PSCI 2012

Syllabus

Lecture Slides

Assignments

• My Mental Map (2 points) – now due Monday, 5/11 

  • When you think about the world, what does your mental map look like? What countries, regions, communities, and settings are your natural points of reference? How does your background influence your worldview? Prepare a slide or image illustrating your mental map and write 1-2 paragraphs explaining your mental map. What have you chosen to include, and why? How does your mental map shape your understanding of politics in the US and around the world? Save your assignment as a PDF or Word document, and email it to me. NOTE: DO NOT copy and paste text or images from AI.

• Current affairs article (3 points) – now due Monday, 5/11

  • Find an article about a current event that interests you. Read the article, write a 2-3 sentence summary of the story, and answer the following questions in 1-2 paragraphs:

    1. Why did you choose this article? What interests you about the story?

    2. How might you use the discipline of comparative politics to analyze this article? Who or what could you compare this to in order to understand the issue/s more deeply?

    3. If you had to develop a hypothesis that explained why this problem or issue occurred, what would you point to as the cause? Why?

  • Include a link to the article, save as a PDF or Word document , and upload it to Canvas. NOTE: You may NOT use an article from your home country. For most of you, that means something outside of the U.S.!

• Discussion Question 1 (1 point) – now due ???

  • Reflecting upon what you have learned this week, what is one thing you would like to clarify and/or learn more about? Post your question to the Canvas discussion board page by 11:59 pm on the due date. NOTE: Ask an open-ended question that generates interest and discussion. Yes/No questions will NOT receive credit. Be mindful of sensitive issues/topics for your peers, and include a trigger warning if you think it is merited.

  • Stay tuned: if we get access to Canvas again, we can still do this one, but for now I'm going to leave it open-ended. No due date yet.

• Quiz 1 (12 points) – CANCELLED (everybody receives 12/12 points)

• Country report (5 points) – due Friday, 5/15 DON'T START THIS ASSIGNMENT YET -- MORE DETAILS (INCLUDING RUBRIC) TO COME

  • Pick a country other than your home country and do some basic research on its history, current form of government, economy, population, and demographics.

  • Create a slide presentation that includes a title page with your name and a references page citing the sources you used.

  • Record yourself and your slides in the style I do in my video lectures. To get full points, both your face and your slides must be visible.

  • For full credit, your video report should be no shorter than 4 minutes and no longer than 7 minutes. 

How to Create Your Video Assignment Using Zoom

1. coming soon!