[BenScott]

This course covered the basics of DNA replication, nuclear import/export, transcription, histone modifications, molecular biology techniques, and a variety of diseases associated with the nucleus.

The content was very straight forward, as long as you paid attention in class. The lecture notes were clear and Dr. Daniels did a good job at explaining everything. She had a lot of enthusiasm for the material and provided needed breaks of humour throughout!

The course was structured to have multiple quizzes about every other week or so. These helped to summarize the material, and were either multiple choice or short answer based. I didn't find the textbook to be required.

There was no final exam! The bulk of the marks came from a group poster and an individual paper critique both based on a disease affecting the nucleus. The hardest part was to find a recent primary article associated with the disease.

The posters were evaluated near the end of the term at a poster presentation with everyone else. Free snacks!

Overall I'd recommend this course as it provides the foundation for a huge variety of techniques and theories in molecular biology, without being too overbearing.

The course title should be changed from "cytoplasm" to "nucleus". Other than that, great review and thanks for taking the time!

Dr. Daniels is a really good professor in terms of explaining the content of the course. There are two tests worth 25 and 30%. The tests are not cumulative unless you deffer the first midterm. The tests do require a quite a good amount of effort to do well. But if you put a fair amount of effort, you can easily attain 80+ on both tests. There is a group project/ presentation(10%+3%+3 %) and a 25% essay. If you like learning about dna and the nucleus, this course definitely a one to take.

Took it in Fall 2011 with Dr. Daniel (evening)

• enthusiastic prof, but may go seem like she is going too fast through the slides
• was an evening class when I took it, which means easy to tune out
• no final exam BUT a midterm worth 30% (another one is 20%) that is non-cumulative
• midterms answers require fair bit of detail, sometimes I personally found some questions requiring really specific answers to get full marks eventhough things weren't explicitly asked (but I did improve in the 2nd midterm once I knew her testing style)
• huge article critique (10 pages) worth 25% requires a good amount of effort for good marks, would not recommend if you hate writing scientific papers or reading articles
• may be a fair bit of memorization but also requires thinking because of a strong emphasis on designing experiments using techniques learned in class towards the 2nd half of the course
• one group project, but nothing too stressful- presenting a disease

Recommended for those who are interested in nucleus/DNA content, requires a great deal of work but a good choice for a 3rd year biology course.