[Mr.Prodigy]

Life Sci 2A03 - Research Methodologies

Summary:

Taught by Dr. Dej in September 2009. Relatively easy course. You learn about the scientific method and its breakdown (hypothesis, experiment, etc.). You then spend most of your time learning about stem cells, cancer proliferation, planarian regeneration, as well as the ethical/moral views that society holds. There are also guest speakers that come and talk about their research in the lab (transcription factors, oncogenes, etc.) which is on the tests unfortunately. In tutorial, you have to read scientific journals before hand and then present them as a group, and then you’re quizzed on them. You also have a tutorial presentation, where you have to present a disease (e.g. cystic fibrosis) including causes, diagnosis, symptoms, prognosis, experiments, etc. with reference to scientific journals. You also have a paper due at the end of the term where you talk about a certain protein (e.g. c-Myc) that is found in its niche (Bone Marrow). This paper has various steps where you submit your summary and draft to an online peer-reviewing system called CPR where they are then reviewed by your colleagues. Two tests, no exam.

Course Breakdown:

Test 1 –
Part 1: Multiple choice (15%)
Part 2: Written assignment on ELM, short answer (10%)

Test 2 –
Part 1: Multiple choice (15%)
Part 2: Written assignment on ELM, short answer (10%)

Written assignment (individual): Essay on stem cell niche and components. Includes peer reviews and final grading. (20%)

Group presentation: (15%)

Tutorials: Participation/quizzes. (15%)

I wish Dej could teach it this fall but she's on mat leave :\

Originally Posted by Mz.Morra13

I wish Dej could teach it this fall but she's on mat leave :\

I know what you mean, she's a great professor. I learned so much in her class. I hope she'll definitively be back for second term though.

she is ur taking cytoplasm yea? i just worry that whoever runs this course next will make it harder..I'm finding out now if I can apply to uottawa for accelerated nursing w/ the physiology course I'm taking now lol that will determine if i take research methods this fall

Originally Posted by Mz.Morra13

she is ur taking cytoplasm yea? i just worry that whoever runs this course next will make it harder..I'm finding out now if I can apply to uottawa for accelerated nursing w/ the physiology course I'm taking now lol that will determine if i take research methods this fall

I honestly don't even remember what I'm taking anymore. The course selection was so bad that I just ended up taking whatever was available and could fit in my schedule from my program's course list.

Was there a text book for this course?

Don't bother getting the textbook for this course. Very rarely do you refer to it. It has information regarding formatting for your project/presentation (i.e. references, etc.). I didn't even take my textbook out of the packaging. Midterms were exclusively note based.

This course sucks, most likely because it's at 8:30am Thursday and Friday in term 1 and Goff/Cowie are like the definition of boring.

this was the worst course in exisitance! honestly i freakin love orgo better than this course

The professor rating would be a 2 (for Cowie and Goff) but I'm assuming in the future Dej will be teaching it, and she's fine so I gave her 10 for that.

The course was 8:30 Thursdays and Fridays, so I skipped most of the course and still finished with high 90s - tutorials were DREADFULLY easy and extremely boring. Luckily, my TA was a pro and we just joked around and talked.

Tests were very hit and miss - sometimes you would get a question where you just don't remember or don't know the answer because it was barely touched upon in class. For the most part, they were challenging but if you studied you could do fairly well. The written parts of the tests were pretty easy.

The final paper was marked as expected, I suppose. No surprises.

So I forgot to do a review for this class, ill keep this relatively short.

We had two professors - Allison Cowie and Goff, both were equally poor at teaching. The lectures took place at 8:30 am and were completely unnecessary to go to. (Do attend the guest lectures though, as they WILL be tested on the midterms).

Tutorials - Very easy. Not much to say here, you should get pretty much perfect on everything.

Midterms - There were two midterms, the averages for both were in the mid 60's, with the second being slightly lower. You had to study fairly hard for them, as some questions were slightly tricky.

Presentation - You pick a topic from a list given to you and give a presentation to the class, its based on a research paper. This was also relatively simple, just make sure you get a good partner

Essay - You write an essay on stem cell niches, based on a list they give you. You get plenty of time to complete, just make sure its all formatted well.

Final Exam - There is no final exam

Overall, this course starts of really well in terms of interest and content, and eventually becomes so redundant that its painful. Pretty simple class, attend the guest lectures, keep up with the material, and you should get a good grade.

Very, very easy course.

Go to class, study, easy 10-12.

how was the final essay for this course?
I hate writing essays and not very good at it and its worth 20%? omg
any advices and comments on the final paper essay?

the course is only open to those registered in life sci did anyone not in life sci manage to get in? should I try asking academic counseling?

This class is great! Very interesting information. The tutorial presentation was really easy and if you put in a decent amount of effort and presented properly you will end up with a great mark. I found the multiple choice part of the test harder than the written part. The written part of the test is done on avenue, you have 2 hrs to finish it and a 2 day period to do it. For the written part you would be assigned a video to watch and answer questions about the scientific experiment and for the second one you were assigned a journal article and you had to answer questions about it. And the information in the journal article went with what you learned in class so the better the understanding of class material the easier it will be for you to come up with an answer. And the best part about this class is no EXAM! Having only 4 exams was actually such a big difference, it was great!

Put a decent effort into this class and you will get a decent mark!