 Published by |
|
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 165
|
|
| Author review |
| Overall Rating | | 8 |
| Professor Rating | | 7 |
| Interest | | 7 |
| Easiness | | 9 |
|
Average 78%
|
|
|
|
Gerontology 1A03
Overview
Gerontology 1A03 covers a wide variety of topics in the health care and aging field. This includes stereotypes of aging, theories and research in aging, demographics, the aging mind and body, psychology of aging, health care in Canada, death, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, long term care, formal and informal care, and health and illness. It’s taught by Anju Joshi and lectures are scheduled 3 times a week, but usually end up being only twice a week. It provides you the opportunity to go outside of the classroom and get hands-on experience in the world of the elderly. While most courses I had in my first year were based in WebCT, with discussion forums and information, for this course, very little information was posted on WebCT, however it WAS posted, and you did have to go and check back ever so often.
Course Breakdown
First Midterm: 25%
Experiential Learning 10%
Integrative Reflection Assignment 20%
Final Exam: 45%
The Book
Novak, M. & Campbell, L. (2005) Aging & Society: A Canadian Perspective (5th edition).
This book seemed quite boring and tedious most of the time to read. A lot of the time I stared at it thinking “get to the point.” There are many sections especially in the theories, research, and demography section where it tells you about various conclusions different people came to which completely contradicted one another. The book however is your best bet to a good mark in the course. It is what the midterm and final are based on, and as long as you get the important parts out of the book, it will be your best friend.
Class
For Gerontology 1A03, you’re expected to do all readings prior to coming to class, you’re given a list of what will be covered in each class and it’s usually stuck to quite well. There are guest speakers and movies which are shown in class and it is testable material. You can almost guarantee that at least 1 question from each movie and guest speaker will show up on a midterm and final exam. Attendance for this course is low, but I would highly recommend going to class because in this class, more than any other, Ms. Joshi will explicitly state, “I will guarantee you, this will be on the exam.” She doesn’t lie. The classes don’t supplement the power point presentation prior to the class. You’re expected to go to class, take notes, then if needed refer to the power point which is posted on WebCT at the end of the week. This is what I found a major downfall of this course. A lot of the time, Ms. Joshi would give information that wasn’t in the power point and I’d find myself scrambling to write down the power point information and her information at the same time. I would highly suggest NOT copying down the power point information, and only Ms. Joshi’s supplementary information, then at the end of the week, print out the power points and add your information to the original. It’s a great way to study as well. Another downfall is that at times class can get quite a bit boring especially when a topic that doesn’t interest you is covered. Ms. Joshi tries to throw in her own little stories, which at times you think, “this story has no point.” But some are quite interesting and help you remember things.
Midterm & Exam
There is only one midterm for this course, it is based on the first 4 weeks of lecture. It takes place during one of your scheduled lecture times, so it really only lasts 45minutes. It has 40 multiple choice questions and mostly based on the book. You will find that questions will be based more on what isn’t obvious, and what you actually had to read to know. You’ll find that the more interesting pieces of information that when read one would probably think, “Oh wow, I never knew that” is what it was mostly based on. There were a couple of statistics questions, but they were quite obvious, so memorizing every little thing is not worth it. While no previous midterms are available to practice from, nearing the midterm, a website for the book will be posted where you have the chance to try practice questions. Do the questions. For both the mid-term and the exam there were about 4 or 5 questions that were word for word from the online quizzes. The online quizzes are also quite a bit more difficult that the midterm and exam, so if you can do well on those, you won’t have a problem with the midterm and exam. The average on the midterm was a low to mid 60, but considering that out of the 300 students that were supposed to be in the class, only 60 of them went to lectures, it’s not all that surprising.
The Exam has 90 multiple choice questions, which overall I found easier and more straight forward than the midterm. You’re given 120 minutes to write it, but many people finished in less than 1 hour. It’s one of those exams in which you either know it or you don’t. Also, it’s cumulative, but only 20% of the material is from prior to the midterm.
Experiential Learning
This is worth 10% of your mark. The main part in this is to submit any and all forms on time to get your marks and Bam! You have your 10%. You have a choice of what you could do for your experiential learning component. You could sign up for a discussion group which happens once a week throughout the whole semester. You get to choose what time suits you best. During these, you get the chance to talk to seniors and have group discussions. For one of these sessions, you’re required to run the class and you’re marked on this (I believe for the 10%). You’re marked based on participation by the seniors who lead the discussion. I would recommend signing up early for this if it’s what you’re interested it. It’s usually released during the 1st or 2nd week, and you have to walk over to the building where the sheets are posted, and sign your time and what time you want to lead a discussion based on what you’re interested it. I’ve heard the good topics and times are usually taken really quickly. If you don’t want to do this, you can volunteer an institution with the elderly. This can be anything from a nursing home, to running a class to help the elderly with computers to such, to assisting a aerobics class for the elderly. There is usually a volunteer fair prior to the due date you need to find a place to work at, and Ms. Joshi also gives you a list of places which have previously accepted McMaster Students. You need to have 10 hours of volunteering at this location, then submit your confirmation letter. You basically get 10% if you submit a evaluation form for your experiential learning. However, if you lack an insurance form submission (provided at the beginning of the year) or a confirmation form (which states that you have found a placement, also do at the beginning of the year) then you will be deducted 5%.
Integrative Reflection Assignment
At the end of the year, a paper is due based on your experience in your experiential learning location. This paper is to be written in first person, and you are to talk about your experiences and relate them to the course. It’s a maximum of 5 pages double spaced. It’s really really easy to do well on this, as long as you do what it asks you. If you’re unsure follow the rubric. It’s not a guaranteed 100% but, it’s guaranteed to be pretty high (most of the people I talked to received over 90% on it). A lot of the time, I also felt I was doing this incorrectly, as I’ve never been asked to write a personal essay.
Overall, Gerontology 1A03 is a decent course. As a life science student, I was looking forward to the part of biological aging, but that was covered in 1 lecture. It’s quite dry and focuses a lot on the social aspects of aging, but you have to be the one to attend lectures and find the fun parts in it. It was also not much of a time-consuming and demanding class. I would say, as long as you attend lectures and do your readings & assignments on time, it’s a pretty easy double digit mark.
|
|
