BIOL 5070

Great class if you are interested in imaging. The final project was a bit difficult to complete and the class is still in flux in terms of content. However, Periassamy is still one of the best imaging guys out there and the class is worth at least $1500(the price of his microscopy workshop which covers similar content)

Dr. Peri is a man who knows his stuff. He's a leader in the field of FRET and you really can't find much better. The lecture material is rather dry in the beginning and the lectures are long, but the labs are a nice change of pace. Homework doesnt take long, exams are multiple choice. End of semester project is on your own topic and you get to use the microscopes for free. The toughie is the one on one final exam but as long as you've paid attention, you will be just fine.

Peri is great. He really knows his stuff and if you put in the effort you will gain a lot from this class. The labs typically run longer than the allotted time and it's annoying at times when he schedules your one-on-one or poster presentation at odd times in the week, but other than that it's a must-take for anyone interested in microscopy.

While the professor's enthusiasm for the topic was evident, his conveyance of the material was not effective. The slides were either completely filled with text or nothing but pictures and lectures were often a mix of reading directly off the slide and talking about information which was not included anywhere on the slides. When people asked questions, responses were either completely off-topic or somewhat condescending. Most days, lecture felt completely useless and I ended up having to go home and teach all of the content to myself.

Questions on the homework assignments were often very vague, and points were consistently lost for, not having wrong answers, but not including information which was not even asked for in the question. When more than half the class did poorly on the first assignment, he insisted that we had not checked the textbook for the answers, rather than acknowledging that no one learned the information effectively from the lecture. We were never given a schedule for the course and homework and tests were often announced a week in advance without any prior warning. Grades were given with basically no explanation of why a certain amount of points were lost and never posted on Canvas where students could see them all centrally.

While the attempt to use labs to teach content was a good effort, the instructions for labs were often very confusing and the communication between members of the Keck center as to what we'd been told and what we hadn't was obviously lacking. The labs were also on things like characterizing instruments and getting data for graphing, rather than having us look at specimens and actually take the images which these microscopy techniques are used for which would have increased my interest in my topic instead of just managing to make me find microscopy boring.

The one-on-one oral exam was helpful, but availability was bad as the professor was away for a week in the middle of the time span we were supposed to be doing them. The guest speakers at the end of the course were, however, very cool and a nice touch I think that increased my enthusiasm for the topic.