Commenced Attendance Quiz
This brief quiz will be utilized to establish your attendance in this course per regulations from the U.S. Department of Education. Not completing this quiz could impact your financial aid.
Attendance (5 points per day-approximately 220 pts total)
Much of the integrative learning that occurs in this class comes from lecture and discussions in-class. Attendance is a necessary component of the course experience. Consequently, daily attendance will be taken via a single canvas quiz offered at random times throughout the class period.
Students are allowed 5 (five) free absences without any penalty to their grade. When an emergency, illness or other events arise, you do not need to let me know when you want to use one of your free days, just know I will apply your free days to the missed day. In order to avoid penalty beyond the five days, you will need accommodations from the
Disability Resource Center (DRC)Links to an external site.. Please reach out to them if you experience something that would lead to missing more than 5 days. In the event class is canceled, you will automatically get full points for that day.
Weekly Discussions (10 points each - 140 total)
Discussions provide you an opportunity to think critically about what you are learning, to share this with others, and to learn from your fellow students. Each week a discussion question will be posted. You are expected to create your own response (a minimum of four sentences) and then respond to two other posts (two to three sentences).
Your first response is worth 5 points, with follow-up comments worth 2.5 points each. Please keep in mind this is not a casual text to your friend but a well-thought out response, using professional language including appropriate punctuation, capitalization and grammar. Use of in text citation will add depth to your post. Please write according to APA-7.
Weekly Reading Quizzes (10 points each - 150 total)
Quizzes are a great way to encourage reading. They will be due every Friday unless noted elsewhere. Quizzes are objective (e.g., multiple-choice, matching, and true/false) and worth 10 points each. Quizzes are time limited but can be taken twice, with Canvas retaining your highest score. Quizzes will be administered through Canvas utilizing Proctorio. At the end of the semester, I will drop the lowest two quiz scores (only 2 quizzes).
Mid-Term Exam (24 points total)
Your midterm exam is intended to be a review of your quizzes and subsequently your reading. They will all be multiple choice worth 2 pts each (12 questions total). The exam is time limited (25 mins) but can be taken twice with Canvas retaining the highest score. Exams will be administered through Canvas utilizing Proctorio. Your mid-term will cover chapters 1-7 in your textbook. The best way to study for your midterm is to review your textbook and previous quizzes.
Cross-Cultural Analysis of Sexual Attitudes Paper (75 points total)
There is immense cross-cultural variation in sexual behavior. The goal of this paper assignment is to allow you to explore this cultural variability in greater depth and detail. You will be asked to identify a specific sexual behavior and examine how it is practiced in two different contemporary cultures.
You are free to select almost any sexual behavior that interests you. Examples of appropriate topics would include (but are not limited to) the following: kissing, homosexuality, marriage, oral sex, sexual violence, transgender issues and gender diversity, paraphilias (e.g., fetishes), contraception, masturbation, cheating/infidelity, age of first intercourse, statutory rape, etc. If you have a different topic in mind but are not sure whether it is appropriate, please contact the instructor for approval.
In your paper, you should begin by providing a clear definition of the selected behavior. After that, you should identify two modern cultures with differing views on the behavior and discuss the following points: How does the behavior manifest itself in each culture and how common is it? Why does each culture view the behavior differently (e.g., religious beliefs, tradition, superstition)? What are the implications of these differences for our understanding of what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate sexual behavior?
Because you will be consulting outside sources to complete this assignment, you must appropriately cite them. Thus, you should include APA-style in-text citations throughout the paper to any ideas that are not your own, as well as a References page detailing the full source information. Please try and get most of your information from academic journals. Other sources are permitted, but should be used sparingly. Length is 2-4 pages.
Culture & Social Media Presentation (50 points total)
This assignment is about learning to think critically about how culture influences our sexual education, behaviors and identity. To complete this assignment, please take a example in the media that informs some topic related to sexuality and challenge the science of the message.
An example might be a clip from a movie or tv show where they are making a joke about the trope that men always want sex and women don't. You would show a 3-5 min video clip of the scene, and then discuss how this perpetuates gender stereotypes suggesting that 1) to be masculine you need to always want and pursue partnered sex and 2) to be feminine you need to both not want partnered sexuality and be pursued by a man. You can explore how this message impacts each gender's behavior and in turn, identity and isn't necessarily rooted in science.
