We investigated a pedagogical innovation in an undergraduate microbiology course (Microbes and Society) for non-majors and education majors. The goals of the curriculum and pedagogical transformation were to promote active learning and concentrate on clarity in teaching. This course was part of a longitudinal project (Project Nexus) which prepares, supports and sustains upper elementary and middle level specialist science teachers. We sought to understand the impact of the course in terms of students' content understanding and in terms of students' feedback to the course. To determine students' content understanding we used a pre-post content survey. To document the use of teaching innovative approaches in the class we interviewed all participants, including the lecture and the lab instructors and their students, to get their perspectives. Also, all lecture classes and laboratory sessions were videotaped and observed by three university science educators. Our findings suggested that the instructor taught in the way that he planned. Positively, while the course placed an emphasis on modeling good pedagogy and promoting teaching science as a career option, significant gain in science content was achieved by the students. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)