Overall, the purpose of this final assignment is to encourage you to apply the theories and concepts we have been learning about to the real world and/or the experiences of others. This assignment asks you to apply the theories and concepts to successfully demonstrate that you fully understand it.
Current Event Analysis
Find an article of a current event happening in the news and make connections between the current event and the course content. Pick an article that resonates with the concepts we’ve been studying and that illustrates an idea about how adolescents behave.
Summarize the article/current event. Make sure you use at least three of the theories and/or topics we have read to develop an understanding of the event and what it represents about adolescent development. Also consider how the current event does or does not conform to what we’ve studied.
In other words, you want both to describe the event/article and analyze it in relation to what we have studied. The assignment should include a current event that is relevant to the course material and which provides sufficient detail for readers to get a full picture of the relationship between the current event and the ideas about adolescent development we have been discussing.
You will need to relate the article thoroughly to at least three different course topics such as the power of peers (concern about how others saw you), the developing sense of identity in adolescence, brain development, and/or referring to the nature/nurture controversy. (Note: recent can mean within the past year or two)
For the current event analysis
Quality of summary of article (choice of material, amount of detail, relevance to course questions/topics): 15 points
Demonstrated understanding of the concept of adolescent development and the tasks of adolescence. Use of direct citations to support ideas: 15 points
Connections; ability to draw conclusions between the current event and the adolescent experience, in relation to course material. Use of direct citations to support ideas: 15 points
Organization: APA format. 5 -7 pages: 15 points
