did anyone take this course before? how did you find it
thanks =)

This course was actually a lot of fun, plenty of interesting lab work and you'll learn a lot about the different fields of biology, and get some background about research and publishing, which should help you when/if you do a thesis.

Essentially there are different 'modules' each about 2-3 weeks long, where you'll have a guest lecturer come in and introduce you to a topic; then you'll do a lab and have an assignment or write-up. Most of it is quite simple, and the extra lab time is a plus, because for some reason most 2nd year bio courses didn't have labs. It's very relaxed and you can get a good grade easily.

do you remember which prof. taught it?
i think im going to take it
thanks so much =)

Dr. Jacobs taught it last year, I'm pretty sure he'll be teaching it again this year

I should also mention it is a small class (around 30-40), which is nice. And although there were some hiccups with our labs last year, they should be fixed.

How difficult where the labs, especially since they're a big part of the grade? And, is there a final exam for the course?

Thanks

The labs were pretty straightforward. It was important to understand them well because some of the assignments were essentially writing a journal article, and interpreting the results correctly/ knowing the details were important.

The final exam had a (larger) take-home portion and (smaller) written part. also, Jacobs gave us smarties on the final

Thanks!

How did you find the course compared to other second-year bio courses (2a03,2b03, 2c03, etc.) And how likely is it to get a double-digit grade?

Thanks again

I would say the workload is lighter than other courses, but in terms of difficulty, it's a different type of thinking. 2A03, 2B03, and 2C03 were generally blatant memorization but in 2L03 we had to design and interpret lab results and experiments, as well as reach a conclusion and present our results.

The labs are weekly and can be a bit time-consuming; also there were several written assignments that took a while. In terms of actual course content (and info to memorize), there is significantly less than other courses. Most of what you learn is to do with publication and experimental design (controls, statistics) and the relevant information for each module. There are only 2 lectures per week, and one of them is essentially a lab walkthrough.

Hope this helps you make a decision on the course. I really do recommend it.

Thanks a lot for clearing that up! It sounds really interesting. Hopefully SOLAR won't be too much trouble.

Thanks again