Methods include lecture, discussion, practice exercises, and case study. Visuals and class interaction will be heavily used to communicate key concepts and the analysis process. The user-friendly approach is designed specifically for Forest Service staff who may not be trained in the social sciences, but who may have SIA responsibility. Presented as an integral part of the NEPA process, it integrates the human dimension and projection of social and economic effects into the other elements of environmental analysis. The course is highly interactive.
Students work as teams to apply concepts and skills to the course's case study and examples.
The instructional units in Part I set the stage for doing the social analysis. This unit covers introduction, why we monitor social issues, how we monitor social issues, criteria for selecting units of measure to monitor, case study exercise, and review and summary. This unit will summarize the course, revisit the course performance objective, present some unique challenges to the SIA process, address follow-up and course evaluation, and present student certificates.