This document provides information about an undergraduate course that introduces college students to major social, economic, and political influences that have affected the demographic structure of the nation's population over the last four decades. The course permits students, working in small teams, to investigate the ways in which changes in race relations, family living arrangements, the status of women, and the nation's industrial structure affect particular birth cohorts, population subgroups, and geographical areas. In addition to a description of the course, the document also provides illustrative examinations, team assignments, class discussion questions, and additional exercises. Lists of data sets, which students use in computerized census tabulations, also are included. (DB)