This course is divided into three parts. The first two profs tried to incorporate a sort of model to aid the curriculum.

Dr. Jacobs - Cell Bio
- had a virus model. Seemed irrelevant until after the unit which is kind of unfortunate because understanding was crammed to the end....

Click here to read the entire review

I'd just like to add that I actually found the switching of professors mid-way to be a nice change. And to answer the question above, they switch professors because of their different areas of expertise and how one can contribute to a part of the curriculum more than someone else. But anyway, having the different lecturing styles was quite refreshing for me. Although I do admit that some professors were hard to adjust to.

term one's wasn't too hard.
kajuira's the best, you really don't need the textbook at all if you read her notes

but apparently second term was brutal haha

I really love Kajuira and loved this course, however I couldn't stand Wilson's teaching techniques - drove me up the wall. The exam was also completely ridiculous and unnecessarily long. like 200 multiple choice questions? No thanks.

You guys are all aswesome this is so bloody helpful!!!

Originally Posted by resh.jyoti

I took this course Term 2 of 2009-2010. I am good at bio, really, and I like it, it was my favourite subject in high school.

I HATED THIS COURSE.

It is EXTREMELY poorly organized, and I'm shocked to find that it has been poorly organized for a number of years and no one is doing anything about it! The random surveys that we have to complete FOR MARKS are unfair, no one knows when they come out, and half the time the quizzes/pre-lab assignments are only open to half the group.

The labs were interesting, really, but we had a lab tech that didnt know what he was doing - literally, all the other techs came in and TOLD HIM what the lab was about. I learned after the first lab that if I asked him a question the answer was generally wrong and so I avoided asking him anything as much as possible. In addition to this, he expanded on what we needed to do in our ONE FORMAL, GROUP LAB REPORT, and EVERYTHING he told us ended up being wrong, as I found out when I talked to a couple other lab-group members.

IN ADDITION TO THIS, what the heck is up with switching the profs halfway? Like, which genius came up with this? It makes me seriously pissed off, because as a first year you need to deal with the learning style the professor presents to you and adapt it to your own to be able to effectively study with the materials presented to you by the prof. When they switch the prof not only is the prof out of the loop and it takes them a few days to adjust to the way ELM works, apparently, but more often than not the teaching styles and the resources provided are completely different, MAKING THIS HARDEERRRR FOR A FIRST YEAR STUDENT, as if it isnt hard enough already!

We had Kajiura the first term and she had awesome partial notes, which you filled out during class, and then she UPLOADED all the basic info that you were supposed to take during class well before a test. She was very nice when you went to see her for help, and explained things again and again in class if the iClickers showed no one understood, until everyone was on the same page. She was really great, composed, and professional.

Second term we had Wilson. I will warn anyone who is taking this course, do as much as possible to avoid this prof. She spoke condescendingly to the class, and didnt care if half the time the iClicker results were messed up. In the first couple classes I FELT BAD FOR HER being up there, it was like high school all over again where one kid goes up for his class presentation and is so nervous you just wanna pat him on the back and make him feel better - in a prof i find this unacceptable. When I went to her for help, I dont know if it was a bad day or something but she acted like I was a 2 year old and evaded the question I wanted asked... Her exam questions were paragraphs, and after 70 M/C paragraphs you just want it to be over. Half the time you didnt know where the material was coming from because her notes were pictures half the time (ie. of molecules etc. and you were supposed to print those out and write AROUND them, and the molecules are just GENERIC molecules, nothing to do with what we're studying). Sometimes there WAS text on her notes but it was so generic that if you used those as study notes, good luck....

I ABSOLUTELY loathe the switching profs thing. That's all I had to say. Good luck!

Personally, I thought Wilson >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kajiura. I also used only Wilson's notes for studying (including what I'd written in class)--I rarely opened the textbook. I found the notes to be sufficient for most things. Kajiura's notes irritated me--I felt like I was in grade 5 or something. She babied people way too much.

Also, we never had any 'random surveys' (in term 2 of the 2008/2009 year). Any time there was a survey, we were told in class and via announcements on WebCT.

By 'lab tech' do you mean 'lab TA'? If you had a crappy TA, that sucks, but it's not representative of the course on the whole. My TA was amazing

As for the switching profs part way, this is done in several other courses as well (Kin 1A03/1Y03 and Kin 1AA3/1YY3, Biochem 2B03, Bio 1M03 are a few that come to mind, but I know there are many others). The idea is that each prof teaches what they're familiar with, especially in introductory courses that cover a wide topic range. For bio 1A03, since I couldn't stand Kajiura but liked Wilson, I liked the switch. We also had Dr Jacobs as a third prof. It also helped me remember the course better because I could associate material with the prof that taught it--I found I forgot way less than when one prof teaches the whole course, and it was less of a 'blur' at the end. As you said, part of university (and any type of formal learning) is learning to adjust to different people's teaching styles. This gives you a lot of practice with that, while learning things that are familiar/partially review from high school.

