BIOL 1040

If you don't have to take this class I suggest you don't take it. Although the topic is interesting, the tests include information about DNA that is a little irrelevant or unimportant. Taylor is a cool guy, but personally I did not like his teaching style. I think he made things too simple at times. I found it really difficult to attend lectures, so I would just take notes on the slides.

I don't really recommend this class, but I know a lot of other people enjoyed it. It is definitely interesting and current.

If you can’t do well in this course, that’s entirely on you. Doug Taylor is hilarious and genuinely one of the most entertaining professors I’ve had, especially if you don’t have a strong science background. You don’t really need to go to class as long as you put in the time to grind Quizlets and study seriously for the multiple choice exams. It’s a very easy A and knocks off a new department and area for non-stem people. Highly recommend for that purpose.

Great class! Professor Taylor is definitely very knowledgeable about the subject. The class is a pretty easy A, just go to lecture and spend 2-3 hours studying for each exam, and you'll do great. The first part of the class is definitely a little more biology-heavy than I was expecting, but as a pre-law major, I really liked the later parts where he talked about ethics. And Eric Green is a really great and engaging lecturer (does about 2 lectures a semester). Overall, great class and would definitely recommend it, especially for the Science + Society requirement.

If you're looking to fulfill a discipline requirement and have even a vague interest in genetics/bioethics, I really recommend taking this class. For reference, the only bio class I took in high school was basic freshman-year biology and I'm not the most STEM-y person, so you definitely don't need to be an expert to do well. The class is relatively low time commitment. 5 short assignments throughout the semester (some individual, some in small groups) and three tests. No final exam. The one thing I will say is that some of the exam questions rely on very specific details from the slides and Prof Taylor can go on tangents sometimes. However, all of the powerpoints are posted on Canvas, so if you review the slides before the exam and pinpoint the important details based on what he talks about in lecture, you can generally predict what you'll need to know. The first section of the course is pretty bio heavy, but after that, the topics broaden and definitely appeal to non-STEM-y people like myself. If you're willing to study hard in the week or so leading up to the exam, you'll do great. There are also two review sessions before each exam, one on Zoom with Prof Taylor and Eric Green (he guest lectures a few times throughout the semester) and one with the UTAs. If you have any questions, GO TO THESE AND ASK THEM. The review sessions can also be a great source of insight for what topics the exam will cover. Some other reviews of the course say that the exams can be unnecessarily challenging, but I genuinely cannot stress this enough: if you complete the assignments, utilize the review sessions, and put in effort to study before each exam, you will do well. There's usually an annoying question here or there, but overall the exams are fair. Prof Taylor is also super interested in what he teaches and a funny guy, so you'll get a good laugh every so often during lectures.

Douglas Taylor is one of my favorite professors. He is really cool, and just a wonderful person; I'd highly recommend going to his office hours if you take this course because chatting to him is always a delight and he is super knowledgeable.

The class itself is very easy if you go to the lectures. There are only a few assignments throughout the semester and they each take between 15 minutes and a couple hours. There are also very few short readings, and if you don't do them the worst that happens is you have to take an educated guess on one or two exam questions. The exams are 42 questions, but graded out of 40 and they are always multiple choice; additionally the last two questions are opinion based, so it's like a guaranteed 5 points of extra credit. I never scored below a 100% on any of the 3 exams and my only studying involved doing the practice exam questions (15 minutes) and reading through the power point slides for about 20 minutes. That being said I am a STEM major, so I have a bit more background knowledge than many people.

This class has been really valuable to me as someone going into biological/chemical research because of its emphasis on understanding the genome and its impacts on medicine as well as the content on bioethics. In addition to Doug, Eric Green gives a few lectures in the class; he may be one of the most impressive individuals I've ever met considering he headed the Human Genome Project for many years.

If you have any interest in the biological sciences this is a wonderful course and will boost your enthusiasm about the subject greatly. If you don't have interest in the biological sciences it is at least an interesting course that you will likely do well in with just a little review before the exams to get through your science and society discipline credit.

This is a relatively interesting class, and a good one to take to fulfill a discipline. Even though it's listed as a biology class, no background in the subject is required (I am pre-law and have only taken a basic freshman year bio class in high school but had no trouble understanding the material). The lectures can be pretty long and sometimes packed with material, but Taylor tries to keep it interesting. I will say that he tends to go on long tangents at times, which can be frustrating to listen to as he often ends up repeating himself from previous lectures during these. This class is very low commitment, with the grade being made up of 5 short assignments (some of these took 5 minutes to do, others around an hour) and 3 tests. There are a few readings too, but these are discussed in class. Taylor gives practice questions for the tests to help you review. The tests are straightforward for the most part, but the last one was pretty tough. He sometimes asks questions that are based on small details from class, so you just have to make an educated guess on those. This class was co-taught with Dr. Eric Green, who was a very impressive and an interesting lecturer. The class is structured where the first half of the semester lectures focus on the science side, and the second half focuses on legal/ethical issues, but honestly the ethical focus got lost in Taylor's tangents, which was frustrating as that was what I was looking forward to most from this class! Overall, it was an interesting, easy class, so I would recommend it, I just feel as though it could have been structured a little better.

I 100% recommend this class to fill the science and society requirement (or to take otherwise if you are interested in the topic). As a non-stem major I was hesitant to take this course but I think it is a great way to fill the requirement that is interesting and not too hard. Doug can go off topic in his lectures sometimes but he is a great guy and you can tell he is passionate about what he is teaching, personally I didn't mind when he was off topic. In terms of assignments there are 5 short assignments spread out over the whole semester that in total are 25% of your grade. These are super easy and might feel like busy work but they maybe take 30 minutes each and you should get 100% as long as you do them. Then there are 3 exams each worth 25%, they are 40 question multiple choice with two bonus questions. If you go the lectures and take decent notes and then just review the notes before the exam you should get a's. The topic starts out slightly more biology related but as someone who does not like bio it really wasn't too bad and then it becomes more ethics focused which is easier. Overall a relatively easy A, would definitely recommend.

This is a great class, but I think that people underestimate the work that you need to do well and get like an A in the class. If you go to lecture, and study for the test a couple of days in advance its not impossible for you to get an A on the tests--which is important becuase each one is about 25% of your grade. It is a fun class and a pretty easy for you to do well and professor taylor is a very good professor though he said their may be a curve, but there was not as far as I was aware.

Great class to take if you need the discipline filled but its going to require SOME work so dont think its the easiest A every because the exams can have some trickier questions on them.