Public Understanding of Politicized Science
Examines intersections of science, politics, and communication regarding public understanding of controversial science and technology issues.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=11 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Describe key theoretical and conceptual models for understanding and explaining public understanding of science issues that intersect with politics and political communication.
Assess how social scientific research addresses the relationship between communication and the public’s understanding of controversial science issues.
Identify opportunities for original scholarly work related to improving understanding about, or interventions to improve, public understanding of science.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapGraduate/professional standing
- Graduate/professional standing
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Graduate/professional standing
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=11 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Intersections of science, politics, and communication
- Controversial science and technology issues
- Political polarization, attitudes, and information processing
- Contemporary digital media environments
Skills
- Describing key theoretical and conceptual models for public understanding of science issues
- Assessing social scientific research on communication and public understanding of controversial science
- Identifying opportunities for original scholarly work and interventions to improve public understanding of science
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
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Selected offering source records
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Raw records
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Student reviews
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Read original reviews
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Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
"model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
"task_version": "17",
"output_id": "0f3adc5d156df42cfbc6622a9beb353e46b7ed42afc4d039983d4bb6439cfe8a",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}