Week 2, Chapter 1 -- Starting Assumptions Sample Answer Course home | Weekly schedule | Announcements | Instructor Info | Desire2Learn | MasteringBiology® | Honor Code | FAQs | HELP!

I'm choosing to answer the question: If you have had previous university-level science classes, what did you like and dislike about them?

Since I got my Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology, I did have quite a few university-level science classes. My favorites were Molecular & Cellular Biology, Physics, Herpetology, and Environmental Biology. There are a few common threads across them that I really liked. First, the instructors had high expectations of their students, were knowledgeable about the course content, and cared about their students really understanding the material. Second, they were pretty tough courses. Third, they often involved independent or group projects that required creative thought and long-term planning.

The parts I disliked were the amount of time, stress, and struggle it took to do really well in those same classes. During my junior year, I think I got an average of about 4.5 hours of sleep a night (at least on weekdays). Of course, there were science classes I disliked as well. These were all of my chemistry classes. The classes were larger (less access to the professor), I wasn't as interested in the content, and I didn't connect to the professors as well. All in all though, I'm really grateful for my science education.

[186 words]

[sample by Mark Walvoord]

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Here is a sample response to the post above:

Mark,

I admit that I had to look up herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians), and that's cool that you got to take that class. Though I never think a class like Molecular & Cellular Biology would ever be my favorite class, I can appreciate the diversity in students' interests. In my post, I also talked about the importance of having a good professor. That really does make all the difference in classes--having someone who is excited about the content, fair in grading, and that you can tell wants you to learn the material.

Mark

[96 words]

[You are not allowed to respond to yourself for credit--I just wanted to model what a substantive response might look like! It's like having a conversation with someone you don't know.]

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003 Mariëlle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2015. biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.) Last Updated August 5, 2014 11:02 PM