Note that you must be registered in both the lecture and a discussion section

• Anemone, R.L. (2005) ANTH 1500: Race, Biology and Culture (AKA The Coursepack: Available at University Bookstore or online at www.dollarbillcopying.com)
• Anemone, R.L. (2004) ANTH 150: Race, Biology and Culture (AKA The Reader: Available at both University and Bernhard Center Bookstores)

Each student should be registered for both the lecture section (Monday AND Wednesday) and a discussion section (Wednesday OR Friday) that is taught by a graduate student Teaching Assistant in Anthropology.  Your TAs can be found during their office hours in Moore Hall Room 1031. They can be reached by email (see below) or by phone at 387-3969.

If you are unable to visit us during office hours, please do not hesitate to make an appointment to see us at a time that is more convenient.

Grading will be based on a midterm exam, a final exam, several writing assignments, and discussion section attendance/participation. The final exam is NOT cumulative: that is, you will only be tested on the material presented since the midterm exam. Exams will be a combination of multiple choice and other objective questions, as well as some short answers, and they will each count for 33% (100 pts each) of your final grade (300 points total). Make-up exams will only be allowed with prior notice to the instructor and with a documented medical excuse or, under extraordinary circumstances, at the instructor's discretion.

Mark on your calendar: the MIDTERM EXAM will take place on Wednesday October 15, and the FINAL EXAM is scheduled for 10:15am-12:15pm on Wednesday December 10.

Attendance and participation at discussion sections (30 points) and two writing assignments (70 points) will count for the final 33% of your grade (see descriptions of the assignments below).

Final grades will be calculated based on a CURVE that is dependent upon the class distribution of grades: we will not give letter grades until the end of the course when all 300 points are accounted for. In general, expect the class mean or average to roughly equate to a low B or high C.

Writing Assignments

There are two major assignments in this class that will involve some writing on your part.

1. Essay Assignment: The State of Affirmative Action in Michigan. (40 points).

1. Michigan has been a battleground for legislative and legal challenges to the use of affirmative action in public higher education in recent years. Research some of this recent history and write an essay of 3-5 pages (double spaced, proof read, spell checked, and properly cited) on the status of affirmative action in Michigan today. You might well consider some of these questions in your essay: What exactly is affirmative action and how has it been practised in Michigan? What are the issues and the positions of the two major political parties on affirmative action? What are the major Supreme Court decisions relating to affirmative action at Michigan's public colleges and universities? What is the current law in the state concerning the use of affirmative action in university admissions, government and public-sector hiring?
2. Be careful not to "cut and paste" material from the Web or any other published source without proper citation. This would be considered plagiarism, a very serious offense on this campus. Provide a complete bibliography of all your sources.
3. Turn in your final essay at your discussion section in the eleventh week of the semester on either Wednesday November 5 or Friday November 7.
4. Late assignments will not be accepted.

• Create a demographic profile of racial and ethnic diversity in your home community  OR
• Research some topic of your choice on race or human adaptation.

1. If you choose the first assignment, use the world-wide web to locate sources of data describing the racial and ethnic makeup of your home community and use these sources to create a "demographic profile" of this community. Your profile might include (but need not be limited to) information on crime and poverty, income, measures of health and health care, and education among the various racial or ethnic populations that are found there. It should include data in the form of tables and graphics, as well as a clear written description of your own interpretation of the significance of the data you present.  The goal is to teach the reader about the diversity in your community. Be sure to include full documentation of the location (i.e., URL) where you found the data you use.
2. If you choose the second assignment, research some aspects or race or human adaptation that has some relevance to topics discussed in this class (preferably not just a rehash of some of the lecture material presented in this class). Your goal here is to create a "learning tool" to educate a reader about the issue of concern. You must receive your TA's approval of your topic before starting the project, and of course you must present complete bibliographic references for your sources (online and/or print).
3. Whichever assignment you choose, this assignment is to be presented as a Powerpoint presentation.. Your presentation should be pleasing to the eye, informative, and interesting, and should utilize the potential of Powerpoint as a learning tool. That means a presentation with nothing but text (i.e., no graphics in the forms of pictures, data tables, and graphs) will not earn a high grade. Please turn the project in as a digital file or files burned onto a cd and it is due at discussion group during the final week of the semester (December 3 (Wed) or 5 (Fri)). 
4. Late assignments will not be accepted.

Each of these assignments should be neatly typed and edited for content, grammar, and spelling before you turn in your final copy. For the journal and essay, be sure to keep a hard copy and at least one additional disc version of the assignments you turn in. In the case of a "lost assignment", the responsibility is yours to turn in an additional copy (or rewrite) of the assignment. For the Powerpoint project, back up your work often.  Last minute computer crashes or lost files are not excuses for missing the deadline for any assignment. In addition, these assignments (and all assignments in this class) are to be done individually and not in groups: the work you turn in must be your own work, with clear citations of all referenced materials and information. See "A Note on Academic Honesty" .

Lecture outlines are NOT available on this website until approximately one week before the midterm and the final exams. Remember that these are only outlines of each lecture and that a good understanding of the lecture material requires that you do the reading assignments and listen to the lectures in class: the outlines by themselves will not prepare you for the exams.

Attendance at discussion sections (W or F) is mandatory and, in combination with participation, will count for 10% of your final grade.