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...

Click here to read the entire review

Originally Posted by BlueWave

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

That IS physiology. There is far more to it than "here's the heart and this is a vein..." By definition its about how systems WORK TOGETHER and ARE REGULATED.

Originally Posted by britb

That IS physiology. There is far more to it than "here's the heart and this is a vein..." By definition its about how systems WORK TOGETHER and ARE REGULATED.

In fact, the heart and veins are structures of the human body and are therefore not considered as physiology but rather anatomy. I think the OP thought anatomy and physiology was the same thing, but it's not. Even still, the undergraduate calendar clearly states what is going to be taught in the course:

Regulation associated with major features and functions of organisms (e.g. feeding, reproduction, thermoregulation, growth, stress, sleep, aging). Emphasis on endocrinology, evolution, vertebrates and ecology. Material will include selected readings.

http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /CALEN...13/pg1757.html

Does anyone happen to have the PPT slides for this course?

I was just wondering if the readings for the course changed from year to year, or the same thirty articles are used?

mostly the same, I think he changes a few

Has anyone has this course taught by Dr.Nurse? I believe he's teaching it this year (2013-2014)

Can anyone comment on Dr. Nurse??

Dr. O' Donnell and Dr. Lemon are teaching this course this year. Can anyone comment on them please?

How is this course in terms of difficulty, workload etc

Its two midterms and an exam, the midterms definitely require you to study properly for them, even though all the information to know is found on the lecture slides. If you study well you will get a god mark too, no tricky questions for the most part. The midterm averages were fairly high (80+). The exam in my opinion was a lot worse because there's too much content!

So I took this course in the Winter of 2014 with O'Donnell and Lemon.

Midterm 1: 30%
Midterm 2: 30%
Final Exam: 40%

O'Donnell was a decent lecturer and taught material both on and off the slides so coming to his classes were essential. Lemon on the other hand read straight off of her slides and attendence as a result dropped. O'Donnell's material (nerves, muscles, ear) was well written and testing was fair. Lemon's slides were EXTREMELY DETAILED (macromolecules, energy, vitamins, GI tract, temperature) and her notes were near to impossible to fully study. Needless to say, her testing was surprisingly easy and did not include hard content but I will explain all this in the following paragraph.

The tests caught everyone off guard. The first test which was soley on O'Donnell's material was surprisingly easy and 60% of the class got over an 80%. The questions weren't tricky and although not alot of practice questions, they were indicative of the sytling of questions on the midterm 1. Lemon's lectures were extremely detailed and covered energy, the GI tract,ect. The notes were brutal to study for and the practice exam was too easy and only focused on vitamins. Students though the midterm 2 test would be brutal but were completely caught off guard and overstudied/focused on material that was not tested. She had cut out any question to do with the GI tract and moved from energy and vitamins to temperature (skipping over 6 lectures) even when telling us to study every lecture. So the midterm 2 marks were also fairly high (I myself relied on common sense and grade 12 bio for most questions). The exam was BRUTAL. Students studied and studied and yet the exam was too difficult. And most of the exam did not test major concepts but rather minute details and anecdotes mentioned in one slide as an aside (like the frequency of a bullfrogs croak or how many clicks does a dolphin make). Needless to say, exam marks weren't great (although they oddly did not give any class averages). Final marks dropped from 11's and 12's to 10's as a result (they did say that the final mark average was a 10).

Decent content course but this curveball thrown from the professors has left me with a jaded view of the course.

actually, based on the course calendar, Dr. Rollo is back!

How is Dr. Rollo?

Originally Posted by Jennnnn

How is Dr. Rollo?

Check the first few posts in this thread as they're all about Rollo. He's a nice professor and he explains things well, but it wasn't the most interesting class in terms of his teaching style. He was just a little monotone, but it could've also been the time I had the class. Overall a good course though and he's fair in terms of midterms and questions he asks.