Valencia Community College
Osceola Campus
American National
Government
Course Syllabus POS2041
Fall Term
2008
Monday/Wednesday 1:30-2:45 or 3-4:15
Three credits are earned
upon completion of this course;
there are no prerequisites.
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
The theory, organization, principles and functions of
national government,
stressing relationships of individual to all levels of
government in the political system.
This course includes activities designed
to ensure or enhance competence
in the basic use of
computers.
Computer Based Learning Activity
To demonstrate
competence with the basic use of computers
the College's US Government
(POS2041) course is designed
to include a formal 'computer-based' learning
activity. For this
particular course the following assignment(s) assessment
and
percentage of final grade protocols have been
established:
Description of assigned computer-based learning
activity
Students will be required to download the mid term exam and
study guide
from the internet web site on which it is posted. They will also
be required
to locate one scholarly article from a website to which they are
referred,
and another from professional scholarly journals in political
science located
on VCC library data bases, and to submit via email their
critical reviews of
those articles. Thirdly, students will be required to
prepare a legal brief of
a supreme court decision by accessing the
findlaw.com web site.
Description of impact on percentage of final
course grade
The critical reviews, web projects, and the case brief each
constitute 1/7 of the course grade the student earns in this class. The mid term
and final are each also 1/7 of the final grade. Computer based skills thus are
involved in well over half of the total final course grade.
INSTRUCTOR
Ron Ziegler
Political Science
Office Hours: by
appointment/available for consultation
before each class session
RonaldGordonZiegler@yahoo.com
321-805-2507
PHILOSOPHY OF THE COURSE
Human beings naturally live in groups. An
effective government is necessary
in organizing and maintaining order in a
society of people, although it's function
is not to control them. There must
also be an agent whose function it is to
maintain smooth market operations
as to the allocation of natural resources.
Government is also important in
settling conflicts and disputes which arise
in society. A citizen of a
particular society must know and understand the operation
of the government;
it's primary function is to safeguard their natural rights as citizens.
U.S.
Government I is a required course designed to acquaint students with
their
political system.
INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE/AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
R.
ZIEGLER/VALENCIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE/FALL 2008
SCHEDULE OF
WORK
week of 8/25 Introductions, syllabus, grading
criterion
week of 9/1 ch 1, 2 amer system, const, and federalism
(Monday 9/1 is Labor Day)
week of 9/8 ch 3, App A & C
amer system, const, and federalism
week of 9/15 ch 4, 5 civil rights and liberties
week of 9/22 ch 6 political socialization
week of 9/29 ch 7 interest groups (Fahrenhype 911)
week of 10/6 ch 8, 9 parties and elections, media (The Great Global Warming Hoax)
week of 10/13 ch 10 congress (Fiscal Policy)
week of 10/20 Mid Term Due (Booms and Busts)
week of 10/27
ch 11 presidency (Keynesianism)
week of 11/3 ch 12 bureaucracy (Free
to Choose - Markets)
week of 11/10 ch 13 judiciary, App B (Free to Choose - Laissez
Faire)
week of 11/17 ch 14 domestic and economic policy (Fed)
week of 11/24 ch 15 foreign policy and defense (CIA part 1)
week of 12/1 Review(CIA part 2)
week of 12/8 Final Due
Grading
The grade each student earns in this class will be the
average of grades earned
on several different instruments, each constituting
1/7 of the total grade:
Mid Term
Final
Critical Review of One
Article from ejps and scholarly journal
Eyes on the Prize Submission
Case
Brief
Class Participation
Web Projects
Exams
Mid Term
Go Here
Study Guide for Case Law on Mid
Term
Go Here
Final Exam
Go Here
Article Reviews (one before the midterm, and the other before the
final)
go to www.ejournalofpoliticalscience.com
and scroll to the Tables of Contents
at the bottom of the page and search out
one of the political science articles
which is interest to you to read, review, and write a 500 word critical
analysis about it.
You will email this to the instructor at RonaldGordonZiegler@yahoo.com
You will
do the same thing with one article which you select from VCC Library
media
bank resources taken from any one of the following professional
journals:
The American Political Science Review
The Journal of
Politics
Political Research Quarterly
Political Science
Quarterly
Polity
American Politics Quarterly
Presidential Studies
Quarterly
Political Theory
Foreign Policy
Foreign Affairs
American
Journal of Political Science
Political Behavior
Legislative Studies
Quarterly
Policy Studies Journal
Policy Studies Review
You will
have to include a proper citation with your comments.
eyes on the prize
This video history of the civil rights movement is available for viewing
in the media center. Students will have to arrange to view each of the six
segments of the tape series, each of which is about one hour long, and then
select any twenty of the following to write about based on having watched the
series (the assignment is due with the final):
1. Emmet Til
2. Rosa Parks
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.(role in
Montgomery Improvement Assoc)
4. Little Rock Central
5. Orval Faubus
6.
Albany Movement
7. Laurie Pritchett
8. Bull Connor
9. Letter from the
Birmingham Jail
10. Jim Clark
11. March on Washington
12. Civil Rights
Act of 1964
13. Voting Rights Act of 1965
14. Sit-Ins
15. CORE
16.
SNCC
17. Freedom Rides
18. SCLC
19. 16th St Baptist Church
20.
