Indiana University Indianapolis
Intro to American Politics
About POLS Y-103
This course is designed as a general introduction to American national government and politics. It will provide a taste of the many and varied concepts and methods political scientists utilize to understand a wide variety of political events. This includes, but is not limited to, national institutions such as Congress, the Supreme Court, the presidency, and the bureaucracy along with the behavior of political parties, lobbying organizations and the general public. The goal is to help you better understand key concepts and apply them fostering a better and deeper understanding of political events. Due to this class being a general survey course, we cannot spend too much time or delve too deeply into any one subject. That being the case, I hope to peak your interest in political science enough to get you to continue in the discipline and seek out other higher-level courses designed with a more specific focus.
Required Text
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This course uses an eText version of the textbook. In order to use the textbook you must have an online access code in order to use McGraw Hill’s Connect system. I ordered connect access for the textbook through IU’s eText system. You should be able to purchase access through that. If not, you can also buy access to McGraw Hill’s Connect system and the textbook directly through McGraw Hill, but it is more expensive that way.
We the People: An Introduction to American Government 15th Edition, by Thomas E. Patterson. You must have the 15th edition and you must have online Connect access code to be able to fulfill many of the assignments in this class. Thus, buying a used copy will not work. You must have the Connect access. You will read (which you get points for) and take chapter quizzes through connect.
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​Once you have Connect access, you will see all your assignments on our Canvas page. You can just click those and they will take you to Connect and the appropriate assignment. This is how you should access all of your book related assignments.
In addition to the text, we may also make use of supplemental readings available on Canvas or the web through the academic journal website www.jstor.org. The jstor.org website is freely available to all students if accessed directly from a computer on campus. If you would like to get access to jstor.org off campus, you will need to sign in through the University Library’s research portal found on the library’s website. I may also post readings to Canvas.
Graded Assignments
Below are 3 assignment categories. Each category contains numerous individual assignments. All assignments can be found on the class Canvas page. You should follow the due dates as listed on the Canvas page.
You are assigned to read chapters from the eText We the People. These are interactive chapters and you will receive points for working your way through each chapter.
You are assigned to take an end of chapter quiz after each chapter you read in the eText. These consist of numerous multiple choice questions. You will receive points for each of these.
You will create an ePortfolio for the class containing 5 reflection assignments on the topics listed. Topics and due dates can be found in the class Canvas page. An introduction to ePortfolios and examples can be found under ePortfolios on this website.