Scientific literacy course for non-scientists

[Diogenes]

Love it. A module on science communication should be added. Something discussing both how it's communicated in media and also how the student can best communicate science themselves in an accessible but accurate way.

[jimbogumbo]

Here you go with the squirrels!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

[mleok]

Here you go with the squirrels!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

My son loves that YouTube channel, as do I.

[FishProf]

Check out his package thief bombs (glitter bombs).  They are brilliant.

[jimbogumbo]

Here you go with the squirrels!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

My son loves that YouTube channel, as do I.

Thanks also to FishProf!

To be clear when I suggested the MOOC it was along the lines that people (old and young) are hungry for science education, just not doing assignments and working for a grade. I want someone to accomplish most if not all of what marshwiggle proposed through stealth tactics :)

[marshwiggle]

Here you go with the squirrels!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

My son loves that YouTube channel, as do I.

Thanks also to FishProf!

To be clear when I suggested the MOOC it was along the lines that people (old and young) are hungry for science education, just not doing assignments and working for a grade. I want someone to accomplish most if not all of what marshwiggle proposed through stealth tactics :)

My point was if students were going to be required to take a "science" course, whether they wanted to or not, an introductory course to any specific discipline would be far less useful than something developing a science mindset.

Something like that for general knowledge might (probably does?) already exist, so people wanting to do it on their own can anyway.

[jimbogumbo]

Got it. I think my point is that as soon as you require a course they turn off. I like all your topics, I just think it will work better outside the classroom in the USofA. Call me cynical.

And I guess I'm piggybacking off your idea to try to reach the youth and all the seniors watching the interwebz.

[Wahoo Redux]

I will say it again: I had a one-off science cluster and I loved it.  I don't know if I have "scientific literacy," but I certainly learned a lot and the cluster definitely deepened my respect for science. 

What were other posters' own experiences with gen ed?

[jimbogumbo]

I'm going to respectfully suggest that our experiences will not be similar to those of the general college student population.

[Wahoo Redux]

I'm going to respectfully suggest that our experiences will not be similar to those of the general college student population.

Perhaps.  I was not a great student.  I hated school.  I just wanted to get through it. 

I was just wondering what people's experiences were.

[jimbogumbo]

I pretty much enjoyed every course I took except ceramics, which I stunk at and French. The French was a fiasco as I took it my freshmen and sophomore years of high school, and then somehow CLEP'd into the third quarter French class. Didn't prepare, was not good.

The ones I liked the least of the others were my two chem classes and the English class I had to read a novel a week for and write a paper per week. That was only because the prof was a stereotypical handsome hit on the coeds arrogant man. I'm sure someone liked him.

[Ruralguy]

We had  a year sequence of western civ, a year of  literature, and  one semester each of music/art. Everyone had to take the same courses in this core, though not in any preferred sequence. There were other distributions too, but science I was a stem major from the start, I never paid much attention to that part of the core, though in more recent years this school added a core science class for everybody. Though I can't say I absolutely loved all of these classes, I genuinely enjoyed learning material from primary texts...until Kant....then, I gave up. Most of my current students do not have this attitude.

[ergative]

We had  a year sequence of western civ, a year of  literature, and  one semester each of music/art. Everyone had to take the same courses in this core, though not in any preferred sequence. There were other distributions too, but science I was a stem major from the start, I never paid much attention to that part of the core, though in more recent years this school added a core science class for everybody. Though I can't say I absolutely loved all of these classes, I genuinely enjoyed learning material from primary texts...until Kant....then, I gave up. Most of my current students do not have this attitude.

I think I went there too.

[Ruralguy]

There might be up to about half a dozen schools people attend *because* of the core. For everyone else, even if they are "better" schools, people go there for other things and endure gen ed or the core. Sure, there are significant numbers of late deciders who figure out a major based on a core class they took, but still, that's not most.

So I definitely realize that my liking certain aspects of my college's core hardly apply to my current students. Besides, I teach the much dreaded science part of the core. Maybe only languages are more dreaded. Even during class when we just chat about ideas rather than calculate (though there is plenty of calculating), its hardly musing about the influences of Aristotle or Freud (which some of the better students view as fun). 

[Parasaurolophus]

We had  a year sequence of western civ, a year of  literature, and  one semester each of music/art. Everyone had to take the same courses in this core, though not in any preferred sequence. There were other distributions too, but science I was a stem major from the start, I never paid much attention to that part of the core, though in more recent years this school added a core science class for everybody. Though I can't say I absolutely loved all of these classes, I genuinely enjoyed learning material from primary texts...until Kant....then, I gave up. Most of my current students do not have this attitude.

There's no excuse for Kant in a first-year course--or any course without the proper time and context. I'm sorry it happened.