Spring 2027

Systems Thinking in Global Health

Systems Thinking in Global Health examines determinants of health via case studies and group projects on infectious disease, inequities, and planetary health trade-offs.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Linda Oforka

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Susan Paskewitz

Attendance was required, and the capstone project served as the main engaging assessment, contrasting with the routine nature of other tasks.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze place-based case studies to understand the complex relationships and connections between human health and the preservation and restoration of our environment. Analysis will link to global and planetary health precepts.

  • Work within groups to identify and describe complex problems from different and multiple disciplinary perspectives.

  • Identify and practice methods for designing interventions and making decisions that are informed by systems thinking, understanding of complexity and uncertainty, and planetary health principles.

  • Work in groups to develop reports and presentations that apply a systems thinking lens to questions related to human health and well-being from multiple perspectives.

  • Communicate about working strategy/directions, and find and share reliable and appropriate information for the audience indicated (specialists, members of the public, children, etc.)

  • Reflect on and specify personal goals, values, and ethics as a global (and local) citizen and future professional or researcher, describe how your thinking has evolved over time in your study of global and planetary health.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ENVIR ST/​ENTOM 205

ENTOM 570

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.87 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.4% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 95.2% A/AB (n=63 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

LINDA OFORKA is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SUSAN PASKEWITZ is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 600

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Susan Paskewitz

Susan Paskewitz taught with deep knowledge of global health, though students found lectures boring and filled with busywork.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.87 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.4% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 95.2% A/AB (n=63 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Susan Paskewitz

Attendance was required, and the capstone project served as the main engaging assessment, contrasting with the routine nature of other tasks.

Past student reviews · Susan Paskewitz

Students appreciated the logical class flow and pace, while finding the capstone project interesting and fun despite the boring lectures.

Topics

  • Root causes of infectious and noncommunicable disease
  • Health inequities in the context of global change
  • Trade-offs in addressing global and planetary health problems
  • Social equity considerations in applying scientific knowledge

Skills

  • Systems thinking for assessing global health issues
  • Teamwork and communication for case study analysis
  • Designing interventions using systems thinking and planetary health principles

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ENTOM 570 · Spring 2027

Systems Thinking in Global Health

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:355:026223",
    "course_id": "ENTOM 570",
    "course_uid": "course_b5445e09da50488e84b45a2a",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026223",
    "source_subject_id": "355",
    "title": "Systems Thinking in Global Health",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "1b1b26a582462e3d25c6d03d993659e5a155a59ee3cd4f0926ef33e4416363b2",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}