Easily one of my all time favourite courses that I've taken!
The material was focused on how the genetics of an organism affect its body plan, acting as a mechanism for evolution. I learned more about genetics, gene regulation, and evolution than in any other class I've taken!
As for the format, it was almost entirely group presentations with little to no lecturing from Dr. Stone. Each group was assigned a chapter from the text book to summarize and then lead a discussion in class about their chapter. Dr. Stone acted as the moderator, and answered any questions we couldn't. This lead to some fun and really interesting discussions about gene regulation and evolution!
This class was definitely on the easy end of the scale, with the only mandatory class time being a 2 hour tutorial once a week (the other scheduled class periods were to attend Origins 2FF3, but considering that's no longer offered this will likely change). There were no midterms, nor a final exam.
The majority of the marks come from participation, both in class and on ELM (online). The rest come from a panel discussion with one of the authors of the text book, Sean Carroll, who came to visit Mac. This was by far the most fun aspect of the course, as afterward we got to chat with him over a beer at The Phoenix!
Great course, however it will likely be slightly different when it's next offered (i.e. Sean Carroll can't come every time!)
