This summer I'm going to be teaching a course for the Lifetime Learning Institute to senior citizens. The course is called "Science Controversies for Voters". It's four sessions of 1 1/2 hrs.

My plan is during the first class, we'll chat about the various issues we could learn more about. Global warming, genetic testing, genetically modified food, stem cell research, cloning, and so on. We'll pick one to learn more about next week. Then I'll run home and learn all I can about it before next week!

But, here's the important thing, while I'm learning about it, I'll keep track of every search word and search engine I use, every website I visit, etc. I'm going to ask them to do the same, only I expect less internet from them, possibly library visits, or something. I'd be at a complete loss to find information without the internet so I'm really looking forward to learning how they'll do it.

In addition to talking about what we learned from our searches, and how we found that information, we'll also talk about the sources of information, and how we can figure out who to trust and who not to.

Any suggestions? These folks are a good 3-6 decades older than me. I feel a bit presumptious trying to teach THEM something. I'm also a little uncertain about how we'll relate to each other, we're really from different cultures. I was thinking about how I relate with my own grandparents, but the two surviving are pretty far gone mentally, so that's not much help.