I have read the reviews on both courses and both are considered bird courses, yet they conflict so I need to choose one. I heard Astron 2B03 is more subjective, esp. depending on the TA you get but Bio 2D03 has labs and lots of memorization, so is there any other input from others who have taken these courses?

Which should I choose?

Thanks!

I took both in the same term. Since they're equally easy and you can't really go wrong with either I would go with the most valuable one, in terms of your interests and what you want to get out of the course.

Astron classes didn't feel like normal classes. They were extremely interesting and introduced me to origins material which I now love! The prof (Parker) is interesting and good at explaining things. You can switch tutorials in the first week if you recognize that your TA is not so nice, I had a very nice one. Tests and exam are very fair/easy but you have to go to class for this - Parker can test specific things she leaves out in the skeleton notes and concepts can be confusing/new to lots of people without some explanation.

I didn't like plant bio at all in the beginning, but it grew interesting near the end and I appreciate it now in hindsight. The prof isn't that interesting but she's nice. I learned molecular bio techniques that I didn't in other courses, and it gave me an appreciation for biotechnology/agriculture at the end which I liked and was relevant to my program. You kind of have to stay on top of the labs to do well in the 30% lab exam. The first avenue quiz was harder than expected (so she bumped us all up) but the in-lab quiz and exam were very fair/easy. Studying from the slides is good enough, I skipped classes halfway through but caught up at the end.

Take from that what you will

I wasn't all that into genetics from BIO 1M03 and 1A03 in first year, do you think this will stop me from doing well/being so uninterested in the material that I will do poorly?

Also for astronomy, I realize the tutorials include discussions, which I'm not very fond of, I also disliked the PBL project from Bio 1M03 (clearly Bio 1M03 did not go well for me), so do you think doing well in the presentation and getting participation marks will be hard? How are the written answer questions by the way?

Thanks so much

Originally Posted by Christ

I wasn't all that into genetics from BIO 1M03 and 1A03 in first year, do you think this will stop me from doing well/being so uninterested in the material that I will do poorly?

Also for astronomy, I realize the tutorials include discussions, which I'm not very fond of, I also disliked the PBL project from Bio 1M03 (clearly Bio 1M03 did not go well for me), so do you think doing well in the presentation and getting participation marks will be hard? How are the written answer questions by the way?

Thanks so much

I really liked genetics, mol bio, and evolution in first year so I liked learning the evolution of plants and the different pathways for the genes involved in producing flowers, petals etc. I don't think it'll be a hindrance because I think there's something for everyone in this course - we also do physiology, anatomy, development, some biodiversity of plants, and biotechnology. We make a couple trips to the greenhouse (you also do an assignment in there) and you learn about some really cool plants and how to distinguish between types. The labs were a lot of work but we also learned a lot; there were live plants, dead plants, different seeds and seedlings, microscope slides, micrograph images, diagrams... Very hands-on and visual.

I actually didn't like the PBL project in 1M03 either, but astronomy discussions were pretty fun, mainly because of our TA who was really relaxed. We had a different topic every week, broke off into mini-groups (always new people each time). One person gave our group's views to the class. Then we had a big class discussion about the topic where anyone could speak. The TA told us he'd give us all perfect unless we didn't show up or were sleeping or being rude, so we weren't pressured into speaking 24/7 and the topics were really comfortable and interesting.
The presentation was the hardest part of the course because of finding a good partner in the first few weeks and choosing a topic together (there are lots of topics to choose from and you can even make your own). I got along well with mine. When the TA asked us questions after our presentation (he asked relevant/intelligent questions so you really had to be prepared) we answered them pretty well. We didn't work on our powerpoint that long but we had done adequate research. Some groups didn't answer the questions that well or their presentation was badly timed or too focused on explaining a concept that everybody had learned from class, instead of getting to important ideas. I don't think it was that hard to do well.
Journals too, I didn't use external research much.. it was like a tutorial discussion with myself and my TA gave me a good mark.
So you can see how having a crappy TA can screw you over in the journal and presentation mark. I heard of one TA who wanted long journals with lots of research, and presentations with very original and creative ideas. My TA didn't care that much about creativity.

Edit: There were no written answers in astron tests when I took it:/ I don't know if it has changed.

Bio 2D03 is the birdiest of bird courses. Easy A.

Astron 2B03 isn't a bird course. There is quite a bit of new knowledge involved, and you need to work to get your marks. But it is extremely interesting and thought provoking, and Dr. Parker is a great prof.


EDIT: I'm a dumbass. I took Life Sci 2D03, not Bio. Disregard what I said about it.

This is honestly the hardest decision ever lol, if you had to do one of them again which one would you choose rkb12?

Originally Posted by Christ

This is honestly the hardest decision ever lol, if you had to do one of them again which one would you choose rkb12?

Ah this really is a hard decision, I enjoyed both and would have taken both again!

Astron I would choose because it got me interested in origins lectures which I started going to outside of class time. I feel like it was personally rewarding because I'm now very into astronomy, space exploration, and origins topics. I found out about the Higgs Boson before the discovery and I would have never understood what things like general relativity or quantum physics were about. I had moments after class where I walked across campus on a beautiful day and thought about how big our universe was and how small we were It really did get me thinking about the big questions.

I liked mol bio and genetics even without taking plant bio, but I didn't think highly of plant bio until I took the course so it was a pleasant surprise to enjoy that course (it made me consider taking Mol Bio 3Y03 but I'm not going to). To be fair, I did walk across campus and realize that I saw trees and bushes and plants in a new and interesting way haha.

I would probably choose astron because it's just so exciting (she updates the course with recent discoveries and news, so the Higgs Boson finding and the Mars rover will probably be there) although plant bio is very close.

Edit: I'm assuming you aren't interested in Mol Bio 3Y03 or Bio 3B03 (plant bio is a pre-req).