Go to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at http://www.hartfordinstitute.org/.

1. Click on "Quick Information about U.S. Religious Life" under What are you looking for? on the homepage. What information reinforced the material your textbook covered? What new information did you find? Did any of it surprise you?
2. Click on "Faith Communities Today" under What are you looking for? on the homepage. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out the results from the FACT2005 Survey. Did any of the results surprise you? How would you respond if you took the survey?
3. Click on "A profile of your local religious context" under What are you looking for? on the homepage. Here you will find links to a wealth of tools to analyze your hometown or college town and get information about its religious context. Were there any patterns existent that you were ignorant about? Did any of the information you found change your view of a certain area?
4. Click on "How to survey your local church" under What are you looking for? on the homepage. Review the available surveys and contact either a congregation you are familiar with or a new one (perhaps in your college town) and discuss the survey with the church. Ask whether they have surveyed the congregation in the past. If so, what were the results? If not, discuss whether they would participate in a survey. Plan the project with your instructor as an extra credit research assignment.

Humanitarian organizations are concerned about access to education in developing countries. To find out about charitable efforts to improve basic education in the world's poorest countries, go to the Oxfam Web site (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/).

1. Click on "Oxfam in action" at the top of the page. Then click on and read the four links under "What We Do." Then select "Education" under "Issues We Work On" on the left-hand side of your screen. What is Oxfam's aim with regard to education?
2. What is Oxfam's belief about children and education?
3. Why do you think OxFam asserts a relationship between education and gender equity? Based on your own knowledge, how would you characterize this relationship?
4. From what you read on this page, it is clear that, in many countries, girls and boys do not have equal access to education. Why would this be the case? Can you think of any social or economic reasons, in the context of a developing country?
5. OxFam would like to see more "civil society"—or grassroots & participation in community educational planning. Why would OxFam see this as being important? In other words, why not simply leave educational planning to the "experts?"