Spring 2027

Biology in Popular Media

Biology in Popular Media teaches introductory biology concepts and analyzes depictions of biology, biologists, and the scientific method in movies, TV, and documentaries.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Scott Hartman4.3/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.45 GPA, 59.3% A/AB (n=59 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify portrayals of biology and biologists in popular movie and television franchises, as well as documentaries.

  • Assess how portrayals line up with current biological interpretation.

  • Summarize basic biological concepts such as natural selection, homology and surface area to mass scaling.

  • Identify media tropes regarding biology and biologists.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ZOOLOGY 110

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Scott Hartman

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.95/5 from 20 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.

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.45 GPA, 59.3% A/AB (n=59 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

SCOTT HARTMAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. 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 / 1200

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.45 GPA, 59.3% A/AB (n=59 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Depictions of biology, biologists, and the scientific method in popular media.
  • Media tropes regarding biology and biologists.

Skills

  • Evaluate the factuality of biology representations in media and explore common biology tropes.
  • Summarize basic biological concepts including natural selection, homology, and surface area to mass scaling.

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
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
ZOOLOGY 110 · Spring 2027

Biology in Popular Media

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": "1274:970:027208",
    "course_id": "ZOOLOGY 110",
    "course_uid": "course_7552f2e8e989b2f56eacb848",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "027208",
    "source_subject_id": "970",
    "title": "Biology in Popular Media",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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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": "cf0a642c2d3a97855387bd431dd0b6870af845ba21788c04afea7dd71328da74",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}