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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.
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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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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Climate justice equals social justice sign at a protest
Rachel Bryant-Anderson
Integrating Climate Justice into a Social Problems Course
September 25, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Environmental Sociology, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Teaching and Learning in Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 200
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This guide describes climate justice-themed content designed for a Social Problems course. While the course covers many distinct “social problems,” it also shows how climate justice relates to each of these problems. Students complete several small assignments...

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A man in the grocery store
Tamika Odum
Separate, Not Equal: Exploring Food Insecurity and Health
September 25, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Medical Sociology, Public Policy, Race, Class and Gender
Resource Type(s):
Assessment, Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This project helps students gain a sociological understanding of food insecurity and health. Students participate in an immersive experience, exploring local grocery stores in Cincinnati. The goal of this activity is to help students use scholarship, interactive...

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A vaccine
Deeb Kitchen
Ethics, Race, and Deception: Analyzing a Historical Medical Study
September 23, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Medical Sociology, Racial and Ethnic Relations
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level, College 100, College 200, College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

This class activity engages students in a critical exploration of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a notorious example of unethical medical research. The activity is particularly well-suited for courses on race and ethnicity, research methods, or medical sociology,...

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A person adjusting their tie
Emily Carian
Masculinities Syllabus
February 29, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Other, Sex and Gender
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This course introduces students to the sociological study of men and masculinities. It is structured around three units: (1) sociological theories of masculinity, (2) masculinity through the life course and across institutions, and (3) masculinity’s intersections...

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plasma ball
Shiv Issar
Issues in Science and Technology Studies
February 29, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Communication and Information Technologies, Cultural Sociology, Ethnography, Knowledge, Law and Society, Organizations, Formal and Complex, Qualitative Methodology, Race, Class and Gender, Science and Technology, Social Change, Theory
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

Science and Technology Studies (STS) represents an interdisciplinary nexus of various academic disciplines. As a field, STS offers excellent tools to not only examine, but also help improve the troubled and ever-evolving relationships between society, the...

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A woman listening to a podcast
Gregory Kordsmeier; Jamie Oslawski-Lopez
Listening to Podcasts for Class: Tips for Success
February 29, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Social Psychology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity, Lecture
Class Level(s):
College 100
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

Assigning podcasts to your classes can be a great way to create a compelling assignment that most students will complete (Oslawski-Lopez and Kordsmeier 2021). At the same time, however, many students, when encountering podcasts in the classroom for the first time,...

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A neighborhood reduced to ash after a wildfire
Ellen Meiser
Sociology of Disaster Syllabus
January 19, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Other
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This syllabus was created for a 17-week long 300-level online, asynchronous Sociology of Disasters course. Inspired by the syllabi of Dr. Lori Peek (Colorado State University), Dr. Lee M. Miller (Sam Houston State University), and Dr. Monika Myers’ syllabus...

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