MCD BIO 138
Developmental Biology
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: Life Sciences 3, 4, and 23L, or 7A, 7B, 7C, 23L, and 107. Development of understanding of fundamental molecular mechanisms and cellular activities guiding formation of complex organism from single fertilized egg. Development of model organisms to understand conserved nature of developmental decisions across animal kingdom, distinct features that lead to diversification of animal shape and form during evolution. Origin and roles of stem and progenitor cells in development and maintenance of specific organ systems. Roles of cell shape change, cell death, proliferation, and migration in generating shape of embryo, organs, and tissues. Mechanisms by which cells become different from and communicate with one another to coordinate their activities in time and space in embryo. Special emphasis on experimental approaches used to address these fundamental questions that determine how organized tissues and organs are formed and maintained throughout life of organism. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - This class is HARD. You learn soooo much material with so many intricate details about signaling pathways and processes and it's super difficult to keep track of everything and put it together into one cohesive picture. The papers every week were also really challenging to get through and I found the weekly paper quizzes to be a bit too specific (reading the paper one time through is not enough to do well haha). The exams were intense... all multiple choice but very detail oriented and you have to have a pretty deep understanding to answer the questions well. There is just soooo much memorization. Professor Hartenstein is such a sweet and gentle person - he is very helpful and receptive to student concerns and he definitely makes this class better - but the nature of the class is just that it's gonna be difficult regardless of which professor you take it with.
Winter 2022 - This class is HARD. You learn soooo much material with so many intricate details about signaling pathways and processes and it's super difficult to keep track of everything and put it together into one cohesive picture. The papers every week were also really challenging to get through and I found the weekly paper quizzes to be a bit too specific (reading the paper one time through is not enough to do well haha). The exams were intense... all multiple choice but very detail oriented and you have to have a pretty deep understanding to answer the questions well. There is just soooo much memorization. Professor Hartenstein is such a sweet and gentle person - he is very helpful and receptive to student concerns and he definitely makes this class better - but the nature of the class is just that it's gonna be difficult regardless of which professor you take it with.
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Most Helpful Review
MCDB 138 W14 ***DOES NOT GRADE ON A CURVE*** Professor Lee shows a lot of enthusiasm for the subject and has a lot of knowledge as well. She goes over a lot of classic/old school experiments in the course and at some point midway through the course the experiments get pretty repetitive (read: EXTREMELY repetitive). Exams are all free response questions. Most are "design an experiment" and only a couple are straight up recall. My advice is to study HOW to set up experiments for different concepts more so than studying the details of the concepts. I think people understood this since the average for the first exam was 77% and the average for the second exam was 91%. There is no curve for this class (or any of her classes apparently). With that being said, there are a lot of extra credit points given during the exams. A lot of extra credit. Overall, great professor. I absolutely bombed the first exam and averaged 95% on the next two exams. After the first exam, I basically decided to focus on experiments of each concept rather than the concept itself. Do this for all three exams and you will be fine.
MCDB 138 W14 ***DOES NOT GRADE ON A CURVE*** Professor Lee shows a lot of enthusiasm for the subject and has a lot of knowledge as well. She goes over a lot of classic/old school experiments in the course and at some point midway through the course the experiments get pretty repetitive (read: EXTREMELY repetitive). Exams are all free response questions. Most are "design an experiment" and only a couple are straight up recall. My advice is to study HOW to set up experiments for different concepts more so than studying the details of the concepts. I think people understood this since the average for the first exam was 77% and the average for the second exam was 91%. There is no curve for this class (or any of her classes apparently). With that being said, there are a lot of extra credit points given during the exams. A lot of extra credit. Overall, great professor. I absolutely bombed the first exam and averaged 95% on the next two exams. After the first exam, I basically decided to focus on experiments of each concept rather than the concept itself. Do this for all three exams and you will be fine.
