Biology

I really like Prof. Pask, I think he is a great guy who genuinely enjoys what he teaches. His teaching style is far from conventional in the sense that we don't have traditional style exams. Instead, the course was more focused on group work assignments and problem sets, which were more than manageable. The one thing I would say is that because he doesn't have exams, it's more up to the student how much they want to gain from the course. If you are someone who needs exams in order to actually have motivation to study the material, this may not be the course for you. If you are on top of your work, this would great for you! I feel like it all depends on the student.

I really like Prof. Pask, I think he is a great guy who genuinely enjoys what he teaches. His teaching style is far from conventional in the sense that we don't have traditional style exams. Instead, the course was more focused on group work assignments and problem sets, which were more than manageable. The one thing I would say is t …Read more

I have mixed feelings about this course. It was easy due to Professor Pask's effort-based curriculum, but I wonder if I got the most out of it in this type of classroom setting. I say this because in my lab, I noticed that students in other classes with more traditional grading seemed to have a stronger grasp of the material. I understand that in an effort-based environment, it is up to you to continue doing the work on your own, like keeping up with textbook readings even when you aren't being graded on it. But with the other demanding classes I was taking to fulfill my MBBC major, a course without a traditional grading structure made it easy to push this class to the back of my mind. Professor Pask was understanding and enthusiastic about the material, but I don't think his teaching style was the most effective for me personally. In lecture, he wouldn't cover basic foundations, leaving that to the textbook, and instead went more in depth on the topics at hand. Even when I did the readings, I found it difficult since I am more of a visual learner, and I wished he had provided some video recommendations to supplement the material. Ultimately, I think his class leaned more toward niche topics he personally finds interesting rather than building foundational knowledge, though I recognize that is subjective. It is also worth noting that this year he implemented an oral exam, where he posts 12 questions ahead of time and you have to memorize the answers. During the exam, you roll a dice and answer the questions corresponding to the numbers that land. This was a bit stressful but overall manageable if you studied beforehand. He did emphasize that he would not give anyone a straight-up zero, as he still cared more about effort and trying your best. Overall, I would take this course again for a more relaxed experience, but if you want to learn cell biology to your fullest potential and aren't juggling too many hard classes, it may be worth taking a different course with more structured accountability.

I have mixed feelings about this course. It was easy due to Professor Pask's effort-based curriculum, but I wonder if I got the most out of it in this type of classroom setting. I say this because in my lab, I noticed that students in other classes with more traditional grading seemed to have a stronger grasp of the material. I under …Read more

It's hard to teach an intro level bio like this class where everyone has different backgrounds. Having not taken AP bio, I struggled. That being said the book was super helpful for filling in the gaps because swafford's lectures often were very tangential and niche which was interesting but confusing. One oral midterm which was chill and a paper final which I'm beginning to think he didn't read but whatever. I loved the lab for this course, I definitely learned the most there. I sort of wish Swafford had more serious exams because at a certain point there are things to memorize which we never got around to being tested on in any capacity. VERY homework heavy. It felt like busy work, with problem sets, read and reflects, "group" work (it was always homework), explorations, repeating exams (this would all be in one week, in addition to readings).

It's hard to teach an intro level bio like this class where everyone has different backgrounds. Having not taken AP bio, I struggled. That being said the book was super helpful for filling in the gaps because swafford's lectures often were very tangential and niche which was interesting but confusing. One oral midterm which was chill …Read more