I'll sometimes let my students assign me "homework" (which typically means determining what and how some of our course meetings will focus on). My first year honors course (co-taught with the fantastic Corrine Occhino) took to this task with particular glee, so I am simultaneously delighted and terrified to announce that two of our after-Thanksgiving meetings will feature...
A puppet show about digitization (academic friends: I'm basing it on Porter's book "Trust in Numbers"), with a handout that is at least 50% memes by surface area, and written in comic sans and papyrus. (I asked if they were sure about the font choice, since they're going to have to do it as a pre-class reading. They were very, very sure.)
A musical about open data and the open science movement. With a pinata. There must be scientific data inside the pinata. (I can totally do this. Paywall pinata.)
Each of these is supposed to explore multiple stakeholder perspectives on the issue, so if anyone has suggestions on good songs to parody for the musical - something with multiple viewpoints, like Les Miz's "One Day More" -- I will totally take them.
(What have I gotten myself into?)