As a rising junior at UW Madison, I have taken most classes based off of recommendations. Most classes in my list of favorites come as no surprise because they are classes that other UW students have raved about. The precedent changed, however, when I randomly took LSC 251 to fill my schedule and it became one of my all-time favorite classes.
As I enrolled for classes for Spring 2020, I ran into the issue of not getting in to all the classes I had hoped for. I came across Life Science and Communication 251: Science, Media, and Society in my search for a class to fill my schedule. As a journalism major, the media and societal aspect sparked my interest and I enrolled without knowing anything more about the course. It is unusual for me to blindly enroll, but I took a shot in the dark. After the first lecture I already admired the professor, Dietram Scheufele, for his apparent passion for the field. Nearly all of the course readings are written by him and based on his own research, which makes the course all the more interesting. Even though I tend to not have as much interest in science, learning about scientific topics in the media world was so much more interesting than I ever imagined.
The three credit LSC course is a class that I had never heard of before. It became my favorite large lecture because Professor Scheufele makes it feel small by engaging the students in discussion. I encourage all incoming freshmen to take this course come Fall 2020.