Aubrey Lucy
21. James Meredith
22. Ross Barnett
23. George
Wallace
24. Brown vs Board of Education
25. Thurgood Marshall
26.
Freedom Summer
27. Byron dela Beckwourth
28. Schreoner, Goodman, and
Chaney
29. Edmund Pettus Bridge
30. Selma to Montgomery March
31.
Elijah Muhammed
32. Medgar Evars
33. Chicago Open Housing Marches
34.
Stokley Carmichael
35. H. Rap Brown
36. Huey P. Newton
37. Watts
38.
April 4, 1968
39. Feb 21, 1965
40. White Citizens Councils
Case Brief
Select a Supreme Court decision which is of interest to
you from the text and submit the assignment by the time of the mid
term
Go to the following web site:
http://www.findlaw.com
find the link to US Supreme Court
You will be shown several ways
to find cases; try several of them
You may also google any case and one of the hits will be the actual text of
the decision.
Prepare a paper which includes the following:
1) The
name of the case
2) The date it was decided by the Supreme Court
3) The
facts of the case
4) The issue being decided
5) The decision of the
court
6) The legal reasoning behind the case
7) The justice who wrote the
decision
8) The vote
9) The concurring and dissenting decisions
10)
Indicate whether the decision is still law of if it has been
overturned
Web Projects
(one of these should be submitted each month of the term - the order in which you do them
does not matter)
Project 1) Legislative Branch
Locate the official website of the United States Congress
Identify each of the following:
Speaker of the House
Majority Leader of the House
Majority Whip of the House
Minority Leader of the House
Minority Whip of the House
the number of members who are Republicans
the number of members who are Democrats
the name of the member of Congress whose district you live in
and the committees that member serves on in the Congress
(look at the state district map at
http://www.leg.state.fl.us)President of the Senate
President pro temp of the Senate
Majority Leader of the Senate
Minority Leader of the Senate
the Florida members of the U.S. Senate and their party affiliation
Which Florida House District do you live in, and what is the name of the Representative
elected from that district?
Which Florida Senate District do you live in, and what is the name of the Representative
elected from that district?
(use www.myflorida.com to search out this information)
Project 2) Executive Branch
Go to www.whitehouse.gov
a) click on 'other offices'
list five of the agencies of the Executive Office of the President
tell one duty of each
name the current official serving in that position
b) click on President Bush's Cabinet
name each department, one duty of each, and the current head of each
c) click on Federal Agencies and Commissions
list five independent regulatory commissions
five government corporations
five executive/administrative agencies
(and identify the primary task of each)
Project 3) New Media
Find each of the following on line:
Newsmax.com
The Drudge Report
World Net Daily
Rush Limbaugh.com
Fox news network
copy and paste the front page of each to an email which you send to instructor at
RonldGordonZiegler@yahoo.com
Project 4) Elections/FEC
Go to www.fec.gov
what does it tell you about campaign finance reports and data?
what does it tell you about reporting and compliance?
Go to http://election.dos.state.fl.us/
what agency is this webpage?
what kinds of information could you learn from this webpage?
Class Participation
You will receive a grade based on two factors,
your preparation and participation
in class activities and discussions. This
will be primarily structured around your
attendance at class sessions and
your ability to maintain proper decorum in that
setting. There is a strong
statistical correlation of attendance, preparation,
and participation with
grades which students earn, and this grade is also intended
to reinforce the
practicality of regularly being in class. It is often not possible to make
up work that is missed in a class built around discussion. While the
instructor will
work with the student who may have to miss a session, that
should be avoided
to as great an extent as possible.
Contacting Instructor
You may contact the instructor through email
at RonaldGordonZiegler@yahoo.com
or by calling at
321-805-2507 (cell). You may leave a voice mail.
If necessary, I will contact
you as necessary. If you have to miss a class,
it is advisable that you
contact the instructor with that information beforehand.
About Your Instructor
Ron Ziegler taught high school in Detroit,
Michigan from 1967 until his retirement
in 1999. During those years, he also
taught adult education classes with the
Cass Outreach program, and
Kettering, Hazel Park, and Monroe/Bedford adult ed programs.
Since 1984, he has taught political science, history, and economics
at
Detroit College of Business/Davenport College, Wayne State University,
Macomb Community College, Monroe Community College, Florida
Metropolitan
University, and Valencia Community College. He earned his
Bachelors degree
in education and political science from Wayne State
University in Detroit in 1968,
where he also was awarded a Masters degree in
political science in 1980. He
completed work on his PhD in political science
and history there as well. He lives
with his three children, Alexander, 20,
Sarah, 18 (currently serving in the U.S. Navy), and Kalani, 15, in Kissimmee, to
which they relocated following his retirement on thirty plus years of teaching
with the Detroit Board of Education and following the passing of his wife in
1998.
Intellectual Honesty and Integrity
It is absolutely
essential that each student maintain the highest standards
of scholastic
integrity. That does not mean that students should not or may
not work
together on some of their work in this class, but what is finally
submitted
must be your own effort. Anything else is unacceptable. Any
assignment on which
such standards are found to have been breached will be
assigned a failing grade
without recourse of altering that grade. Plagiarism
is unacceptable.
