silva rerum

Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth

Another term has come and gone at jolly UBC and I’m surprised to find that I’m still standing. Time for another unceremonious, ad hoc course evaluation – done, of course, before my exams so that I won’t be biased by how difficult I found the courses.

ENGL 304 (Advanced Composition)
This one felt pretty touch and go for most of the way…the professor really knows her stuff (she should – she wrote the textbook after all) and there were definitely some innovative teaching methods. However, I never really felt like I ever got into the rhythm of things and when I did, it was short-lived. I’d recommend anyone to take this course if they feel that their writing is a bit on the weak side; this course should help you polish up your composition skills. However, the title of the course, “Advanced Composition” is a bit of a misnomer – most of the course is spent on persuasive essays, not expository.

ANAT 390 (Introduction to Microscopic Human Anatomy)
This one’s definitely a rite-of-passage for most and it’s reasonably tough. Because it’s a survey course, you cover a lot of ground very quickly, leaving students who haven’t taken advanced biology scratching their heads. If you are, however, a biology senior with a good number of cell biology courses under your belt, you really ought to be fine; it won’t be anything you can’t handle. It’s taught by a variety of different professors, each of whom is an expert in the material that s/he teaches – this is great because you get instructors who really are experts at what they are teaching but you never know the level of instruction you’ll get. Some are great and some not so much.

BIOL 361 (Introduction to Physiology)
I can’t say I ever really wanted to take this course – I took it because it’s mandatory for my program. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable, largely due to the efforts of my two wonderful instructors. The course material itself is accessible and not too onerous; all evaluations were open-book so it was really a test of getting enough down on paper to show that you knew what you knew. The topics are, at times, dry but I guess I can see why the course is mandatory for all biology majors. Regular study should lead to success in this course quite easily.

BIOL 304 (Fundamentals of Ecology)
Co-taught by two instructors, this course was in its first run this year after being revamped from the previous BIOL 302/303 program. Deceptively breezy in the beginning, many students learned the hard way that this course stressed critical thinking (for long-answer problems) as well as rote memorization (for definitions) on the midterm examination. The labs were fun if labour-intensive; they were generally mark-boosters. I’m sure, with time, that this course will become more refined but all I can say is that the course was still a bit rough around the edges when I took it. It was, however, interesting enough that I’m considering taking BIOL 306.

BIOL 300 (Biometrics)
Absolutely dreading this course, I walked in with the lowest expectations ever. I felt that I had been deceived – I thought that no math was required after first year if I wanted to do the Biology program! Nevertheless, the math involved is quite basic if laborious at times (ANOVA, anyone?) and the examples provided are compelling and interesting. I can see why this course is mandatory for all biology majors and I found, in spite of myself, that I enjoyed this course and saw how it would be relevant to research. The evaluation is straightforward and fair, if comprehensive. Regular study and practice should serve you well.

BIOL 360 (Cell Physiology Laboratory)
This course was a blast from beginning to end! It’s structured far more casually than those formal chemistry labs and you get to pick and choose among the experiments that interest you. There’s not a strong emphasis on the acquisition of laboratory techniques, though, aside from centrifugation and micropipetting, which was very disappointing. The TAs were helpful and the director was always open for questions, though. Marking is rigorous and more difficult than you might imagine.

BIOL 240 (Experimental Design in the Life Sciences)
This review might be moot seeing as how this was the last year that BIOL 240 will be running (for now) but I thought it was wonderful. It’s extremely time-consuming, however, and required much more attention than I had previously imagined but what you put in is what you get out. I learned a lot of valuable laboratory techniques in here, as well as figuring out that scientific research is not as romantic as I might have once imagined (I have so much pity for people who work with Neurospora crassa). Still, this course was just so rewarding and so great! I took so many pictures and they’ll always have a cherished place in my heart.

Next term is almost certainly going to be hugely different; a huge influx of ENGL courses will shake up the balance of things while BIOL 337 will either break me or make me. I’m excited!

Now, not to get ahead of myself, time to commence studying!