Spring 2027

Where Science Meets Society

Overview of science and technology studies exploring science and technology as central institutions in modern societies.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Daniel Williford3.9/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Daniel Williford

Students found the class required significantly more work than expected for an elementary course, with some describing the grading criteria as unclear and confusing.

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
STS 201

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.42/5 from 12 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: 3.8/5 raw quality · 2.8/5 difficulty · 6 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Daniel Williford

Students found Daniel Williford’s lectures unconventional and engaging, often highlighting key reading points with unique content, though some felt the elementary-level workload was excessive. While one student praised the narrative approach and flexibility, another criticized unclear grading and a perceived mismatch between the TA and professor.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.67 GPA, 87.9% A/AB (n=140 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.65 GPA, 84.8% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.63 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=74 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Sainath Suryanarayanan

Past students found Sainath Suryanarayanan to be an engaging and passionate instructor who emphasized deep preparation. They reported that he required specific quotes from readings to support claims and valued participation, while noting the course involved a decent amount of work.

ADAM HAYES is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DANIEL WILLIFORD is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SAINATH SURYANARAYANAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2022. 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 / 920
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 230

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Daniel Williford

Williford teaches through engaging, story-driven lectures that make STS content interesting, though students noted the workload was heavy for an elementary credit.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.65 GPA, 84.8% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.63 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=74 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.51 GPA, 80.4% A/AB (n=51 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Daniel Williford

Students found the class required significantly more work than expected for an elementary course, with some describing the grading criteria as unclear and confusing.

Past student reviews · Daniel Williford

Initial lectures felt unconventional and dense, but the experience improved once students realized they only needed to remember the broad strokes rather than every detail.

Topics

  • Genetics, environment, Internet, surveillance, and nanotechnology
  • Science and technology as central institutions in modern societies

Skills

  • Analyzing social dimensions of recent advances in genetics, environment, Internet, surveillance, and nanotechnology

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

6 earlier forecasts · 0.15 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
STS 201 · Spring 2027

Where Science Meets Society

Recorded 2026-10-14
STS 201 · Spring 2027

Introduction to STS

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:875:022426",
    "course_id": "STS 201",
    "course_uid": "course_c1f72dec1862d53f4511b0c1",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "022426",
    "source_subject_id": "875",
    "title": "Where Science Meets Society",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:875:022426.2",
    "course_id": "STS 201",
    "course_uid": "course_c1f72dec1862d53f4511b0c1",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "022426.2",
    "source_subject_id": "875",
    "title": "Introduction to STS",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
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": "298944cfe9debf18206b7eb96ec68919c99bdddae9ba8c17944def26a942024e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}