Mmmm, this course is hard to describe. I had it with Dr. Rollo (who sort of reminds me of a middle-aged surfer dude). This was one of the few courses I took in university where I came out feeling like I learned a LOT. Lectures can sometimes get dry, but that's more because of the structure of...

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Does anyone remember what textbook was used for this class?

We used http://www.amazon.ca/Animal-Physiolo...18769& sr=8-1

But, the prof was different.

Can anyone post the breakdown for this course? Thanks!

So are you guys saying that Dr.Rollo is a good prof? Easier than Dr. Butler?

Originally Posted by Theepika

Can anyone post the breakdown for this course? Thanks!

So are you guys saying that Dr.Rollo is a good prof? Easier than Dr. Butler?

Haven't taken this course, but here's the course outline for 2010:
http://www.biology.mcmaster. ca/cou...02009 -10.pdf

wow sounds tough.. i hope next year classes are NOT at 8:30

1 quiz, 1 test, and 1 exam worth 45% you practically have to know e/t!

Hii

i was wondering if anyone who took the course Dr. Butler has a copy of the course outline he had with the test break down and stuff..

I need it for an application form to get exempted from a course..

thanks in advance

took in winter 2011
At first, i didn't like the course at all because I could barely hear what dr.rollo was saying, he tends to mumble when finishes his sentences
but i grew to like it, the material is quite interesting (allometry, circadian clocks, sleep, feeding, thermoregulation)

there's a courseware package which has like 30 articles we have to read over the year and are tested on.. (but he cancels one of the lectures out of 3, so we have more time to read..)
the midterms have about 1-2 questions per article then a few questions on the lectures
though the articles seem daunting, dr.rollo doesn't make the questions tricky or hard, if you read the articles and review the main points once or twice, you're bound to get the answer b/c he makes the choices really obvious which one is the correct answer

i allow like how he repeats the important things over and over and over and over again during lecture. it makes you remember and he also puts those points on the test

it was a 40% midterm, 60% final
the final questions were a bit more detailed mb cuz he had to make up 70 questions instead of 40
there was a bonus question on both the midterm and final (and again, the choices were so funny and sooo obvious which one is right)
-theres also a bonus (up to 5%) given at the end of the term for online participation.. just posting interesting articles or questions about courseware or the topics (for some reason.. i didn't post any and still got 0.5% bonus..)

if you don't like going to class, it'll be harder to study b/c the slides are just diagrams/graphs with little or no explanation

pm if interested in purchasing courseware (has highlighting though)

Would anyone like to pm me last year's PPT slides? The new policy about copyright means Rollo won't post them anymore...

I'm also looking for last year's slides! Thanks a bunch

Contrary to the above review, my thoughts are completely opposite. I feel like this course offered no detailed information and I feel that my animal physiology knowledge base is no better for taking this course. The lectures are .. well.. horrible. Everything he says is so general and he never really delves deep into the inner workings of physiology, other than what you get from the readings in the courseware (hormone interactions, gene transcription, protein modification, etc). However, if you try and pay attention to him in class and do the readings (focusing on these) then you should be able to pull off a pretty decent mark (i.e. 10 or greater). Otherwise the workload is light: 2 lectures/week, no labs/tutorials, just 2 tests and a final. Take this course in conjunction with high-workload courses.

Took it in Winter 2012 with Rollo.

Ah this course! It made me realize how much I value structure.

Some thoughts:

• you don't really need to know or even learn much about the organ systems etc like your typical physiology course. Instead, Rollo uses a framework of different topics such as allometry, thermoregulation, feeding regulation, circadian rhythms, sleep, etc to convey a lot of information to you.
• there is memorization of protein names, hormones, some neurobiology (parts of hypothalamus, etc) but these names will likely be repeated again and again in lecture in addition to the courseware
• Courseware is a collection of 30 articles that include extensive reviews with some overlap and some primary research articles. This is a lot of reading and summarizing, so I suggest you don't leave it to the last minute. The lectures more or less elaborate on the courseware (with exception of some topics such as allometry), with a lot of Rollo's random thoughts/jokes thrown in.
• all questions are MC for a quiz (10% based on first 10 courseware articles), a midterm test (15 articles+ lectures) and an exam (all 30 articles + lectures). Exam is cumulative and worth around ~50%, so you must know everything.
• the lecturing style is very relaxed. It is really hard to catch all that Rollo says, but I think you should focus more on listening rather than taking extensive notes because it highlights the courseware material.
• Rollo doesn't post most powerpoint slides and there is no textbook. Even if you can get the past slides, a lot of them are pictures so your best bet is to attend class and use the slides to review.
• There was a lot of divided opinion for his test questions- some found them straightforward, others didn't. I think a lot of his questions are easy to answer if you know the general concepts, but there are some that will require random details such as statistics (ex: % of genes transcribing hormones in hypothalamus)
• Overall, the course load is pretty light, but don't let that make you overconfident. There is a lot of material to cover, and it might seem random at times but you should be fine if you know the general themes, have read the articles once and reviewed all the lectures/ article summaries.

Personal opinion: It was not as easy as I expected it to be, based on previous reviews, but I did end up with a good mark. I found the lectures boring at times, but the broad frameworks Rollo used were pretty interesting in explaining a lot of human physiology/ metabolism.

Good luck!

took it in winter 2012

its hard to describe this course, as the lectures seem like a one sided discussion (i.e. Rollo and his thoughts), with the courseware articles providing the bulk of the understanding and material. it's unlike any bio course I've taken so far, looking at high level regulation and interactions. the material was interesting, but presented in an unusual, and somewhat disorganized, lecture style. Despite the large amount of information presented, the questions were not too difficult overall, provided you did the readings, and took notes in lecture.

Took is in Winter 2012 with Dr. Rollo
-overall, found the course to be random and wierd
-if you are interested in a physiology course, don't take this course because we didn't really talk about true physiology, we didn't cover systems of the body - he pretty much just talked about his research interests ex: allometry, free radicals, feeding a diet to mice high in antioxidants increases longevity of mice
-the course was very evolution, regulation - based, we didn't learn about any traditional human biology really
-MC was either really easy or really random
-Rollo asks questions about random details he finds interesting
-Tip! Get a head start on the readings and reread the articles again and again
-you can get a good mark in the course just by reading the courseware, since there is a lot of reptition between lecture slides figures and article figures
-although, on the exam Rollo did ask some questions such as....as I mentioned in lecture...I guess since lecture attendance was really poor
-Don't take detailed notes during lecture and when studying, don't review the lecture notes, focus your time on the CW articles
-honestly, just attending lecture is enough to answer the lecture based questions on the tests/exams, its just that you have to know all the random insignificant details from all the articles, so focus on the articles more - start early because some of them are really tedious

Final thoughts:
This course is very random
There is no strucuture to the course
Don't expect to learn about physiology, rather about sleep cycles, how body size of animals affects metabolism, thermoregulation - brown fat, all the hormones involved in feeding (ex: ghrelin, CCK), a lot on free radicals and oxidative damage