MICB 322 & MICB 323

MICB 322 (with Jennifer Sibley)

• Course Taken: M 1pm, W Lab (September, 2014 - December, 2014)
• Format: The course is pretty relaxed, and Ms. Sibley is more concerned about everyone understanding concepts than getting "perfect" results. There are not a lot of lab reports except for the couple at the end. Be prepared to have to go in on one or two days after your lab day for simple things like moving your bacteria to the fridge, or counting colonies. 
• Grading Scheme:  Midterm, Lab Reports, Final
• Textbook: Lab Book from MISA (around $30)
• Class Average: 80%
• Personal Experience: The TAs and Ms. Sibley are great at making sure no one feels stressed. The final was surprisingly harder than expected, but other than that the course is quite low-stress. Labs typically do not take the entire 4 hour period especially if you work quickly. Make sure you have 30 min the day before and after your lab period to set up / finish your experiments (ie. inoculate bacteria, count colonies) or beg a friend. For MICB 322, the lab work is done in pairs (the person sitting next to you) and the lab reports are done alone. However, you share the data so you typically end up working together.

MICB 323 (with Ehleen Hinze)

• Course Taken: M 1pm, T Lab (January, 2015 - April, 2015)
• Format: The course involves lots of partner work especially for lab reports, so I suggest pick a partner beforehand to ensure you will be able to work well together. There is a weekly lecture beforehand with in-class assignment (for participation). Ms. Hinze is a bit pickier than Ms. Sibley, but overall the class is still relatively relaxed compared to the 1st and 2nd year CHEM labs. 
• Grading Scheme:  Midterm (10%), Lab Reports (43%), Lab Technique (5%), Data Quality (2%), Lab Book (3%), In-class participation (2%), Final (35%)
• Textbook: Lab Book from MISA (around $30)
• Class Average: 80%
• Personal Experience: Marking tends to be a bit inconsistent and it really depends on how nice your TA is. There are slightly different expectations between MICB 322 & MICB 323 especially in terms of figure captions. The final was also harder than expected, and the amount of work for lab reports is slightly greater than MICB 322.