Having said that, I'm not a huge fan of the bio dept in general. I don't like the way their courses are run, but it's much more nitpicky than anything people have mentioned. Things like the way formal lab reports are organized, or the way labs/tutorials are set up, and how things are tested--all of these things feel like random small irrelevent details that they keep pushing on us. I don't feel the testing style encourages anything other than memorization. I spent so much time on the lab report trying to get their random requirements in, that I didn't actually learn anything from it. And the ridiculously long prelabs were pointless and didn't help me understand the lab at all.

I agree, for this course Wilson was better than Kajiura. I actually thought Wilson was a good professor in first year. I was quite surprised in second year though...

Thanks for the course reviews!

Are the labs for this courses every other week? Because on the master timetable there's no EOW next to the lab sections like there are in Chem 1A03 and Kin 1A03.

Originally Posted by Jellybeanz

Are the labs for this courses every other week? Because on the master timetable there's no EOW next to the lab sections like there are in Chem 1A03 and Kin 1A03.

Yes, they're every other week. In my year, they alternated with a tutorial, but I'm not sure if it still does. There's a total of 5 labs for the course--it would be too expensive to run them every week.

I think the hardest part of this course, if anything, was the labs. Even though they were very interesting, they require a lot of preparation beforehand (reading carefully through the manual, prepping your lab notebook, doing the online quiz, etc.), and lots of work after. The labs themselves always felt disorganized and rushed - even though we had three hours, it didn't feel like enough time - it got pretty stressful. There are also not enough Lab TA's for each section. Everyone would have a ton of questions for the TA, but you'd have to wait like 10+ minutes for one of them to come around to you, it was bad.

The Skills Labs at the beginning of the term were also disastrous. It seemed like there were hundreds of students crammed into that one hallway, waiting for their turn... I remember waiting in line for over an hour to do the petri-dish lab, only to be turned away because I was the 36th person in line (they only allow 35 students in the classroom at a time or something like that) and it was the last run of the day.... that sucked. hahaha

My advice for anyone about to take the course is to try and get the skills labs out of the way as soon as you possibly can (the lines won't be AS crazy). A few of the regular labs require you to create a graph of your data on excell... there's a computer lab right down the hall from the lab rooms on the 2nd floor of BSB. Make use of it! If I had known about that hidden computer lab, it would have saved me hours of running around campus trying to find a computer with the proper excell program.. when it was right there all along lol.

Also, cram your lab notebook which as much info as possible, even if it seems useless and trivial. It'll all come in handy when you sit down to write the lab exam (it's open book). :p

LOL, I went to the skills lab the day after they opened. The TAs kept coming up to me asking me if I wanted them to do the assessment (I was practicing the petri dishes and they were bored because it was empty). Then the prof had to go and open her big mouth so I had to wait an hour to do my last one. fuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I have a question about the course and labs in general. How much is a lab coat :(. Also, the lecturer today recommended we buy the newer edition of the bio textbook. Right now the package comes with the study guide...but is it really worth buying? Or will I be fine with an older edition. Lastly, do we need one of those hardcover lab notebooks for this course or are those optional?

Lab coats are about 15 dollars, although they might have increased in price since I got mine. Almost definitely cheaper than the clothes you could ruin (although this isn't as big of a deal as Chem). I also seem to recall the lab notebooks being non-optional.

This is the first year with that new edition, so its hard to say. Usually you're fine with an older edition, and worst case scenario is you have to photocopy a few pages from a friends book. There are plenty of people (myself included) who have their old editions gathering dust, and would be willing to sell them. Look for flyers around campus or check out the MacInsiders marketplace, though. Buying from Titles for used books is usually not a great deal. Or just shoot me a pm

Originally Posted by Angoose

I have a question about the course and labs in general. How much is a lab coat :(. Also, the lecturer today recommended we buy the newer edition of the bio textbook. Right now the package comes with the study guide...but is it really worth buying? Or will I be fine with an older edition. Lastly, do we need one of those hardcover lab notebooks for this course or are those optional?

The package does NOT come with a study guide. The study guide is a yellow-ish book that's rather expensive (approx $60-65 iirc) and I would not recommend getting it. You can buy it later in the term if you find you're really struggling, but realistically you probably won't have time to look through it and it won't be very useful anyways. The package with just the Volume 1 of Biological Science is $71.95 and comes with Volume 1 and a Writing Guide. Titles is currently sold out of Volume 1, but it should hopefully be in tomorrow!

Apparently Kajiura added a lot of Canadian content into these custom editions, and I wouldn't be surprised if she tested stuff directly from the book.

Even if you buy nothing else for this course, you MUST buy the hardcover purple-ish lab notebook (and lab coat and maybe goggles?)

Thanks. I guess I'll go pick up my labcoat tonight XD. My friend already bought the previous edition of the bio book and he isn't using it this semester. I wonder if it'd make a huge, huge difference if I didn't get the newer edition XD.