Spring 2027

Visualizing Science and Technology

Explores principles of design, perception, and cognition in visualizing science for mass media through lectures and written critique.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Nan Li

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Sheila Reaves

The workload included light reading, a choice of six weeks for a three-page paper, and an easy final project.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the fundamental theoretical, practical, and ethical principles of visual communication of science

  • Critique the design, content, and integrity of science visualizations

  • Assess the effects of science visualizations on individual attitudes, emotions, and behaviors

  • Propose effective visual strategies for communicating scientific and sustainability issues

  • Apply the acquired strategies to designing information visualization

  • Critically evaluate scientific visualizations through independent research and written analysis

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Satisfied Communications A or graduate/professional standing

    • Satisfied Communications A
    • graduate/professional standing
    take one
LSC 350

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Satisfied Communications A
    • graduate/professional standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Nan Li

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.81 GPA, 89.8% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.39 GPA, 63.8% A/AB (n=94 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.86 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=52 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

NAN LI is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SHIELA REAVES is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018. 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 / 650

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 · Sheila Reaves

Past students found the course engaging and relevant to daily life, with a focus on clear and interesting lectures.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.81 GPA, 89.8% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.39 GPA, 63.8% A/AB (n=94 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.86 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=52 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Sheila Reaves

The workload included light reading, a choice of six weeks for a three-page paper, and an easy final project.

Past student reviews · Sheila Reaves

Students appreciated that the instructor went out of her way to help, though they noted they rarely needed assistance due to clarity.

Topics

  • Design, perception, and cognition principles
  • Technologies for representing science in mass media
  • Scientific and sustainability issues

Skills

  • Describing theoretical, practical, and ethical principles of visual communication
  • Critiquing the design, content, and integrity of science visualizations
  • Assessing the effects of visualizations on attitudes, emotions, and behaviors
  • Proposing visual strategies for scientific and sustainability communication
  • Applying strategies to designing information visualization
  • Evaluating scientific visualizations through research and written analysis

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— 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 Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · 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

1316 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
LSC 350 · Spring 2027

Visualizing Science and Technology

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": "1274:120:020087",
    "course_id": "LSC 350",
    "course_uid": "course_ee27be7e78c51ebaa4ebfbfe",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "020087",
    "source_subject_id": "120",
    "title": "Visualizing Science and Technology",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "7fa08755e57751717c7a94051bb4c57eb34b3fa51b86c9ecfc42975c50aed182",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}