Spring 2027

The Historian's Craft: Science, Medicine, and Technology

Students conduct original historical research in science, medicine, or technology, engaging with archival materials to define questions, analyze evidence, and present conclusions.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Dana Landress3.8/5Suzanna Schulert

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Dana Landress

The course received a low difficulty rating, suggesting the material was not perceived as overly challenging by students.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Ask Questions: develop the habit of asking questions, including questions that may generate new directions for historical research.

  • Find Sources: learn the logic of footnotes, bibliographies, search engines, libraries, and archives, and consult them to identify and locate source materials.

  • Evaluate Sources: determine the perspective, credibility, and utility of source materials.

  • Develop and Present an Argument: use sources appropriately to create, modify, and support tentative conclusions and new questions.

  • Plan Further Research: draw upon preliminary research to develop a plan for further investigation.

  • Communicate Findings Effectively: make formal and informal, written and oral presentations tailored to specific audiences.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Satisfied Communications A. Not open to students with credit forHISTORY 201.

    • Satisfied Communications A
    • not eligible with
    take all
HISTSCI 211 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
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Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 2 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 5.0/5 raw quality · 2.0/5 difficulty · 1 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Dana Landress

Dana Landress was described as an incredible lecturer who kept classes well-organized and curated, including discussion sections. Students found the course relatively manageable.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.44 GPA, 74.4% A/AB (n=43 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Nicholas Jacobson

Historical instructor Nicholas Jacobson was described as caring and interesting, though his lecture notes sometimes jumped around and lacked clarity. Students noted that the course required heavy weekly reading loads of approximately twenty pages, which varied in quality. One reviewer found the grading reasonable, while another found the overall experience interesting despite the demanding workload.

DANA LANDRESS is recorded teaching in Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

NICHOLAS JACOBSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 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 / 450
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LEC 003Classroom Instruction0 / 150

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

Meeting source records

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Dana Landress

Students found Dana Landress’s lectures to be incredible, noting that both the main classes and discussion sections were exceptionally well-organized and curated.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.56 GPA, 80.7% A/AB (n=57 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.89 GPA, 92.9% A/AB (n=14 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Dana Landress

The course received a low difficulty rating, suggesting the material was not perceived as overly challenging by students.

Past student reviews · Dana Landress

Learners appreciated the structured nature of the course, highlighting that the organization extended positively to the discussion sections as well.

Topics

  • Archival materials and disciplinary methodologies in the histories of science, medicine, and technology.
  • Formulating historical research questions and generating new research directions.
  • Planning further investigation based on preliminary research.

Skills

  • Defining historical questions, collecting and analyzing evidence, and presenting original conclusions.
  • Locating source materials using footnotes, bibliographies, search engines, libraries, and archives.
  • Evaluating the perspective, credibility, and utility of source materials.
  • Developing and presenting arguments using sources to support conclusions.

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

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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.

Selected offering source records
HISTSCI 211 · Spring 2027

The Historian's Craft: Science, Medicine, and Technology

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTSCI 211 · Spring 2027

Food Hist from Farm to Table

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTSCI 211 · Spring 2027

Health and Healing in America

Recorded 2026-10-14
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Model & dataset provenance
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