Hey everyone!
I can say with full confidence that this course will be the worst course I will have taken over my four years at McMaster (and I am just going to be entering my second year in September '08). While I agree that there were students who absolutely enjoyed this course, I was certainly wasn't one of them.
This course, like its predecessor (Biology 1A03), was taught by four professors:
- Dr. Hayward
- Dr. Dudley
- Dr. Dushoff
- Dr. Kajuira
I would suggest that whoever is reading this should refer to the Professor reviews, where I will be talking about each of the four professors.
Back to this course... I found that only the material taught by Dr. Hayward (which was all about Darwin and evolution) to be related to what I had learned in Grade 12 biology. However, I had friends who felt that a lot of the material learned in this course was review of Grade 12. So, I guess it really depends on what school you came from.
I mentioned that one of the topics taught in this course if Darwin and evolution. Apart from that, this course also discusses the different plant and animal kingdoms. Dr. Kajuira had asked us to know the specific scientific names of each of the species we had been taught (and yes, a few of them were asked on the second midterm and the final exam).
This course features the big PBL group project, which is worth 10% of the final mark. This project aactually spans the majority of the term, culminating in group presentations. All the topics revolved around some ongoing issue in Hamtilon. My group and I were researching on improving the quality of water entering the Hamilton Harbour. Another topic was researching ways to improve the air quality in Hamilton. For this project, students meet with their group weekly (varying per group) and with a project TA biweekly. The project TA would assess the group during the meetings (based on preparedness, progress, etc.). Also, some of the project TAs were responsible for evaluating the group reports handed in (one TA would evaluate all the reports handed in for one topic, while another would mark all reports for another topic).
Apart from the PBL project, there were two midterms and one exam. The midterms consisted of multiple choice questions and short-answer questions. I found the multiple choices questions on the midterms to be tricky. Usually, it would be my mark on the short-answer section that would boost my overall test mark. The exam was a hundred multiple choice questions (yes, it gets quite tiring after you get to about 70 questions) that were based on all topics covered in the course. Most of the questions were general, however there were some questions (by Dr. Kajuira) that were specific (like the scientific name of a certain species).
There are also labs to hand in, which are relatively easy and should help your final mark. With the labs and tests, there were also pre-lab and pre-test quizzes. These quizzes were timed, but students were given multipled tries to get the highest mark possible.
This course, like Biology 1A03, featured a Lab Test. Personally, I hated the labs and didn't bother staying for the entire 3 hours (I would leave about 1 hour in the labs) which costed me when it came time for the lab test. This test, which was open book, tested students on information collection during their time in the labs
and they were specific! I still remember one question on the test was: How many eyes does Rita have? As soon as I read it, I was like "what in the world...?" It turns out that Rita was a spider!! Well anyways, the lab test was about 40 multiple choice questions and can be a real mark booster if one prepares for it thoroughly.
There is also a newspaper assignment, where students have to read a journal article and summarize its findings in a limited amount of words. Depending on which TA marks it (it will not be you lab TA), it can be a mark booster or not.
This course also featured tutorials. In my opinion, the tutorials were very helpful, especially for Dr. Dudley's materials (because I wasn't really taking notes during her lectures). The tutorials were able to cover the important concepts and summarize them in a way students would understand. The tutorials are led by senior students, who were all once enrolled in this course. So, they know and understand which concepts give students the most trouble and accordingly, they focus on them the most.
Overall, I really hated this course. With all due respect to Ecology/Evolution majors, I cannot think of anything worse to study. But, that is just my opinion. If you are the type that enjoys learning about plants and animals, this course will be a blast for you!
Good luck to everyone!