IDS 400 Project Guidelines and Rubric
Course Outcomes
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
Analyze the relationships among culture, diversity, and self by investigating their influence on one’s discipline of study or chosen profession
Integrate interdisciplinary approaches for determining how diversity issues affect modern societies personally and professionally.
Describe the cultural and social influences on the development of personal identity by employing appropriate research strategies.
Recommend strategies for overcoming obstacles in diversity to meet personal and professional goals.
Articulate informed viewpoints on how to ensure cultural responsiveness in personal and professional contexts using practical communication skills
Assess the challenges of overcoming issues in diversity through the incorporation of diverse perspectives and viewpoints informed by relevant literature and peer experiences.
Overview
This course explores diversity and its impact on the world around us. Diversity influences society, and society influences diversity, creating a feedback loop between them. You will critically analyze a feedback loop in this project through social, historical, and theoretical approaches to diversity and the four general education lenses: history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social science. This enhanced understanding will allow you to draw connections between diversity, self, and engagement with society. These skills are often necessary to achieve personal and professional goals across many disciplines.
Directions
For this project, you will write a 10-page paper that examines the topic you chose in Module Two and how it affects individuals and society. In the paper, you will describe your chosen topic, construct a thesis statement, critically analyze, and reflect on how your topic informs your personal life and experience. You will demonstrate your ability to think critically, investigate, and communicate clearly.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:
I. Evidence: You will use evidence to support your analysis throughout the project.
Integrate reliable evidence from varied sources throughout your paper to support your analysis. Use at least two resources from the course’s Module Resources section and two resources you find through your research using the Shapiro Library.
It is important to support the analysis by drawing from a more diverse pool of perspectives from varied sources. This is different from the Citations and Attributions rubric criterion.
Reliable evidence from varied sources should be interwoven throughout the paper. Citing and attributing sources should be represented as APA in-text citations and a reference list at the end of your work.
You will be evaluated on both criteria.
II. Topic description: In this section, you will identify and discuss the factors that shape your thesis statement.
Introduce your topic with an effective description and contextual information.
Describe a population significant to your topic. Include demographics, cultural practices, social identity, and key challenges.
Articulate how the topic has shaped the lives and experiences of your chosen population.
Explain your choice of general education interdisciplinary lens for analyzing your topic. The four lenses are history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social science.
Construct a thesis statement that combines your topic, population, cultural situation, and choice of general education interdisciplinary lens.
III. Critical analysis: In this section, you will analyze your engagement with your population and topic. You will identify opportunities for change, examine possible obstacles, and discuss the impact of your critical analysis on societal conversations about cultural diversity.
Discuss how you would constructively collaborate with your population to encourage their engagement with your chosen topic.
Describe at least one positive element within your topic that supports transformation.
Describe at least one specific element within your topic that could benefit from change.
Explain how at least one potential obstacle could interfere with the population’s engagement with your topic.
Assess at least two significant factors that could impact your topic: biases, beliefs, assumptions, and/or values.
Describe a possible outcome of your proposed engagement that might influence the societal conversations that add to a critical awareness of diversity.
IV. Reflection: In this section, you will describe how using critical analysis tools influences your personal experience, your field of study or profession, how you interact with others, and your understanding of the role of diversity in society.
Describe how critically analyzing your topic has positively informed your personal experience.
Describe how examining your bias has altered the way you perceive the world.
Describe how this course has helped you understand the role of diversity in society.
Explain how critically analyzing diversity can positively influence your field of study or profession.
Explain at least one way your analysis might have been different if you had used one of the other general education lenses to analyze your topic.
Explain how critically analyzing diversity adds value to interactions with people in various contexts.
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit a Word document of 10 pages in length (plus a reference page) with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Use at least two resources from course materials and two from the library. Sources should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
