A course that meets the STS requirement will hopefully show that in its catalog description and objectives.

What should students get out of any STS course?

• practice in dealing with ethical dilemmas related to the content of the course
• realize there are at least two well-reasoned sides to every controversial subject
• begin to personalize the effects of technology/science/medicine/environment on their own lives
• the ability to unpack complex questions that relate technology and society
• the ability to appreciate complex system (even if they don't very fully understand)
• understand that the world is interrrelated, nothing occurs in a vacuum
• understand that social and political change can be driven by technology
  
• explain specific historical/contemporary developments
• identify new areas where technology and society are intersecting
• learn how to problematize normative and customary solutions--get past common sense
• understand that we can't solve all of our problems by science and technology alone
• appreciate that problems concerning STS are fundamental aspects of the human experience
• appreciate where we were before modern science and technology
• look at equity issues surrounding science and technology
• prepare students to be citizens by teaching them how to develop useful opinions
• convince students that citizens need to understand and be engaged in these decisions
• understand the role special interests play in decisionmaking
• teach students to think on a more global level
  

Audience:

• STS can become esoteric and jargony--it is hard to avoid that in academics
• But if a core issue is informing the public, then we need to translate the more esoteric ideas for students  and other citizens
  

What tools do citizens need to talk about complex technological and scientific issues?

• get past seeing science and technology as always good (or always bad)
  
• an understanding of what science and technology are and what they can and can't do
• the ability to understand something of the science behind an issue (ask class to figure out)
  
• the ability to evaluate the quality of information
• some framework for respecting different points of view and the process of decisionmaking
• do we want to do things efficiently or democratically?
  
• experience applying what they learn in classes to their own lives
• experience with analyzing ethical issues and tools to do so
  

Do we need new political processes for dealing with STS issues?

• citizens panels
• science courts
  

Issues we might want students to be prepared to think about, because they will be important in the next 30 years:

• environmental sustainability
• sprawl (and loss of small towns)
  
• will technology give us an easy fix to running out of oil?
• health care
• computers that are smarter than people
• globalization
• automated military
• do we expect things to just keep getting better--are we going to hit limits?
• can we be happier with less?
• does sustainability mean sacrifice
  
• shift from unintended consequences to unimagined consequences
• it is time to come up with a new definition of progress?
• if all of this is going to happen what about increasing inequality and access