• No major changes in course structure or assessment rubrics are needed, except perhaps concerning attendance (see below). And maybe drop the extra credit for filling in class surveys.
• Re-double efforts to manage student expectations, tell them why things are being done the way they are. Keep telling them throughout, not just at the beginning when they don’t take it in.
• Re-double efforts to get students looking for an easy A off the course. Many, many deserving students can’t get a place.
• Make the course open to freshmen only. Freshmen have more energy, are more open to new challenges, and are less cynical. Plus, the thinking skills involved in this course sets anyone up for a better College experience.
• Do a better job of explaining how scientific consensus is built; of how individual studies can reach erroneous conclusions, but many studies, done right, can lead to consensus and progress. This would deal with the confusions I had this year over meta-analyses, errors and the file drawer problem.
• Make available tests and exams from previous years so students can practice.
• Tell them from the get-go they will be initially slammed in tests and slammed in blog grading. Then make it clear what resources are available to help them improve. Emphasize as much as possible that this course rewards improvement, but you have to be engaged to improve. That many students do very well. But it is not a given. Keep saying that throughout.
• Attendance. Forget the extra credit for having been at all pop-quizzes; that penalizes the unlucky. Instead, how about doing ten pop quizzes at random times throughout the year, and giving 10% of grade to those who are present for 8 of 10 of them? That would be brutal. It would mean people could only get an A by coming to class. Would it work? Is it fair? [that rubric would have cut 2 A’s and 3 A-‘s this year].
• Wake the students up with the first exam. From the get go, ask penetrating questions that are only answerable for if they have been in class. Manage expectations so that they don’t get crushed. For many of them, this is the first time in their lives they have got a C.
• Figure a way to get better attendance at exam revision tutorials, particularly from the students NOT doing well.
• Offer even more guidance on what makes a good blog. In particular, show/emphasize that it needs to be science-related, and that it needs to extend things beyond a simple topic. Relentlessly give examples of good practice early on. In the nicest possible way, stomp on nonsense and mediocrity on the blog fast. Students get influenced by the majority of the blog (i.e average performance), not best practice (which is rare to start with).

And finally, tackle some new topics. Big topics. Like the meaning of life. And evil.

• (1) problem solving skills, (2) appreciation for science, (3) random conversation starters!
• (1) time management, (2) science is always very uncertain, (3) critical thinking skills.
• (1) We can’t rely on the news (2) how to read a study and weigh significance myself, (3) just because you teach an amazing class with the utmost clarity, does not mean your students will appreciate it/take advantage of the information you are supplying to the them.
• I learned how to look at statistics and studies more critically. The most important thing I learned was how not to be ignorant and take all information at face value. I have already used the skills I learned in this class in other classes.
• (1) Question everything, (2) learn from your mistakes, (3) science can be for everyone
• Aliens aren’t real. Animals have gay sex. Pruney fingers resemble river flows.
• (1) You don’t have to be a scientist to think like one. (2) Critical thinking is one of the most important things in our lives. (3) There is ALWAYS room for chance.
• (1) I should get vaccinated for HPV, (2) we have crappy intuition, (3) science’s answer is only good until someone else proves them wrong.
• (1) How to be a more critical thinker, (2) how to challenge everything in life and not be so content accepting facts, and (3) not to slack off at the beginning of semester.
• I learned not to hate science
• How to write a blog, time management, and how to do research.
• (1) how to think through problems, (2) how to analyze situations, (3) how to reach my own conclusions.
• (1) we have more than five senses, (2) albatrosses can be gay, (3) how to build a blog portfolio for my major.
• (1) Critical thinking can come from any class even if you don’t expect it. (2) I can’t rely on my photographic memory to teach me everything. (3) How to answer questions more intuitively.
• How to interact with peers. You can find science in almost everything. Don’t procrastinate.
• Science is important in medicine, people aren’t that good at making new ideas that work, and I liked the Nobel Prize guy.
• (1) Parasites control rat brains, (2) animals can be homosexual, (3) the size of the universe
• I learned how to analyze study reports. I learned the difference between correlation and causation (VERY IMPORTANT! :)). I also learned that science isn’t just chemistry and biology, it is everything around us.
• Science is about making mistakes until you find the answer which relates to life in a lot of ways
• 1. Nothing. 2. Don’t believe this is a non science course. 3. Science still sucks.
• NOTHING
• 1. How to blog. 2. How to speak in an accent. 3. How to take on line tests.
• Something I actually once loved can be made very boring
• Science is fun! Science is cool! Science is unlimited!
• I have not learned one interesting thing in this class.
• 1. To think critically. 2. Not to procrastinate. 3. New Zealand accents make class more interesting.