Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Exploration of current topics in biology from media sources like news organizations and TED Talks, tracing information back to primary research. Students learn to critically evaluate primary sources. Discussion of bias in system producing primary research from undergraduate education through tenured faculty, and medicine and national science funding (National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation). Addresses lack of Black and Latinx representation and its impact on science valued by current system. Letter grading.

Review Summary

Clarity
10.0 / 10
Organization
10.0 / 10
Time
0-5 hrs/week
Overall
6.7 / 10

Reviews

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2021 Online
    Grade: A+

    This class was very enlightening for me, it covered issues of inequities in STEM and the basics of research. The class itself was pretty dense workload-wise. There was a quiz every lecture, but the professor said she might change it to once a week in the future, and there were assignments called problem sets. In terms of quizzes, they are multiple choice and sometimes are worded pretty vaguely and it can be difficult to know what Dr. Turlo is asking, but for the questions that affect the majority of the class, she usually takes them off/gives everyone the points for it. In terms of the problem sets, they are written assignments. Depending on the TA, the problem sets may be graded very rigorously. The problem sets themselves took the place of midterms and the Final was pretty similarly structured to those problem sets. I would recommend taking advantage of the office hours, Dr. Turlo and the TAs will clarify what they are looking for in the problem sets if you ask. I would also recommend having a basic understanding of biology, as learning key biological concepts all at once can be a bit jarring, but the TAs try to fill the students in on the bio context during discussion. I would not consider this class to be an easy A, but if you're interested in the topics I would highly recommend, this class was very enlightening regarding research and diversity in STEM.

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2023 In-Person
    Grade: A+

    Dr. Turlo is very passionate and the material itself is interesting though lectures sometimes get tedious. Nice easy life science GE.

Course

Previously taught
24S 24W 23F 23S 23W 22F 22S 22W 21F 21S 21W

Grading Information

  • Has a group project

  • Attendance required

  • No midterms

  • No final

  • 50% recommend the textbook

Previous Grades

Grade distributions not available.