Undergraduate introductory sociology courses should actively engage students in learning the concepts, theories, and research methods that comprise the core knowledge of the discipline. The course should introduce the social theorists Durkheim, Marx, Mead, and Weber. Social concepts of the human group, social system, and social organization; structural social inequality; socialization and social change; industrialization; urbanization; and the demographic transition should be included. Methodologies should cover social facts, concepts, generalizations, and hypotheses; variables; participant observation, questionnaires, and use of local records; reading and constructing percentage tables; and sampling. Students should be able to see the world sociologically, understand the policy implications of sociology, consider sociology as a possible major, and see the relationship between sociology and work. Course materials such as Durkheim's suicide study, for example, can introduce a variety of concepts at different levels of abstraction as well as methodological issues. Blau's "Dynamics of Bureaucracy" introduces the complex organization through functional theory, a range of methods, and the interplay of formal and informal groups. Marx provides an opportunity to distinguish between social theory and research on the one hand and social action on the other. Strategies should involve games and simulations, short papers on newspaper and magazine articles, essay exams, and a term paper. (KC)