Overall, the layout and workload of this course isn’t too heavy and felt a lot lighter compared to other first year classes. There were 2 midterms, bi-weekly tutorials that had pre-tutorial quizzes and post tutorial assignments, and the semester long problem based learning (PBL) project in the tutorial section of the course. The midterms were both fair and the final exam was easier than the two midterms.

This biology course focuses on evolution and ecology content. A lot of people do not find the content of this class that interesting but a lot of the content is things you learn in grade 11 bio and it wasn’t hard to do well in this class. This biology class is less memorization based and more of understanding the concepts. The main concepts in this course included forming scientific hypotheses, evolutionary theories over time (Plato, Lamarck, Darwin, etc), modes of evolution, different types of selection, human evolution, evolutionary medicine, types of ecological relationships/interactions between species, ecological niches, population dynamics, biomes, the cycling of nutrients (carbon, phosphorous, nitrogen cycling), and climate change.

Dr. Doyle (formerly Batstone) taught the evolution section of the course. It is very clear that she cares about her students and has a passion for what she does and an interest in the topics she teaches. She was always available to answer questions after lectures and even during lectures, she hosted multiple review sessions throughout the semester before midterms/before the final exam, and she provided a breakdown of topics before midterms and the final. However, I did find that her lecture slides and test questions were text heavy/worded in a lengthy way and during lectures most times she just read off the slides. Dr. Kidd taught the ecology section of the course. She was also very caring and clearly passionate about what she does. She also hosted review sessions throughout the semester ...read more

As long as you stay on top of the tutorial work (pre tutorial quizzes, post tutorial assignments, and the PBL project) and attend lectures/go over the course content on a regular basis than you should do well in this course! As long as you don’t fall behind then you should have a guaranteed 11 or 12 in the class. The textbook readings were also great to study for this class and get a better understanding of the concepts