A first year non-majors biology course, with an enrollment of around 440 students, has been redesigned from a course of traditional content and teaching style to one that emphasizes biological concepts in current global issues and incorporates active learning strategies. We were informed by the education literature incorporating many aspects of established curriculum redesign principles and extended its application to a biology course. Systematic measurement of student attitudes and collection of student feedback through a series of surveys as well as focus group interviews proved to be invaluable in the course redesign process. The information gathered over a two-year period enabled us to fine-tune the course content and teaching strategies effectively to better meet the interests of students in the non-majors course as was documented by the evidence gathered in this research.