Medical Sociology, Theory, Urban Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

Google Maps Street View can be an effective tool for assessing social factors affecting accessibility, inclusion, and disability (Seekins, Traci, and...

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A teenaged girl smoking.
Jaclyn Tabor
The Teenage Bill of Rights: Social Construction of Adolescence from 1945 to the Present
April 7, 2026
Subject Area(s):
Children and Youth, Communication and Information Technologies, Comparative Sociology/Historical Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Education, Socialization
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity, Film List
Class Level(s):
College 200, College 300
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This resource uses the documentary Teenage (Matt Wolf, 2013) and the New York Times “Teenage Bill of Rights” (1945) to help students analyze adolescence as a socially constructed life stage. Students watch the film in class with two structured pause...

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An overview shot of two cheesburgers, French fries, and drinks.
Ellen Meiser
Sociology of Food Syllabus
March 17, 2026
Subject Area(s):
Other
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

This syllabus is created for a 17-week long, upper-division in-person Sociology of Food course designed with an interdisciplinary Food Studies approach. Using literature and research from all corners of the food world— journalism,  cultural studies, emotions,...

Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX
A view of the backs of a group of college students walking toward a university building
Reginald Byron
Teaching about ‘Racialized Space’ on Campus
March 11, 2026
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Race, Class and Gender, Racial and Ethnic Relations
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

Recent scholarship urges us to examine the physical and social spaces at universities including their historic statues, building portraits, and meeting spaces because these purported colorblind environments are often saturated with racialized meaning. This class...

Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX
close up of the end of a gun
Reginald Byron
Teaching about the Social Structure of Fatal Gun Violence Using Interactive Maps
February 12, 2026
Subject Area(s):
Criminal Justice, Criminology/Delinquency, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Stratification/Mobility
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

Despite the increasing availability of online interactive maps and empirical evidence of how using them improves student learning outcomes, their use in sociology and criminology classrooms is limited. The following full class period activity was designed to allow...

Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX
Bottles of hot sauce
Michael Ohsfeldt, M.J. Vickers
Teaching Research Interviewing through Analyzing Celebrity Interviewing in Hot Ones
February 4, 2026
Subject Area(s):
Art/Music, Communication and Information Technologies, Cultural Sociology, Emotions, Ethnomethodology/Conversational Analysis, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Leisure/Sports/Recreation, Mass Communication/Public Opinion, Occupations/Professions, Other, Qualitative Methodology, Research Methods, Social Psychology, Sociological Practice, Teaching and Learning in Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 200, College 300, College 400, Graduate
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

This resource contains a multi-step, iterative assignment with an in-class content analysis activity followed by an out-of-class repetition of the same activity. To increase students’ engagement with the material, the assignment focuses on a celebrity interview on...

Cover Page Requires Subscription PDF
A student coding field notes
Michel Estefan
Practicing Ethnography with Visual Media: A Step-by-Step Assignment Using Downtown Abbey
December 9, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Cultural Sociology, Ethnography, Political Sociology, Qualitative Methodology, Research Methods, Teaching and Learning in Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300, College 400, High School
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This applied exercise introduces students to the practice of ethnographic analysis through close observation of visual media. Using Downton Abbey as a case study, students learn to produce rich, reflexive field notes, code their observations into central...

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An outline of a family showing different sex parents, a child, and a stroller
Jamie Oslawski-Lopez, Jaclyn A. Tabor
Is it “All Right” to Refuse to Have Children With One’s Spouse?
December 9, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Family, Sex and Gender
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity, Lecture, PowerPoint
Class Level(s):
College 200, College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This lecture and class activity explores Americans’ attitudes about fertility decision-making among different-sex, married couples. Instructors use the PowerPoint slides to engage students in survey research, review findings from Oslawski-Lopez and Tabor’s (2024)...

Cover Page Requires Subscription PDF Requires Subscription PPTX
Someone working on a laptop using ChatGPT
Tamanna Shah
Seeing with Machines: A Reflexive Ethnography of AI Systems in Everyday Life
July 23, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Ethnography, Science and Technology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
Any Level, Graduate
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:

Students conduct a reflexive ethnography of their everyday AI interactions, keeping field notes and analyzing how AI shapes perception, behavior, and identity. Instead of being passive users, it challenges students to reveal the invisible processes shaping their...

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An arial view of suburban neighborhoods
Elizabeth Klainot-Hess
Class Activity: Analyzing Residential Racial Segregation Using Census Data and an Interactive Map
July 8, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Demography, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Public Policy, Race, Class and Gender, Racial and Ethnic Relations, Social Change, Urban Sociology, Visual Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

In this classroom activity students will use an interactive map based on 2020 Census data to identify and analyze residential racial segregation across the United States.  Using the black-white dissimilarity index, students will describe and analyze residential...

Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX

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