One critical element of increasing science literacy is student engagement. In this article, I report on the impacts of changing an introductory environmental science class to move away from standard lecture delivery and increase student engagement in science. The class was designed around small-group activities, inquiry labs, and substantial use of popular media. I found that, according to certain measures, students were more engaged in our class than their peers in comparison groups, particularly in how frequently they talked about the class material with those not in the class. Students were most engaged in small-group activities or during video presentations. When asked, however, students reported that the most valuable activities for their learning were lecture and video presentations and not the small-group activities or inquiry laboratories. These data suggest that students need to change expectations about how they learn and their responsibility in learning. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)