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Indigenous Studies 3J03/Political Science 3C03 lorend 3rd Year Course Reviews 0 12-14-2009 01:23 PM

Life Science 3J03

 
Old 05-04-2013 at 11:55 AM   #1
shelbs
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Life Science 3J03
Has anyone taken Life Science 3J03, Human Biomechanics? It is offered this year with Dowling, J and it sounds interesting but I couldn't find any information on the course, course outline or the prof.
If anyone knows anything about this class or has taken it, I'd love to get a better idea of what to expect!
Thanks in advance
Old 05-28-2013 at 01:24 PM   #2
~*Sara*~
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It's a new course, I believe it'll be offered for the first time next year.
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Old 05-28-2013 at 04:25 PM   #3
Jason036
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I took it last term actually with the same professor. I personally thought it was pretty boring to tell you the truth. It's pretty much a physics course.

Basically he gives you a CD at the start of the class with all of the lecture notes on it. However, some of the links on the CD didn't work and studying some of the lecture material for the exam was difficult because of this. I found that for the exam he tended to ask questions about lecture material that he talked about only in class in passing, so if you didn't remember one thing he mentioned then you'd get the question wrong.

The prof himself is very nice and very engaging with the material however I found the material to be very dry. He's a kinesiology professor but he really knows the physics side of the material very well, and will talk the entire period, sometimes a little too quickly when it comes to explaining how to solve a particular problem, but maybe that's just me.

The classes felt like you would go there, and barely need to take any notes since he would read off the slides which are all on the CD that he gives you. It is basically first year physics (kinematics, forces...etc) and the tests are pretty easy even if you aren't that good in physics. We only really started talking about human biomechanics really past 2nd midterm, and even so we didn't talk about anything in depth. He just went over some techniques like electrocardiography.. .etc

He also gives you files on the CD that are practice questions, but there are no solutions only answers to the questions.

The class itself was pretty chill and every other friday was basically like a help session where you only needed to go if you have questions, however I know that he was looking to get a tutorial for that course instead.

shelbs, Swampis all say thanks to Jason036 for this post.
Old 05-28-2013 at 05:54 PM   #4
Mungo
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Take Physics 1B03 or 1BA3 or 1BB3 instead. Hardly human biomechanics.

Other than that, not a difficult course. Just bad.
Old 06-06-2013 at 08:05 AM   #5
shelbs
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Thanks for responding. Was it a difficult course though? I'm taking physics 1B03 now and I'm doing fairly well so if it's similar material I don't mind. Also, were the tests multiple choice and what other assessments were there?
Old 06-06-2013 at 09:52 AM   #6
Jason036
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If you're doing well in physics 1b03 you'll breeze by Life Science 3J03. The tests were all multiple choice, and there weren't any other assessments besides the midterms and final.
Old 06-06-2013 at 10:10 AM   #7
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I took 3J03 this past term.

This was a really good course in my opinion. You learn a lot about the real-life applications of the course material compared to some other courses where you don't really see the connections.

To comment on what Jason036 said about the course being boring and dry. You have to keep in mind that this is a beginners' introductory course to biomechanics. Thus, don't expect to learn all of the real life applications and "cool" stuff right off the bat. This course serves to build your foundation in the field of human biomechanics. You will be covering some of the physics materials you learned in first year (but briefly) since they are considered pre-reqs. However, you are not entirely learning them all over again. You will learn these materials with a biomechanist twist, which is really really cool because you will be able to relate some of these examples to your everyday life. ie. how to be more efficient when shoveling snow, why it difficult to lift and lower weights in different positions, and a lot more about exercise and biomechanics.

The course load was very light compared to other courses. The evaluations consist of 2 midterms (25% each) and a final exam (50%). The midterms are really easy. You can expect to do well if you do all the practice questions well ahead of the friday help sessions when Dr. Dowling will go over questions people had trouble with. So you can ask your questions here. If you can do these practice problems, you will be more than fine for the midterms since they are mostly similar to or easier than the practice problems.

The CD he gives seems really different to some people at the start of the course since we are all used to getting textbooks. But this actually makes your job much easier since you don't have to read a huge stinking textbook that covers more material than what is taught in the course. The CD is very condensed, and straight to the point. Another bonus is that it is written by Dr. Dowling so almost everything you need to know is in there word for word. Although, I don't think going to class is that important since you can pretty much learn the material yourself by reading the CD material. The friday sessions are useful to attend since you get to go through problems together. However, I would recommend attending lectures if you want to do really well since he does sometimes ask questions on his tests about things/examples he talked about in lecture. The exam was about the same difficultly as the midterms but there may have been a couple more application/thinking style questions related to lectures.

The professor for this course is Dr. Dowling. He is hands down one of the best professors I have ever had at McMaster. He is extremely nice, always willing to address your concerns and questions. He is very approachable in person, and actually cares about his students and wants to make sure everyone agrees and understands everything.

