Wednesday 31 December 2014

BIOL 300 & BIOL 301

BIOL 300 (with Dr. Michael Whitlock)

  • Course Taken: T/Th 2pm (September, 2014 - December, 2014)
  • Format: Lectures are relatively slow-paced, but extremely clear. All his lecture slides are posted on his website ahead of time. The labs focuses on learning how to use JMP (a statistics program, trial is free for UBC students) and these are "optional". While all students are suppose to do these labs, they do not have to attend the scheduled lab sessions. There are two specific lab sessions that you have to attend in order to collect the data for the end-of-term paper. The assignments are relatively straightforward and the paper is as well. 
  • Grading Scheme: Midterm (30%), Final (50%), Lab (10%), Assignments (10%) 
  • Textbook: The Analysis of Biological Data (Whitlock and Schluter). It is well-written with random, interesting information. Assignment problems are assigned from the textbook, but students could use either first or second edition because he would post the corresponding textbook question number for each edition. 
  • Class Average: 80% 
  • Personal Experience: Overall, I found this course relatively easy and fulfilled its purpose of introducing students to basic statistics. While the course covered what each test assumes, it does not go into detail regarding why these assumptions are made/ the math behind the statistics. Dr. Whitlock is a great lecturer with a very dynamic presentation style. My only criticism is that he tends to repeat himself a lot and elaborate on points that are straight forward. Good way to study for the midterm/ final is by doing the practice exams he posts on his website since his exams are quite similar.

BIOL 301 (with Dr. Sally Otto)

  • Course Taken: T/Th 8am (September, 2014 - December, 2014)
  • Format: The class is quite small, so Dr. Otto is able to learn every student's name. All of her notes are posted on her website, but in-class she systematically goes through the examples on the board. In order to gauge the class's understanding, she enjoys to randomly ask students to explain the next step. However, if you are uncomfortable/ unsure, students can just pass. Assignments are relatively straightforward and are often slight variations of the examples she worked through in class. You are placed in groups, so you can also ask team members for help as well. The project is essentially to design a model to answer a biological question. It is extremely open ended, and most students keep it simple. Dr. Otto is very helpful during her office hours and email especially near the project deadline. The labs are dedicated to learning Mathematica. Unfortunately, the lab computers have an older version of Mathematica so the TA is not as familiar with it. However, after some trial and error, Mathematica became a useful tool during the project. Midterm and final are open-ended, pretty straightforward and consistent with the practice questions she posts. There is roughly 10% of the exam based on Mathematica material covered in lab.  
  • Grading Scheme: Homework (25%), Lab Participation (10%), Midterm (20%), Project (10%), Final (35%)
  • Textbook: A Biologist's Guide to Mathematical Modelling (Otto and Day). Extremely well written for an audience not well versed in calculus and linear algebra beyond high school. Even though all exams are open-book, you do not have to buy a hard copy of the book. If you have access to an e-book, Dr. Otto brings a couple textbooks during the exam for students to share. 
  • Class Average: 81%
  • Personal Experience: Dr. Otto has a unique knack of making math make biological sense. Her ability to justify each step and make analogies to explain her logical reasoning makes her one of the best professors I have encountered thus far. I thoroughly enjoyed this class especially the end project; however, I wish we had more time on non-linear systems. For students comfortable with basic calculus and linear algebra, I suggest looking into BIOL 560.