Most Helpful Review
A lot of memorization for this class. Got B in the end. Make sure you study a bit everyday, because it's impossible to memorize all of this a few days before the final, especially if you have other science classes. recommend bruindemand.org for reading the scientific paper since they normally a lot of time to read. very approachable in office hours, but it's not ncessary, again spend time everyday memorizing, memorizing and memorizing. DON'T CRAM!!! and you will be ok.
A lot of memorization for this class. Got B in the end. Make sure you study a bit everyday, because it's impossible to memorize all of this a few days before the final, especially if you have other science classes. recommend bruindemand.org for reading the scientific paper since they normally a lot of time to read. very approachable in office hours, but it's not ncessary, again spend time everyday memorizing, memorizing and memorizing. DON'T CRAM!!! and you will be ok.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I loved having Dr. Lyons for this class. It is a difficult class, and you can't get behind because a lot of the material builds on itself. However, Dr. Lyons couldn't be more clear as a lecturer. I recommend taking notes on almost everything she says because she adds details to the experiments from the slides and will explain concepts in ways that could make it easier to understand. She really is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA and very clearly cares about her students. If you stay on top of the lectures and really know the experiments and how they contributed our scientific understanding of development, you'll do well. Going to office hours is a huge help and Dr. Lyons and the TA's are very approachable and happy to answer any questions.
Fall 2019 - I loved having Dr. Lyons for this class. It is a difficult class, and you can't get behind because a lot of the material builds on itself. However, Dr. Lyons couldn't be more clear as a lecturer. I recommend taking notes on almost everything she says because she adds details to the experiments from the slides and will explain concepts in ways that could make it easier to understand. She really is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA and very clearly cares about her students. If you stay on top of the lectures and really know the experiments and how they contributed our scientific understanding of development, you'll do well. Going to office hours is a huge help and Dr. Lyons and the TA's are very approachable and happy to answer any questions.
Most Helpful Review
Be prepared to memorize ALOT! If you have taken 153A , then you'll know what I'm talking about. The materials and concepts are not very difficult to understand but still this memorization makes it hard. The papers that we had to read weekly also is tough. When I had her, I was able to take the quizes with the papers in front of me, but it was still hard. I submitted a lot of my journals to bruindemand.org for summaries because they take so much time to read on your own, and youre tested more on lecture than scientific papers. Again, make time to memorize and you will come out alright.
Be prepared to memorize ALOT! If you have taken 153A , then you'll know what I'm talking about. The materials and concepts are not very difficult to understand but still this memorization makes it hard. The papers that we had to read weekly also is tough. When I had her, I was able to take the quizes with the papers in front of me, but it was still hard. I submitted a lot of my journals to bruindemand.org for summaries because they take so much time to read on your own, and youre tested more on lecture than scientific papers. Again, make time to memorize and you will come out alright.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - While this class wasn't easy, the professor definitely made up for it! The class consisted of two midterms and a final, which was made open note due to classes moving online. In addition, there were two open note quizzes (one right before each midterm), discussion participation points, weekly assignments based on readings, and extra credit clicker points. Dr. Rigueur is also one of those professors who truly cares about the success of her students and is very approachable - she offered many office hours throughout the quarter (she even changed her office hours from being once a week to offered almost every day when many students said they couldn't make the originally scheduled ones), and would often stop during lectures to answer questions. Additionally, both of the TA's in this course were super helpful (Rachel and Alex) in both discussion section and office hours!
Winter 2020 - While this class wasn't easy, the professor definitely made up for it! The class consisted of two midterms and a final, which was made open note due to classes moving online. In addition, there were two open note quizzes (one right before each midterm), discussion participation points, weekly assignments based on readings, and extra credit clicker points. Dr. Rigueur is also one of those professors who truly cares about the success of her students and is very approachable - she offered many office hours throughout the quarter (she even changed her office hours from being once a week to offered almost every day when many students said they couldn't make the originally scheduled ones), and would often stop during lectures to answer questions. Additionally, both of the TA's in this course were super helpful (Rachel and Alex) in both discussion section and office hours!
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