ASA logo
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.
Teresa Ciabattari
Getting Students Excited about Quantitative Data Analysis
May 1, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Essay
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
In this essay, I discuss several lessons I have learned for how to successfully engage students in quantitative data analysis, especially in introductory, non-statistics courses. These lessons include offering activities that allow exploration, challenge but do not...
Cover Page Requires Subscription PDF
Reginald A Byron
Sexuality and Cultural Values
February 17, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Sexualities
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Students often enter college believing that sexuality is solely a personal issue. After all, "it’s no one else’s business what goes on in other people’s bedrooms." This exercise challenges students to question this belief. It measures student’s favorability towards...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX
Daniel B Davis
Syllabus and Instructor Page- SOC 382: Intro to Social Research
February 6, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Research Methods
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This syllabus offers an alternative approach to teaching research methods for undergraduates. On one hand this course seeks to accomplish many traditional learning outcomes for a research methods course (e.g. understanding qualitative vs quantitative methods, ability...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX Requires Subscription PDF
Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur
Research Methods Jeopardy
November 2, 2011
Subject Area(s):
Research Methods
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity, PowerPoint
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This resource is a PowerPoint file containing a Jeopardy game used as final exam review in a research methods course focusing on planning a research project and collecting data. The PowerPoint is based on a blank Jeopardy template available online that has been...
Cover Page Requires Subscription PPTX
Katherine B Novak
Using Article Abstracts to Illustrate Research Concepts
November 2, 2011
Subject Area(s):
Research Methods
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
This exercise requires students to read a number of abstracts from the research literature and answer a set of questions related to the research process individually and in a group discussion context. The key concepts covered include: inductive vs. deductive...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX Requires Subscription DOCX Requires Subscription DOC Requires Subscription JPG
Gwen Sharp, Lisa Wade
Illustrating the Social Construction of Race and Racial Stereotypes with Images
October 26, 2011
Subject Area(s):
Race, Class and Gender
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Instructors often encounter resistance when they challenge students’ pre-existing beliefs about race and ethnicity. Students often find the idea that these categories are socially constructed, rather than purely biological, difficult to grasp, if not threatening. We...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
Monika Ulrich
Using Drunk Driving Deaths to Understand Sexual Assault
October 12, 2011
Subject Area(s):
Family
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
EXAMPLE RESOURCE. I challenge student’s ideas about who is responsible to prevent rape by comparing rape to drunk driving deaths. I argue that there is little that an individual can feasibly do to prevent being killed by a drunk driver today. We do not expect...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOCX Requires Subscription JPG Requires Subscription BMP
Gretchen Arnold
WebQuest Project: Poverty and Social Structure
September 27, 2011
Subject Area(s):
Stratification/Mobility
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This WebQuest project is designed to help undergraduates understand the social structural bases of poverty in the U.S. Specifically, students evaluate how useful our employment opportunities and social safety net are for families who do not possess wealth or social...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
An red ocean liner
Chris Salituro
Abandon Ship!
August 31, 2011
Subject Area(s):
High School Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
High School
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
This lesson is a simulation based on real life events. Students will take on a status, role-play based on that status and then debrief the activity. The goal of this simulation is that Students will understand the social construction of individual’s identities;...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
Chris Salituro, Lana Blitstein
Drugs and Deviance
August 31, 2011
Subject Area(s):
High School Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
High School
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
This activity uses real pharmacological descriptions of unnamed drugs as a discussion piece for deviance. Students will be asked to label the drugs as illegal or legal based on the drugs' descriptions. This activity helps to illustrate the relativity of deviance...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC

Our website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience, to increase the speed and security for the site, to provide analytics about our site and visitors, and for marketing. By proceeding to the site, you are expressing your consent to the use of cookies. To find out more about how we use cookies, see our Privacy Policy .