Syllabus — Two-Semester Sequence

Thirty weeks across two terms. Complete coverage of all forty-four chapters and all fourteen appendices. Suitable as a majors elective, a pre-health sequence, an honors seminar, or a science-communication program's core.

The break falls after Part IV (Chapter 24), and it falls there for a reason rather than for arithmetic. Semester I is the method plus the two domains where the method's range is widest — the best-evidenced peptides in the book and the thinnest-evidenced ones — ending in the part where mechanism is most seductive and outcome data most disappointing. A student who completes Semester I alone has a coherent education. Semester II is breadth, technology, synthesis, and society, and it ends in the capstone.

Each semester carries thirty percent of its own dossier work, so a student who takes only Semester I still produces a real, if partial, dossier.

Learning outcomes

By the end of Semester I, a student will be able to:

1. State a peptide claim in evaluable form, with a population and an endpoint.
2. Apply the four-tier rating to an unfamiliar claim, dated and falsifiable.
3. Describe an evidence base by design rather than by count, and name what is conspicuously absent.
4. Distinguish evidence-absent ❌ from evidence-present-and-negative ❌.
5. Convert relative to absolute risk and identify surrogate endpoints.
6. Explain why a confirmed mechanism licenses a hypothesis and not a rating.
7. Maintain dossier fields 1–9 for five to ten compounds, with honest blanks.

By the end of Semester II, additionally:

8. Explain how peptides are manufactured, engineered, and analyzed, and what a certificate of analysis can and cannot establish.
9. Explain why regulatory status is not evidence, in both directions, and name the five meanings of "not approved."
10. Read the master evidence table (Chapter 37 / Appendix A) critically, including disagreeing with it in writing.
11. Convert a verdict into a question a clinician can answer, and conduct that conversation.
12. Analyze the social, linguistic, and economic context in which peptide claims circulate.
13. Produce a complete, internally consistent twelve-field dossier and a documented drift statement.

Semester I — The Method and Its Range (Parts I–IV, Chapters 1–24)

Two Semester I set pieces worth protecting:

• Week 10's mirror session. Chapters 8 and 17 are the same twelve fields, the same procedure, and opposite results. Teach 17 explicitly as a re-run of 8. The contrast is the course's spine and it is wasted if the two are separated by a term.
• Week 13's mechanism audit. Students hand in field 3 for every compound and must show, for each, what the mechanism does not establish. Chapter 22 is the anchor: a target engaged exactly as designed, and no benefit. This assignment reliably breaks the mechanism habit for the students who still have it in week 13, which is most of them.

Semester II — Breadth, Synthesis, and Society (Parts V–VIII, Chapters 25–44)

Two Semester II set pieces worth protecting:

• Week 21's field-12 rewrite. Chapter 35 turns "what would change my mind" from a sentiment into a specification — the study, with a population, an endpoint, a comparator, a duration, and a rough size. Grading the rewrite against the week-4 original shows students exactly how much their standard has risen, and it is the most satisfying returned assignment of the year.
• Week 23's disagreement memo. Students argue, in writing, with the book's own dated ratings. Both "I was wrong" and "the book is wrong" are acceptable conclusions. Nothing else in the sequence communicates as clearly that reasoning is the graded object.

Where the appendices live

Appendix H is a reserve, not a reading. Twenty worked evaluations, released a few at a time, are the best remediation instrument in the book. Hold some back for the students who need more repetitions in week 20.

Grading (each semester independently)

Semester I

Semester II

The grading principle applies in both semesters: a well-reasoned ⚠️ that the instructor disagrees with outscores a ✅ that happens to match the book.

Course policy: no dosing, protocols, or sourcing

The book contains none, anywhere, deliberately. Student work is held to the same rule — no dosing figures, no regimens or protocols, no sourcing information, no vendor names, no links to sellers, in any submission, presentation, or discussion post. This applies to the gray-market paper in week 11, which is where it will first be tested.

Anything invented for illustration must be labeled [constructed teaching example].

No student will be asked to disclose personal use of any compound. Dossier compounds may be chosen privately, and an alternative compound is available on request without explanation. Discussion stays on claims.

What to cut if you run short

Thirty weeks is generous, but terms get eaten. In order:

1. Week 17 (27, 28) — compress to a single session using the 📊 callouts and Appendix A rows.
2. Week 26 (41, 42) — compress to one session. Keep 43 and 44; the enhancement and society chapters carry the argument that Part VIII exists to make.
3. Week 19 (31, 32) — move Chapter 31 to optional reading and teach 32 alone. Do not do the reverse; manufacture is what makes the quality argument concrete.
4. Week 29's presentations — convert to written peer review, recovering a full week.
5. Week 16 (25, 26) — merge, keeping the antimicrobial-resistance framing and one vaccine example.

Never cut: Chapter 5 and its second session, Chapter 6, the week-4 field-12 collection, week 21's rewrite, Chapter 37, Chapter 39, or the week-28 capstone workshop. If the calendar forces a choice between covering Part VI and running the capstone workshop, run the workshop — students can read Part VI and cannot assemble a dossier alone.

Related: How to Teach This Book · Where Students Get Stuck · One-Semester Survey · Professional Development · Evidence Dossier Rubric · Claim Evaluation Rubric · Participation Rubric · Midterm Exam · Final Exam · Practical Evaluation Exam