heey so I'm taking bio 458 right now with steeves and I was wondering if you had any tips on the term paper? i don't really get what to write.. i know i want to write about huntington's disease, but as far as structure goes, i'm kind of lost. thanks for any help!
I don’t even remember what I chose to write on, I just remembered I tried to find an interesting topic, but had a hard time finding enough research papers to back up my points. So, find something you’d like to learn more about, but make sure there’s enough research out there that supports your argument.
Hi, i am taking BIOL 458 next term and I wwas wondering if you still have the syllabus for the course or remember the grading scheme. I read your review and you mentioned about the final report. does that mean that there is no final exam? thank you!!
It was something like 25% midterm 1, 25% midterm 2, 50% paper, I don’t have the syllabus with me at the moment sorry.
There wasn’t a final exam when I took it, but I think there’s a different prof now so the grading scheme might be different.
This past semester was crazy! I had plans to be able to relax and take it easy during my last semester in Science, NOPE NOPE, I missed my first term, where it was super chill. Click here to read about what I took then! There was this one course that I took this semester that took up a lot of my time and I don't think I've ever worked as hard for that A+. So..what did I take? Biol 321, Biol 362, Biol 458, Cpsc 301. The course review is after the break!
Biology 321, Morphology and Evolution of Bryophytes - Ellis
My plant course of the semester! I was pretty nervous going into this class because I knew nothing about non-vascular plants (Moss, Liverworts, Hornworts), all of the other plant courses I've taken (Biol 210, Biol 324, Biol 343, Apbi 318) were all focused on vascular plants. Because I had never taken a non-vascular plant course, there appeared to be a lot more material to learn this time around. It was particularly hard though, just lots of facts to remember. As with the other plant courses I've taken with Shona Ellis, it was very well organized and the exams were fair! Nothing was worth more than 30-ish% of the grade, but we had many assignments, so there was plenty of room to make up for a bad grade in any part of the course. It was quite a bit of work, but definitely manageable and it helped keep me on my toes. The exams were based on study questions posted on Connect, the answers weren't posted, but it was great to be able to see the majority of the exam questions before the actual exam! We had one midterm, one lab final and one final exam. There was also a collection, like with Biol 324 (Seed Plant Taxonomy) and a final project on anything related to mosses! I enjoyed this course, it's definitely opened my eyes to the little plants of the world!
Biology 362, Cellular Physiology - Young
This course is basically an extension of Biol 200, similar topics were covered but in more depth. I really enjoyed Biol 200, but not so much this course. I found the topics were a little dry and they really weren't things I could apply to the real world, partly because I don't plan on doing research in Cell Physiology. We had a midterm, case studies, a term project and a final, we were allowed one double-paged sheet for notes while the term project and case studies were done with a group. There were a lot of random facts that we had to know for our exams which I felt weren't mentioned in lecture, but we had to gather from the textbook ourselves, we were only taught the basics in class. Marking of the exams were fair though and the prof really did care for our learning, so the structure of the course was good. The material was just a little dull.
Biology 458, Developmental Neurobiology - Steeves
This course is really interesting! I initially didn't want to take it because it was at 8 in the morning, but I was surprisingly able to stay awake during the lectures haha. We learned about development of the nervous system from conception to death. There was a nice mix of physiology and genetics in this class, if you're not interested in either one of those topics, I wouldn't recommend it. We only had two midterms and a final paper, no final exam. There were loads of information to memorize for the exams, but if you pay attention in class, the prof will give you tips during the review sessions on what you should focus on. This course is definitely meant for upper year students as it had a very "it's up to you" attitude, especially when it came to the final paper where you could write whatever you want. No clickers or additional assignments were provided, it was really just up to you to keep up and attend class.
Computer Science 301, Computing in the Life Sciences - Mitchell
The horror course...just kidding...kinda. I actually really enjoyed this course, despite the shitty marks I got on my midterms, the averages were low though, so it wasn't a big deal. I felt like out of all my courses, this was the one where I've learned the most in. We focused on learning the programming language, Python, which is one of the most commonly used languages, especially in the natural sciences. We had weekly labs, assignments, two midterms and a final exam. It may not sound like much, but it was actually quite a bit of work. I probably spent over 10 hours a week on this course, because I wanted to write programs that answers the questions exactly. I know some people just gave up part way and handed in 80% finished assignments, but I wanted the 100%. However, after those long hours, you feel so good when you've finally figured it out. The midterms were..eh..and the majority of the class complained and the professor always did his best to make sure that we got the marks that we deserved, so I am so grateful for that. I felt the final exam was very, very fair, considering all the various resources that we were given to practice exams with. I studied so much for this final exam, I did every single question possible from the textbook, the practice exams, labs, assignments, group questions and even got a group of friends together to create additional questions. The professor and the TAs were very responsive on the online discussion boards with answering students' questions, so there is quite a bit of help available for this course. I ended up with a fairly decent grade, though I'm pretty sure it was scaled, but I still got a bit above average, so I'm glad that all that time I spent in this course paid off.
Do you know some good third and fourth year BIOL courses about Genetics?
I really enjoyed BIOL 436, it’s genomics though, so it’s looking at things from a bigger point of view and seeing how different genes interact to give different phenotypes.
BIOL 335, is Molecular Genetics, it’s the pre-req for most 400-level genetics/genomic courses, it’s hard, albeit very, very interesting!
I’m taking BIOL 458 right now and although it’s about Developmental Neurobiology, there’s a lot of genetics involved with it. It’s a pretty interesting course and the professor is hilarious!