Overall, this was a very amazing course as you learn things that apply to your everyday life which makes the course worthwhile. It is also very lightweight in terms of load, and pretty easy to do well in. It will be much easier for someone who is already really good at physics since they will not have to learn everything all over again. Instead you find time to chill during the course since you already know the basics. If you take physics 1bb3 (which is not a pre-req for this course), you will find this course even easier than people with just 1b03 since a lot of the materials in 3J03 are similar to 1bb3.

In addition, maybe you can find more reviews on this course and other biomechanics courses taught by Dowling if you look up the cross-listed kinesiology courses which are pretty the same as this one. I wish they would offer a continuation of this course so that you could learn more application based material, and learn more advanced human biomechanics. This course is offered, but only to kinesiology students. Maybe you could get a waiver for it if you want, but it is highly unlikely it will get accepted since kinesiology is known not to allow students from other faculties into their courses.

shelbs, Swampis all say thanks to spiketown for this post.
Old 06-06-2013 at 10:21 AM   #8
Swampis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spiketown View Post
I took 3J03 this past term.

This was a really good course in my opinion. You learn a lot about the real-life applications of the course material compared to some other courses where you don't really see the connections.

To comment on what Jason036 said about the course being boring and dry. You have to keep in mind that this is a beginners' introductory course to biomechanics. Thus, don't expect to learn all of the real life applications and "cool" stuff right off the bat. This course serves to build your foundation in the field of human biomechanics. You will be covering some of the physics materials you learned in first year (but briefly) since they are considered pre-reqs. However, you are not entirely learning them all over again. You will learn these materials with a biomechanist twist, which is really really cool because you will be able to relate some of these examples to your everyday life. ie. how to be more efficient when shoveling snow, why it difficult to lift and lower weights in different positions, and a lot more about exercise and biomechanics.

The course load was very light compared to other courses. The evaluations consist of 2 midterms (25% each) and a final exam (50%). The midterms are really easy. You can expect to do well if you do all the practice questions well ahead of the friday help sessions when Dr. Dowling will go over questions people had trouble with. So you can ask your questions here. If you can do these practice problems, you will be more than fine for the midterms since they are mostly similar to or easier than the practice problems.

The CD he gives seems really different to some people at the start of the course since we are all used to getting textbooks. But this actually makes your job much easier since you don't have to read a huge stinking textbook that covers more material than what is taught in the course. The CD is very condensed, and straight to the point. Another bonus is that it is written by Dr. Dowling so almost everything you need to know is in there word for word. Although, I don't think going to class is that important since you can pretty much learn the material yourself by reading the CD material. The friday sessions are useful to attend since you get to go through problems together. However, I would recommend attending lectures if you want to do really well since he does sometimes ask questions on his tests about things/examples he talked about in lecture. The exam was about the same difficultly as the midterms but there may have been a couple more application/thinking style questions related to lectures.

The professor for this course is Dr. Dowling. He is hands down one of the best professors I have ever had at McMaster. He is extremely nice, always willing to address your concerns and questions. He is very approachable in person, and actually cares about his students and wants to make sure everyone agrees and understands everything.

Overall, this was a very amazing course as you learn things that apply to your everyday life which makes the course worthwhile. It is also very lightweight in terms of load, and pretty easy to do well in. It will be much easier for someone who is already really good at physics since they will not have to learn everything all over again. Instead you find time to chill during the course since you already know the basics. If you take physics 1bb3 (which is not a pre-req for this course), you will find this course even easier than people with just 1b03 since a lot of the materials in 3J03 are similar to 1bb3.

In addition, maybe you can find more reviews on this course and other biomechanics courses taught by Dowling if you look up the cross-listed kinesiology courses which are pretty the same as this one. I wish they would offer a continuation of this course so that you could learn more application based material, and learn more advanced human biomechanics. This course is offered, but only to kinesiology students. Maybe you could get a waiver for it if you want, but it is highly unlikely it will get accepted since kinesiology is known not to allow students from other faculties into their courses.
Hey, thanks for review. I was wondering is it to get 10+ in the course? I have not taken physics 1B03 but did take 1L03.
Old 06-06-2013 at 10:33 AM   #9
Jason036
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I will say that Dr. Dowling is very accommodating for this students, to the point where we took an in class vote for which day the midterms should be on.
Old 06-06-2013 at 11:42 AM   #10
spiketown
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Swampis View Post
Hey, thanks for review. I was wondering is it to get 10+ in the course? I have not taken physics 1B03 but did take 1L03.
Hey, I probably won't be able to give you the best answer since I took 1b03 and 1bb3. Maybe someone that took the course with a 1l03 background can give you a better answer.

My best guess is that anyone who takes this course will easily get 10+, and you don't have to be super smart. This course was originally made for kin students who didnt even have a physics or math background. But the reason the life science course has the pre-req is because most science students already have these pre-reqs so Dowling wanted to use this to his advantage in order to include more material in this course. So you might notice that he briefly goes over some of the basic trig, and physics topics in the beginning of the course so that you can learn more biomechanics later on.

Bottom line, if you are interested in the course material you probably do really well. Also, physics knowledge can help you out as well, but its not that hard to learn them with Dowling.

Swampis says thanks to spiketown for this post.



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