This syllabus was developed to be a three credit/hours course that meets twice a week, allows a maximum of 100 students, and has a TA to help handling grading and basic organization in the classroom.

Regular form of Assessment:

At the beginning of each class there will be two (2) quizzes in the form of short and simple questions that the students will have to answer by using a clicker. The idea of this assignment is to evaluate the student engagement with regular readings, as well as account for attendance. Quizzes’ questions will cover the material seen in the previous lecture and of the assigned readings of the current week. We will use a learning strategy called “peer instruction:” students first will answer a question individually, then discuss the question with 4 peers, and finally resubmit the response, all before the answer to the question is revealed. Each question will have three (3) points in total: participation (+1), correct individual answer (+1), and correct answer after peer discussion (+1). Quizzes will start on the second week of class and they will NOT take place during the first day of each unit, each review sessions and exam days. [adapted from Pozzi, L. (2017) Introduction to Biological Anthropology, UTSA Fall semester, available on BlueBook].

Final form of assessment:

At the end of each section of the course (3) there will be a partial exam covering the topics Each partial exam will consist of four sections: scantron section (20 questions in total, 5 T/F, 15 multiple choice) representing 10% of the exam grade; definitions section (4 terms to be defined in 3-5 sentences, mentioning the application of the term to the course) representing 20% of the exam grade; short restricted-response (2 questions to be developed in answers of short 1-2 paragraphs, synthesizing the main idea of the question and making direct references to topics covered in class) representing 20% of the exam grade; extended-responses (1 question to be developed in 3-4 paragraphs, demonstrating the capacity of synthesizing a topic and expanding its definition and concept as discussed in the class to a new introduced study case) representing 30% of the exam grade. On the class before each of these partial exams, there will be a class dedicated to review and feedback from the students. In this class students will receive a printed copy of a study guide and instructions for the development of a 5-6 paragraph essay based on four readings of their choice covered during the module. The essay is due on the day of the exam (two days later) and represents 20% of the exam grade. The topic of the essay will be voted in class out of 3 options. All students must submit papers based on the topic elected in class.

The rubrics for grading the paper to be shared with students as a printed copy and available online can be found here.