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Welcome to SOC125/PPOL225 "Modeling and Simulation in the Social and Policy Sciences" at Mills College.

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Simulation and Modeling in the Social and Policy Sciences is a relatively advanced course whose purpose is to impart some practical analytical skills that are useful in both the applied settings of public policy practice and the research settings of social science practice.

This is NOT primarily a course in (1) research design, (2) data collection methods, (3) data analysis methods, though some of these topics will intersect with this course. Recommended preparation for this course includes

[http://www.mills.edu/academics/undergraduate/coll/courses/course_description.php?courseid=coll005 COLL 005 Information Literacy-Information Technology Skills


SOC 91 Methods of Social Research with Lab


PPOL 050: Economic Policy Analysis


100 Methods of Policy Analysis


ECON 50 Introduction to Economics


ECON 81 Introduction to Statistics

Techniques
Most of this course is about learning techniques, ways of doing things. This means that you need to learn HOW, not just THAT. Success in this course will be demonstrated by being ABLE to do certain things AND by being able to describe what those things are useful for, when they should be used, and what caveats attach to their use.

Techniques that may be covered in this course include diagrams and flow charts, difference equations, simple feedback systems, tipping models, stock and flow models, queuing models, markov models, monte carlo methods, decision analysis, benefit-cost analysis, discounting, linear programming.

Technique is usually reserved for things that can be called "specialized" with a straight face. A competent professional also requires any number of very generic skills and some of these will be encountered here. These might be called "merely clerical," but they are sufficiently important and competence in them sufficiently rare that they merit our attention. Higher levels of competence in them will

• make you more efficient
  

• make you more likely to avoid errors
  

• enable you to communicate more accurately
  

• enable you to appear more professional

These include intermediate word processing skills (a.k.a. professional document production skills), intermediate spread sheet skills, and basic visual communication skills.

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