Guest shoopshoop Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 I was told that I could be exempted from several courses as I have credit for them (18 actually!) but I am retaking those courses as advised by many of you... The question here is: What is BIOL 140 like? I may not take it but I'm afraid the lab work will provide crucial lab skills needed later... As I may take about 33 credits in 1st year I thought I could decrease the coursework and ease myself a little by not taking BIOL 140. Any thoughts appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest physiology Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 BIOL 140 - it was fun! I enjoyed it. The lab consists of your own group experiment (with 3 others), for which you have to write a lab report and do assignments for and an elective. HOWEVER, I was in 2nd term where we got to choose an elective (there were things like bird ecology, Bamfield, soil microbiology) whereas the people in first term got an "elective" shoved down their throats. It was essentially a beachcombing walk along Wreck Beach (non-nude parts I assume). That said, it is a lot of work. Every week you have homework and some of the TAs are very anal in terms of the marking. The lab report also takes a long time to do. In terms of the statistics you learn, they're extremely basic and you'd be better served by taking Stats 200. The lab report itself is a good experience. You are taught how to properly cite journal articles, learn how to search for them (surprisingly daunting I found when I first started), write discussions, intros, abstracts, etc. However, when you get to third year and start taking more substantial labs, you'll learn how to write lab reports (bioc, pharmacology, physiology, in particular). The style/format of lab reports varies from course to course, so all in all, I think I would have done okay without biol 140. But getting my feet wet in biol 140 didn't hurt. I thought it was a very good experience and one of the more useful courses I took in first year. I had BIO 12 AP credit, but at the time, it only gave me credit for biol 111 (I already had highschool biology 12, which made that useless anyway) and biol 121. That's interesting how they're giving credit for biol 140 now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mitchie41 Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Biol 140 was a wierd course. It was one credit, yet I probably did more work in it than my 4 credit Chem 121\123. Most of the TAs were really tough and you had homework everyday. It's not an easy course to get 90s in and I was just so lucky that the second portion of the course was for participation only(due to the TA strike last year) or else I would've had to write another report and a final exam. Anyways, I think it's better to take it in second semester since you get to have "electives" in the second half of the course and some of them are really cool(Genetics, Anatomy and Microbes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shoopshoop Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Thanks guys for the input. Physiology, first of all, CONGRATS and GOOD LUCK- you must be like this :rollin I think they still give credit for AP Biology as they did at your time. I am finishing the UK highschool system (although out of the UK)- the A-levels, so that's why they offered me about 7 credits for 1st yr BIOL. EDIT: Hey Mitchie, BIOL 140 counts as 2 credits starting from this year eventhough it says 1 credit in the calender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest smooth operater Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 I took 140 during the 2nd term of 03 winter session. Despite the medicore mark I got for the tremedous effort I put in, I really enjoyed the course, mainly because I had great group mates. This course forced me to actuallly roam around the library and read different acadamic journals. I felt like I was a professional researcher! Yeah, so you should definitely take it as it will get your feet wet in researching. You should pace yourself on writing the lab report, don't leave it at the end, cuz you have to worry about group presentation at the end too. It's really hard to get really good mark in this course, but don't over spend too much time on it. I saw some ppl spent so much time on the report (including myself), and freaked out when they got their lab mark back. It didn't affect my overall GPA too much since it only worth 1 credits for my term. Just try to enjoy the course! Yeah, definitely take it in term 2, cuz you get to choose ur electives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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