B.U.'s version of "Evolution for Everyone" is a large (approximately 200 students) introductory-level biology course that has no prerequisites and satisfies general education requirements.
While I am in no way disparaging the utility of Java (which, in its defense, demonstrates many core programming concepts), to a non-technical student, introductory Java is boring.
So, what did I learn in teaching an ∼300-student introductory biology course for majors for the first time?
College students in introductory biology and introductory environmental science were less uncertain (only 3% were scored N), but, on the whole, gave a surprising number of incorrect answers.
Many students from introductory biology go on to take introductory biochemistry.
Previous work with students in introductory college science courses indicates that, following instruction, introductory biology students may shift to a more naive rather than a more mature epistemology (Semsar et al., 2011).
Previous studies offering ungraded, extracurricular help to struggling students in introductory psychology courses (Lizzio and Wilson, 2013), struggling students in introductory physics and oceanography courses (Deslauriers et al., 2012), and all students in an introductory chemistry course (Hockings et al., 2008) had acceptance rates of 40.5, 39.1, and 40.0%, respectively.
If a professor is better at teaching advanced students than introductory students, he or she might have unusually low scores if assigned to teach many sections of introductory courses.
An institution with an average class size of 12 can still pack hundreds of students into introductory classes.
I was reminded of an essay assigned students in introductory anthropology classes: Horace Miner's classic "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema".
