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The key to teaching science to students who are non-science majors is to teach science as a human endeavor, filled with the egos, jealousies, and quirky personalities of its practitioners. In my Life Science class, for example, we read The Double Helix, James Watson memoir of his and Francis Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize. Then we view The Secret of Photo 51, a video version of the same story told from the perspective of Rosalind Franklin, the woman scientist whom Watson vilified in his memoir, yet whose research he and Crick appropriated to determine the DNA structure. This triggers intense discussion regarding the ethics of Watson and Crick’s discovery and the difficult situations that women scientists all too often have faced. Delving into such issues makes my classes different from the standard, university-level science class, and gives a breath of reality and vividness to understanding science.
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