Your presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes. You may work in groups no larger than 3. You do not need to submit/turn in anything. Your presentation will be the credit. Please follow the directions below and refer to the grading rubric for full credit for this assignment. You do not have to create a powerpoint for this presentation, but it may be helpful. You need to have a way to show to the class your media example and then engage in a discussion about it.
Steps:
- Find an example in the media with a message about sexuality. It could be a tik tok, an advertisement, a clip from a movie, etc.
- Find a way to show the class this media example. Explain the media example.
- Discuss how you perceive culture informing this message.
- Engage the class in a discussion about culture and sexuality. Have 1-2 questions for the class prepared (you may put this in a powerpoint or not).
VR/AR Class Participation, Drop-in Hour Participation & Summary Assignment
We will be using Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) to enhance your learning. This is a rare and innovative experience that is only offered in a few institutions teaching social work across the country. As such, much importance will be placed on these experiences and attendance is mandatory and it cannot be made up. Only extremely extenuating circumstances will allow a make-up of some kind. Please reach out to me now if you cannot attend the required dates or complete the assignments.
Pre and Post VR Survey 25 pts each
You will be asked to complete a pre and post survey regarding your experience with VR. You will be rewarded 25 points for finishing each of these surveys.
The questions are being asked as part of an evaluation of the Virtual Reality activities being incorporated into your class. Please be sure to respond completely and thoroughly. This should only take about 5-10 minutes! Individual responses and identifying information will not be shared with the class or affect your grade in any way. After completion, you will be sent to a separate survey to enter in your identifying information to be awarded course credit.
The researchers collecting the data will be providing me with the names of the students who complete the quiz and I will award points (your name is not linked with any answers so it is confidential and no answers will be passed to me)
Class Participation- 25 pts
We will meet as a class once this semester to become acquainted with using VR software and you will earn points for attendance. This will be held on 02/10 in the VR classroom in the Multipurpose Building, RM 109. Class attendance is mandatory on this day and you earn credit just for attending. In this class period, we will practice with the VR equipment with the help of the VR student experts.
Drop-in Hour Participation & Summary- 25pts
Anytime after 02/10, you are responsible to spend 30 mins into the VR classroom during their drop-in hours. It is your job to initiate attendance. Don't wait until the last minute. If you cannot make any of the drop-in hours, you can email the VR studio and they can help accommodate you. Their email address is
vrarstudio@suu.edu. You should be using the “Anatomy” app for the entire 30 mins you’re at the lab.
Before you go, please make sure you have thoroughly read chapter 3 from your textbook. Please identify 1-2 anatomical parts of the body's sex organs that you read about in your textbook that you would like to learn more about. I am not requiring you to show proof that you attended the classroom other that what you put in your summary.
Summary
After you have completed 30 mins on the “Anatomy” app, you are required to write a 1-2 page summary of your experience.
Steps to writing the summary:
- 1 paragraph: Explain what parts of the body you were interested in and why. Please state what you read in chapter 3 that initiated this interest.
- 1-2 paragraphs: Write about your experience in the VR classroom exploring the anatomy lab.
- 1-2 paragraphs: Integrate information from the course and your textbook with your experiences in the VR simulation. Explain what you read about, what you observed in the VR classroom and how that informed your knowledge on human sexuality.
Final Exam (24 points)
Your final exam is intended to be a review of your quizzes and subsequently your reading. They will all be multiple choice worth 2 pts each (12 questions total). The exam is time limited (25 mins) but can be taken twice with Canvas retaining the highest score. Exams will be administered through Canvas utilizing Proctorio. At the end of the semester, I will drop the lowest two quiz scores (only 2 quizzes). Your final will cover chapters 7-14 in your textbook. The best way to study for your final is to review your textbook and previous quizzes.
Grade Range
A | 100 % to 93.0%
A- | < 92.0 % to 90.0%
B+ | < 89.0 % to 87.0%
B | < 86.0 % to 83.0%
B- | < 82.0 % to 80.0%
C+ | < 79.0 % to 77.0%
C | < 76.0 % to 73.0%
C- | < 72.0 % to 70.0%
D+ | < 69.0 % to 67.0%
D | < 66.0 % to 63.0%
D- | < 62.0 % to 60.0%
F | < 59.0 % to 0.0%