[#6] – Biology 108 – Introduction To Biological Diversity

Firstly, I’d like to provide an explanation for my lack of entries as of late.  In order to expel any confusion: I did not abandon this blog haha; I’m still alive; I didn’t win the lottery, and no, I didn’t get abducted by aliens.  The truth is much more mundane: The final exam for my (condensed) summer physics course was a few days ago, and naturally, I’ve been busy studying, and solving countless problem sets in preparation for the test.

For those who are still curious: I received my Physics 102 – Final Course Grade today, and got an A+.  More on this in an upcoming post.

 

The world is full of flora and fauna; most of which we haven't gotten the slightest clue about.

 

Hey, wait!  This post wasn’t supposed to be about physics!  It’s supposed to be about a life science, the one and only, biology!  (My digressions get the best of me sometimes)  Now onto the review:

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Preamble:

My first ever course review for this blog was for Biology 107.  While Bio 107 was concerned with the microscopic aspects of biological processes, Biology 108 dealt purely with macroscopic phenomena.  Because I took Bio 108 during my winter (second) term, I had already received all of my fall (first) term grades.  Needless to say, I was quite disappointed with my marks, and was spurred by my shortcomings to try harder, and ultimately, to perform better.  As you will see in the subsequent weeks, however, my entire first year was a hodgepodge of good and mediocre results.

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Course:  Biology 108 – Introduction To Biological Diversity

Instructor:  Felix Sperling

Textbook:  Biology – by Campbell and Reece (8th ed)

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Review:

This course was structured in much the same way as all of the other first year science courses.  There was a lecture component, a laboratory, and last but not least, a seminar.  The seminar was a mirror image of Bio 107’s seminar.  Essentially, we were to read a journal article, and complete a two page write-up on it.  As for the labs, instead of handling bacteria and other microscopic organisms, we dealt with plants, fungi, and small aquatic creatures.

Besides the course content, one glaring difference between Bio 107 and Bio 108 was the nature of the notes; the way in which our information was obtained.  You may recall that my Bio 107 instructors had insisted that we copy our notes off of a giant projector screen.  In contrast to this, my Bio 108 instructor, Felix Sperling, provided us with a complete set of notes before every lecture.  We were expected to print off and bring our notes to class in which he would then proceed to read off of his own set of notes verbatim.

I’m well aware that there exists both naysayers, and advocators for each type of teaching style.  Without sounding overly didactic, on the one hand, writing notes during class ensures that students are physically engaged with the course material, albeit not always mentally.  On the other hand, giving a completed set of notes before class ensures that a student will never miss crucial information, but may, as a consequence, lower a student’s motivation to learn the material.  Depending on your learning style (which I will discuss in a later post), your preference could be either one of these.

My preference sways towards the latter style, in which the notes are provided, in full form.  Biology 108 was filled to the brim with novel information.  We were in charge of memorizing a multitude of epithets, more specifically, genus and species names.  This, along with many other taxonomic properties, including plenty of latin and greek root words, can make one’s head spin!  Incidentally, I was elated when I became aware that I wouldn’t have to write a thing during class; all I had to do was read, read, and then read some more, until the information had successfully been branded into my mind.

In fact, about a month into the course, I thought to myself: “What would be the harm of not attending these lectures at all?”  And so, at the drop of a hat, the scientist within me decided to embark on a little experiment.  My half-facetious, half-hopeful hypothesis went somewhere along the lines of: “If I stop attending lectures, but still end up with a respectable midterm grade, then I will conclude that attending said lectures are not an absolute prerequisite for success in this course.”

To my amazement, the results of my ‘experiment’ did in fact substantiate my hypothesis!  I was able to ‘get away with’ skipping class.  I know what you’re thinking, this was/is a very bad thing to do; it is something that is frowned upon by most academic circles.  To this I say “yes,” it doesn’t work for everybody, but it did work for me (in this particular case).

Moral of the spiel:  Do what works best for you.  What works wonders for someone else may be disastrous for another.  Felix Sperling was a great professor, but I felt that I could learn about the course content in a way other than through his biweekly lectures.

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Class Average:  ~ B-  (2.6 GPA)

My Grade:  A-  (3.7 GPA)