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Biology 2F03

 
Biology 2F03
Ecology
Published by sinthusized
06-16-2009
Published by
Elite Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,034

Author review
Overall Rating
90%90%90%
9
Professor Rating
80%80%80%
8
Interest
90%90%90%
9
Easiness
90%90%90%
9
Average 88%
Biology 2F03

This was a fairly easy course. It took it in summer 2009 with Dr. Kajiura and Dr. Wei. A lot of it was a review from Bio 1M03, most of it was common sense and a few new things.


Professors and Lecture Style


Dr. Kajiura taught her portions of the course by using case studies from the text book. Sometimes, a whole chapter would be just the case study (eg. Parasitism, rather than focusing on the content within the chapter, we would just learn about an example of a parasite and a host). This simplified things however everything in the notes, including stuff like dates was testable. Anyways Dr. Kajiura’s notes are pretty good though everything is basically from the textbook.

Dr. Wei, for the most part was about the theory rather than focusing on case studies. His notes don’t always follow the text book so I suggest attending his lectures. I missed a few and it took some time to get caught up. A LOT of people skipped his lectures (are numbers went from 50 to 9), but I don’t think he is a bad lecturer. He simplified concepts, answered questions and was nice to students. Dr. Wei also talked about GIS and showed us how to use it (this was not tested, just fyi) which may be helpful for you in the future.

Marvin Gunderman (instructional assistant) did a guest lecture on bugs for once class, and lectured for 3 hours straight. That sounds boring and icky but everyone enjoyed his presentation because he’s so enthusiastic about bugs. He was really funny.


Evaluations


One Midterm – 35 %
  • based on the first part Dr. Kajiura’s material and a few questions from Marvin’s lecture
  • multiple choice format.
Labs – 30%
  • Lab 1 : Nature Walk (go on a walk with Marvin and TA in Coot’s Paradise and they point out plants and animals. You pretty much write them down, and do a little bit of research on their scientific name and hand it in. Pretty easy 5 % to get. Bring your camera!).
  • Lab 2: Six Degrees of Separation – You are given two things, for example potato and elephant or air conditioner and polar bears, and you do research on how the two are connected. This is a group project and you have to present it to the class. It is encouraged to be creative for all the presentations in this course and really the more creative the better. My group did what “biology plays” (dubbed my TA) and those went very well. Also, you are to prepare discussion questions about your topic and you are also marked on participation in other group’s discussion. 5 %
  • Lab 3: Biodiversity Game – You play a biodiversity game in lab and then answer some questions about the rules in the game and how you could make the game more realistic. 10%
  • Lab 4: Mining presentation – Your group researches a mining activity in either a temperate developing/developed or tropical developing/developed country and do another creative presentation. 5 %
  • Lab 5: Presentation and discussion on a given invasive species. 5%.
The labs were easy, free marks and were fun and insightful. Though there are a lot of presentations, you don’t have to hand in any written components so it’s fairly easy. You could take the presentations anywhere for example some groups did a lot of focus on politics in the mining presentations as well as biodiversity.

Exam - 35 %
  • NOT CUMALITVE!
  • The end of Kajuira’s section and Wei’s
  • Had some random pointless stuff like dates
  • Not too bad in terms of difficulty

Overall Opinion of Biology 2F03


Sometimes the material is dry, I admit, but I still really recommend this course if you are interested in ecology and go in with a good attitude (discussions can be engaging at times). The class average for the midterm and labs were really good. It’s a good elective and you learn a lot of interesting things through the labs/projects/presentations that and I can say I am a lot more informed. My TA was Lyndsay Smith and she did a good job

kmer, manda112, N.Cheng, R.L., sycoman, unaiza all say thanks to sinthusized for this post.

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Old 06-17-2009 at 07:39 PM   #2
moops
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I took Biology 2F03 when Dr. Chow-Fraser and Dr. Wei taught it in Fall 08.

The format for the course was the same as with Dr. Kajuira and Dr. Wei.

The only thing is that Dr. Chow-Fraser was not the most interesting professor. She was not as engaging as Dr. Kajuira would be and so the material seemed a little more dry.

Same thing occurred when Dr. Wei started teaching, the number of people in lecture dropped to 10-20.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this course as it was not too difficult and all the tested material was pretty much straight from the slides. Definitely a course to take if you need an easy science credit.

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Old 06-17-2009 at 09:13 PM   #3
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what day is the test on? or is it during lecture hour?
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Old 06-18-2009 at 08:56 PM   #4
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I had 2F03 as a night class so the test was during the lecture hour.

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Old 04-25-2010 at 03:42 PM   #5
pinkpiggydoe
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Took it with Dr.Chow-Fraser in 2009/2010 first term

Prof/lectures
She said we should call her Pat instead of by her last name. She told us that we did not have to attend lectures. I liked how she made the point to say, don't come if you plan to talk through it and distract others that do want to listen. She pretty much read off the slides with stories here and there. She posted up practice questions with answers for every chapter and those questions were pretty much what made up the midterm and exam.

Textbook
Good for understanding diagrams. Through she puts all necessary study material on her slides, i found reading the text helped me remember some concepts cuz though the practice questions were on the midterm, she changed the wording of some.

Tutorial
3 of them were group project presentations. Somewhat interesting, brutal for me cuz it was 8:30. Make sure you participate cuz you get a mark based on that at the end of the term.
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Old 06-04-2010 at 04:36 PM   #6
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I'm thinking of taking this course 2nd term in summer school this year and it says the prof is Smith. Does anyone know how this prof is in terms of teaching style and testing style? He's not on rate my professor. Thanks in advance!
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Old 06-04-2010 at 05:24 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kammy435 View Post
I'm thinking of taking this course 2nd term in summer school this year and it says the prof is Smith. Does anyone know how this prof is in terms of teaching style and testing style? He's not on rate my professor. Thanks in advance!
Smith is new. She was my TA for this course and she was a pretty good one though I don't know how she is as a prof.
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Old 06-19-2010 at 08:24 PM   #8
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Is a 10+ possible in the course? And any tips for success? I think it might be extra brutal as a night class =/.
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Old 06-19-2010 at 09:43 PM   #9
sinthusized
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Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~ View Post
Is a 10+ possible in the course? And any tips for success? I think it might be extra brutal as a night class =/.
Yes you can get a 10 easily and even a 12 if you put in just a bit of extra effort. It is very laid back and fun. I took this in the summer but my friends who took this in the school year also did equally well as a night class.
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Old 06-19-2010 at 10:08 PM   #10
~*Sara*~
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Yes you can get a 10 easily and even a 12 if you put in just a bit of extra effort. It is very laid back and fun. I took this in the summer but my friends who took this in the school year also did equally well as a night class.
Great! Thanks a lot, that makes me feel better
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Old 07-08-2010 at 02:34 PM   #11
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is the exam cumulative?
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Old 08-01-2010 at 12:39 PM   #12
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is the exam cumulative?
Yes, and last year it was worth 30% of your final mark.
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Old 12-28-2010 at 06:30 PM   #13
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Quite possibly the easiest biology class you can take.
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Old 12-29-2010 at 01:12 AM   #14
~*Sara*~
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is the exam cumulative?
Yes it is. This year it was worth 35% of your mark.
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Old 02-18-2011 at 05:14 PM   #15
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Anyone have experience taking it in the summer?
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