Depending on your high school background, Biology 1M03 serves as an introduction to evolution and ecology. As I have mentioned in the summary above, the term consists of three major units which are taught by three different professors.

Part 1: Introduction to Evolution taught by Dr....

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This course wasn't all that bad, but it was one of my least favourites of first year. I took it in Fall '09 and I had Dushoff and Kolasa. Dushoff made the material very interesting; Kolasa was rather boring, however I felt that he was good at explaining the material. The PBL project for this course was kind of a nuisance and the tutorials were a huge waste of time, however they were mark-boosters. I wouldn't recommend taking this class as an elective unless you have a genuine interest in the subject matter -- there are easier classes to take with less work!

Much of this course is taught (essp when Kaijuira comes in) assuming most people did not take eco/evo in depth in HS. I was one of the few who did, though some of it was new to me. Much of the eco is the standard 'look at how screwed up we made everything/save the worlds!!!11111!!1" perspective and the evolution bit is well done in the text.

The PBL projects were one of the stupidest ideas I've ever seen. I had to work with four other people who I seriously think should not be here. I maintain that you CANNOT have a PBL project in first year, there are just waaay too many unqualified people running around, never mind the big groups you are forced to deal with. Nevermind how time consuming and irrelevant it was - only a couple of them were actually relevant topics to the course and they were only a few questions on the second midterm and exam...

Basically, if you though 1A03's labs were long, useless and boring...wait until PBL...

But back to the original question, no, you certainly do not need grade 12 bio for this, or even grade 11. The grade 10 ecology part is fine.

Originally Posted by britb

But back to the original question, no, you certainly do not need grade 12 bio for this, or even grade 11. The grade 10 ecology part is fine.

I'm pretty sure Biology 4U is a pre-requisite for Biology 1A03 and 1M03.

I didn't check myself, but I think s/he said they didn't need grade 12 or 1P03, which is why they were interested in 1M03 at the moment, since they don't have to do through another course to do it.


Never mind, i just checked the 10/11 calender, and it looks like you do need it. I don't see why, but there you go.

Originally Posted by _Mike

I'm pretty sure Biology 4U is a pre-requisite for Biology 1A03 and 1M03.

That's correct but I can get it waived and go right into 1M03. Thanks for your help everyone!

Test #1 (Dr. Quinn's Material) was too long so most people didn't have enough time to finish.

Test #2 was fair.

Final exam was all application.

Overall, unless your into animals and plants, it is a very boring course.

i agree, PBL in first year was a huge mistake. most people in my tutorial had no clue what was going on. also, the topics were boring. to the extreme. this is easily the worst course i took in first year.

Yes...I could go all day about PBL (more than I did a minute ago), but I won't. So, so stupid. "Oh, it'll teach you to work with a bunch of different people, like in the workplace" Maybe, but at least at a job, people can get fired for sucking. AND they don't affect your GPA/future, unless something really bad goes down.

Anyway, this course has a lot of potential - the material is relatively new but not too hard, its just destroyed by stupid stuff like PBL and the whole "saves the planetzzzzz" half. Sure, I KNOW the planet is screwed, but we do not need five chapters of it over and over again.


For people actually considering this course:
Erm...don't let me discourage you. My PBL group was ridiculously bad and I did a lot of the stuff before, so it was not as interesting to me.

And I liked Quinn, actually. Sure, he's a bit disorganized, but he's able to hold my interest in lecture, just study outside of his slides. His test was not nearly as bad as people say it was - it was quite straightforward if you used the textbook, if long. Kaijuira usually covers the second half. She reminds me of grade 9, but she is a good prof and is really easy to study for, which makes your life a lot easier.

I had this course second semester of this past year. The professors were Dr Kaijura and Dr Quinn.

The first midterm covers fairly easy material, however the midterm was brutal. The average was in the low 50's.

The second midterm was EASY and I believe the average was in the 80's.

The exam was ALL application, so try not to memorize facts!

The tutorials and PBL's were all very easy as well.


This course was fairly interesting and not too difficult, but prepare to do poorly on that first midterm lol.

i had Dr. Quinn and Dr.Kaijura and i wanted to kill myself by the end. most boring class ever!

Originally Posted by ecoghlan

i had Dr. Quinn and Dr.Kaijura and i wanted to kill myself by the end. most boring class ever!

You didn't have Wilson or Papaconstantinou, just be happy. XD

Originally Posted by jhan523

You didn't have Wilson or Papaconstantinou, just be happy. XD

and pray that you never have Wilson in future biology courses...

Originally Posted by Mahratta

and pray that you never have Wilson in future biology courses...

I've had her last year, I think I have her again next year >.>

Originally Posted by ecoghlan

i had Dr. Quinn and Dr.Kaijura and i wanted to kill myself by the end. most boring class ever!

Agreed. One of the most boring courses in university, if you're not into evolution and stuff.

Dr. Quinn: worst Prof., I've ever had
Dr. Kaijura: Really nice prof, but almost clueless when it came to answering student questions, but a very easy prof, in relation to her test material.

i took this course in term 2 of 2010. contrary to most people, i found dr quinn infinitely better than dr kajiura. his tests were more challenging, but they actually tested your understanding of the material, unlike dr kajiuras memorization type question(again this is the opposite of what most people found, except for the challenging part). dr kajiuras questions were always fairly straightforward, but the material she teaches is incredibly boring. i found dr quinns part to be fairly interesting, and as a result paid more attention in class and did better on his midterms than kajiuras. i found the pbl project to be too time consuming for how much it was worth(10%), and the tutorials were very easy. overall an easy course, if boring.