Hi,
I would really appreciate any feedback on third year biology courses that you may have taken. I have to take a couple and I cannot seem to decide....any feedback appreciated.
thanks!

hey mnk1988, i'm going through the same trouble. really hard to decide..
I've heard some bad things about Bio 3I03 and the prof... but it seems really interesting.. any suggestions on that anyone?

This is from what I've heard...I'm not in Bio...but spend a lot of time with someone who is.

Bioinformatics sucks.
Evolution has hard tests.
Yeast is apparently good enough to warrent an entire course.

yea, im doing the same
ive heard that cytoplasm and nucleus are boring but easy.
anyone herd nething about animal phys 3uu3 or intro to immuno, clinical biochm? fundamentals of pharmacology 3AA3?

I took at lot of bio courses while at Mac, but unfortunately a lot of my advice is sort of prof-dependent (as in, some courses are absolutely made or broken by the person who is teaching it). I was skimming through the Master Course Timetable checking out some of the old ones I took, and most are now done by other people, which could be better or worse...

I would have recommended 3O03 (Microbial Genetics) without reservation if Dr. Sorger was teaching it - that man is a legend. The way he taught that course truly brought it to life - it was like he was telling a story with every lecture. His tests made you think, not regurgitate information, which is an ability that sadly seems to be lacking in the biology department.

Heh, 3S03 (Bioinformatics) can be just a tad dry, yes. But I'm a computer geek, so I found it interesting. If you see yourself going into any sort of genetic research field that would involve comparing DNA sequences, then this course would be valuable, since you learn a lot of practical things about how to use many different programs to do it.

I liked 3SS3 (Population Ecology) too, but then again I really like ecology (which many people seem to hate with a passion). Dr. Dudley seems to be teaching it, and she's not fantastic, but not too bad. It's one of the possible prerequisites for 4AA3 (Conservation Biology), though, which I really liked, and is taught by a really good prof (Ben Evans).

I'd recommend one course above many others, though (and oddly enough, it was simultaneously the best and one of the hardest courses I took at Mac): Bio 3F03 (Vertebrate Anatomy). The lecture and the lab components of this course are vastly different. In the labs (the hard part), you'll be dissecting a cat over the course of the semester, while memorizing the names and locations of every muscle, bone, blood vessel, etc. The dissection alternates between being frustrating and fascinating, but the memorization is tedious and the bell-ringer tests stressful. Regardless, you learn a lot. Where the course really shines, though, is in the lectures, done by Dr. Butler. Much like Dr. Sorger, he is another gifted "storyteller" who winds his way through a different topic every day. He is famous for saying at the beginning of the year that you don't have to take any notes in his class, and you don't have to study for the tests, because there will be nothing that requires memorization or recalling a list of facts - he just wants to make you think. In a way, his tests are actually fun to write, because they're so different. They're all long-answer format, and questions he's asked in the past look like this:

-If you were there when Mother Nature was handing out appendicular anatomy, would you choose to have feet, or wheels? Under what circumstances would you choose the opposite?
-Can a snake climb stairs?
-Can a bird fly backwards? (Disregard whether or not you've ever actually seen a bird fly backwards - could they do it if they wanted to?)
-Would you be able to run faster if you had a tail?

Now, the information that you need to fully back up your answers to these questions obviously comes from the lectures themselves, which is why I'd recommend taking notes and studying regardless. But just by attending, you'd probably be able to soak up enough info to be able to write a pretty compelling answer, which is a testament to how well he presents it. Also, even if you argue your points using information he didn't teach (and even information outside the scope of biology), he'll still give you the marks if you present a compelling case (he marks all the tests himself, too!).

Anyway, just wanted to be sure to promote that course a little - the labs are annoying, yes, but overall I loved it. Also, it used to be a prerequisite for getting into the 4th year human anatomy course, where you dissect a cadaver. That course used to be called 4G06, but doesn't seem to be in the calendar this year - I wonder if it's still offered?

Anyway, hope that helped a little.

Cippi thanks so much for your help.. I was trying to decide between Eurkaryotic genteics, vertebrate anatomy and animal histology... vetebrate anatomy sounds interesting now. and butler is taking bio 3uu3 this year he sounds really fun. i am not too worried about it now.
Do you know anything else about eukaryotic genetics and animal histology by any chance? thanks!

eukariotic genetics = the yeast course.

Eukaryotic Genetics is not the most exciting course. It is easy compared to other 3rd year bio classes (I havent taken animal histology or vertebrate anatomy) There is a 15 minute quiz every twoish weeks. The material is boring but once you understand it is pretty easy and the lectures are boring. However if you are looking for easier marks and not time consuming this is a pretty good course to take.

thanks JeffB! why was it boring? :S i was looking at last year's course outline.. it seems pretty interesting. But Zhu is teaching and some ppl didn't have really nice things to say about the prof. did you have dr. zhu? thanks for the help.

it was about yeast.

thanks a bunch!! cippi and jeffb for your help..it gave me more insight into the courses..


i was wondering if the difficulty of eukaryotic gentics is about the same as second year genetics (bio 2C03)??
Also, for Bio 3F03.....what wuld u say is the overall difficult of the course? In terms of the logn answer test questions...are they similar in markign scheme to ecology, second year...kolasa style..if n eof u remember still..where he gave a question and as long as u gave 10 examples u wuld get the entire 10 marks....??
Thank a lot!
..shame they dn;t offer the bio 3G06 ..human dissection course..I think it wuld be a reallllly kool course to tk....maybe next year

ANy more thoughts on the course cytoplam and nucleus wuld really be appreciated..
thanks to all for thei input!

The course has potential to be more exciting than it is. Dr. Zhu is very knowledgable about everything but she has difficulty in teaching the class. She would get stalled on a slide or a certain point and spend the next hour trying to explain it. You will be able to understand the concepts of the class but the textbook (for the couple of topics its used for, maybe dont buy it but borrow from a friend) and the lecture notes/journal articles will be of the most use and where the tested material mostly comes from.

I would still recommend taking the course as you do learn important stuff and it is easier then some of the other classes out there, but I will warn you that it is not the most enthralling class i have ever taken as it was mostly about yeast.

I havent taken Nucleus yet, but i will be this year, from what i have heard its not the hardest course, and kind of interesting. It also ends a couple weeks early which is kind of nice.
Cytoplasm was a good course, had some dryer moments in it, well many dry moments. The lecture notes are the most important stuff, although he does test from the textbook and what he says in class but mostly the lecture notes. (I wouldnt buy the textbook if you have a friend with one, or if you want to split the cost, I didnt open mine until studying for the final and still didnt find it all to useful for the cost.)

does anyone have anything to say about virology vs immunology?

I was wondering if anyone knows if the tutorial for Eukaryotic Genetics is mandatory...? I want to take Biology 3V03 but the lecture time conflicts with the only Euk. Genetics tutorial times!! :(