Sociology Answers

Do you have an evil twin? Well, famous scientist and educator, Dr Neil DeGrasse Tyson, apparently has one. So what do we know about identical twins-at the very basic level we know that they have precisely the same genes. However, how does one turn out to be good and the other evil? How is it that one is diagnosed with a disease but the other seems unaffected? In other words, how can people who are so alike, also be so unalike?

For our very first ‘field trip’ we visit the lab of national award winning Professor Randy Jirtle(nominee of 2007 person of the year award) for the answers-and to see what seems to be the rodent equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the movie Twins. And being to understand the WHY behind the importance of parenting-and how parents and even grandparents can determine the lives of their children and grandchildren.

Instructions: To start your virtual field trip, watch the video clip from NOVA science below. Please note that a transcript is also available for the same.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html

If the above link gives trouble here it is from youtube, just ignore the comments.

Answer the following questions-

1. What did you learn from the field trip about twins-do identical genes guarantee two completely identical people/rats? Answer in about 3-4 sentences(more if you need to, but this is a good guideline to follow, you aren’t writing an essay, it’s a discussion).
2. What lessons did you learn from Professor Jirtle’s lab? Again, 3-4 sentences, general guideline.
3. Why is this important for us to know in a parenting class(hint: how, thanks to the science of epigenetics, we know that environment, diet of a mother, or even grandmother, affects later generations, the influence of parenting and home environment on children/future generations etc)?

Basically, the point is to understand the WHY and the SCIENTIFIC evidence behind parenting.

Literature

Find an example of a persuasive message that you think is probably well-done, but that you DO NOT find very convincing (this could be an ad, a public service announcement, information about a social issue, or so forth. Analyze the message using the following questions:

• Why do you think the author/producer thought this message would be effective? In other words, what was the strategy behind the message?
• Why didn’t that strategy work… why do you think the message wasn’t effective with you?
• Do you think the message was effective with some audiences? Why or why not?
• What would it take to convince you about that message? In other words, what would have been a better communication strategy to reach you?

Human Resource

Question 1: Defining training and understanding its strategic purpose

At first glance, Week 5 content spans two seemingly disparate functions – developing training and assessing employee performance. The processes are defined and presented sequentially in your text. In reality, the functions are more closely related than they seem in the sense that assessing performance could identify a need for training, couldn’t it? Let’s talk!

What I would like you to do for this first conference is to think about training. What exactly is training? Please don’t parrot-back the text definition!!!

Include in your discussion and explanation, your ideas about WHY you think corporations spend billions of dollars every year to provide training for their employees. And last, in your “definition” discussion include your ideas about how training supports an organization’s strategic goals and objectives. What does training do for an organization? Are there really any benefits? Why or why not……?