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Sociology 191: Senior Capstone (Whitt)

Higher Education in the U.S.

Student Learning Outcomes

After today's session, students will be able to: Golden circle with a white outline of a profile of a human head with 3 cog wheels where the brain is usually located

  • Identify concepts in a research question and identify related resources from the library to investigate them
  • Use Subject Terms to strategically tap into academic conversations in published sources like articles and books
  • Consider what types of evidence you'll need for your capstone and where to locate it
  • Distinguish between types of sources to evaluate how to use them in your work

There will be skills and topics we do not cover today. There is a lot more information in this course guide, for example, information about ASA style, that you can review at any time. You can also book a research consultation with a librarian at any time: 

Lesson Plan Outline

  • Introduction Golden icon of a road with starting and ending points (decorative item)
  • Quick Review of Basic Search Skills & Discussion of Sociological Abstracts Tutorial.
  • ACTIVITY - Defining Student Success (Chat Waterfall -- what does success mean to you?)
    • Librarian DEMO: Subject Terms. 
      • What is a Database Thesaurus?
      • About the ERIC thesaurus
      • ERIC.ed.gov vs. ProQuest & EBSCO versions of this database. ACTIVITY: Try ProQuest and share what you think.
    • Definitions -- Dictionaries are "Reference" or Background Sources. How to locate Reference sources; Scholarly Sources; Popular and Trade Sources (See Step 1: Your Research Question - Types of Sources)
  • ACTIVITY - Use and Evaluate a Database and Share Findings with the Class (Submit one Form per Group / "Room").
    • Each Group/"Room" should have one scribe (one person who fills out the form) and each student should search in the assigned database and contribute responses by sharing them with the scribe.
    • Each Group / "Room" below can find their database on the subpage "Databases" in the Step 3 section of this guide.
      • Room 1 - Academic Search Complete
      • Room 2 - Business Source Complete
      • Room 3 - ERIC (Either ProQuest or EBSCO is fine)
      • Room 4 - Google Scholar
      • Room 5 - Library, Information Science, & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)
      • Room 6 - Sociological Abstracts
      • Room 7 - Web of Science
      • Room 8 - Other - Your Choice! Choose an appropriate database from the A-Z Databases list
  • Discussion & Wrap-Up