Week 1 – Assignment: Applied Anthropology WikiProject, Part 1
Throughout this course you will research a social problem or anthropological topic of your choice and develop a plan for how to use applied anthropology to understand and solve this problem or topic.
Your Final Research Project in this course is cumulative. In Week One, you will describe a problem or topic and set up your wikispace to present your research.
Step 1: Selecting and Describing a Problem or Topic
Step 1 focuses on selection and description of a social problem or anthropological topic that will be the focus of your work throughout the course. To begin, select a problem or topic from the list below or click on the topic file link to see more options.
a. Community recreation: A local parks and recreation department needs help with making improvements to local parks and recreation areas.
b. Product marketing: A manufacturer needs help with “user perspectives” to market a specific product (you may select the product).
c. Consumer behavior-based office product: An office supply manufacturer needs help in designing a project to identify the next big consumer technology.
d. Women’s healthcare needs: A nonprofit organization needs help in arguing that budget cuts affect women’s health needs in an ethnically diverse community.
e. Student lunch program: A local school district needs help designing a student lunch program that is nutritious and acceptable cross-culturally.
f. Conservation site for tourism: A local conservation group needs to better understand the attitudes of tourists towards a particular conservation area to promote tourism.
g. Attitudes towards sugared drinks: A local dental school needs help in finding out attitudes toward sugared drinks among ethnic populations within 50 miles of its location.
Once you have selected your problem or topic, describe the topic in a two- to three-page paper. In your paper, be specific about the dimension and scope of the selected problem or topic by doing the following:
a. Describe who is affected and how they are affected.
b. Describe how factors such as culture, ethnicity, gender, race, age, religion, and/or sexual orientation inform the various dimensions of your chosen problem or topic.
c. Present specific statistical data from scholarly sources to support your analysis.
The paper must be two to three pages in length (excluding the title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style. You must use at least two scholarly sources, that is, articles in peer-reviewed journals available through Ashford University Library, books, or eBooks to support your points. In addition to the two scholarly sources, you may use credible websites (Wikipedia is not acceptable), that is, only those that appear to have factual information and are generated by a nongovernment organization (N.G.O.) or government agency, or are reputable news sources. Cite all sources within the text of your paper and on the reference page. For information regarding APA style, including samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.
Step 2: Setting Up Your Wikispace:
After selecting a topic, go to Wikispaces (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.(http://www.wikispaces.com/) and sign up for a free wikispace. Use the Wikispace Set-Up Job Aid to make sure your site is correctly set up.