Recently, John Willis (Professor of Biology) assigned several chapters of the book “Why Evolution is True” by Jerry Coyne. Dr. Willis is teaching Biology 102 (Genetics and Evolution), one of the courses being redesigned as part of the new biology curriculum. As part of the redesign, Dr. Willis solicits opinions and concerns from his students before class by asking them to briefly answer a few open-ended questions on Blackboard. He learned, before class, that his students were already engaged with the assigned reading, and had thoughtful comments and questions. Based on the student comments, he decided to invite the author to talk with students via Skype in the classroom. First, he had students in the class work in groups to list questions they wanted to ask, then the students were able to ask their questions to the author themselves.
