Professor
Abigail Bigham
1 of 3
AD
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2026 - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF IT IS TAUGHT BY MENSING (TA)!!!! This was supposed to be an "easy" summer class with a somewhat light-ish workload, but omg this class is making the whole class crash out. First, there is no grading rubric provided until the assignments are actually graded; when asked for the rubric and why the grades came out that way, there is no clear feedback, and she says the rubric is used for "subjective" grading. Ok, whatever that means. Second, there is no flexibility whatsoever. She accepts no late submissions, and that means NO LATE SUBMISSIONS. You broke your leg and were hospitalized when the assignment was due? Great, now you can either take the 0 or get 30 points docked off your assignment. Also, literally every Zoom session involved some kind of technical difficulties, but that's not the worst part of this class. +) You can't get an A+ in this class; she doesn't use them. But you can get an A-.
Summer 2026 - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF IT IS TAUGHT BY MENSING (TA)!!!! This was supposed to be an "easy" summer class with a somewhat light-ish workload, but omg this class is making the whole class crash out. First, there is no grading rubric provided until the assignments are actually graded; when asked for the rubric and why the grades came out that way, there is no clear feedback, and she says the rubric is used for "subjective" grading. Ok, whatever that means. Second, there is no flexibility whatsoever. She accepts no late submissions, and that means NO LATE SUBMISSIONS. You broke your leg and were hospitalized when the assignment was due? Great, now you can either take the 0 or get 30 points docked off your assignment. Also, literally every Zoom session involved some kind of technical difficulties, but that's not the worst part of this class. +) You can't get an A+ in this class; she doesn't use them. But you can get an A-.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - The professor knew what she was talking about and was very insightful. She had a lot of slides, which pretty much had everything you needed to know for the tests written on them, so lectures aren't necessary if you really want to skip. I learned a lot from this course and enjoyed some of the topics. The discussions were easy and included a one-question assignment per week on the weekly readings. The discussion readings were interesting and included cultural aspects, but the lecture readings were purely about biology. I didn't really read any of the lecture readings and still got an A. The study guides, final, and midterm, however, were very time-consuming and consisted of over 100 vocabulary words. The tests had two short essay questions, three short-answer questions, and about 40 multiple choice, which were relatively easy if you completed the entire study guide, which had 10 short-answer prompts and about 120 vocabulary words. There was also a final project, which was also pretty easy (a short paper outline and a 5-minute podcast recording). She provides a lot of extra credit opportunities, which, in combination with discussion assignments and the final project, were able to boost my grade from my lower test scores. Overall, it is a worthy course that challenges memory skills and includes a lot of key biological terms and concepts in relation to culture.
Fall 2025 - The professor knew what she was talking about and was very insightful. She had a lot of slides, which pretty much had everything you needed to know for the tests written on them, so lectures aren't necessary if you really want to skip. I learned a lot from this course and enjoyed some of the topics. The discussions were easy and included a one-question assignment per week on the weekly readings. The discussion readings were interesting and included cultural aspects, but the lecture readings were purely about biology. I didn't really read any of the lecture readings and still got an A. The study guides, final, and midterm, however, were very time-consuming and consisted of over 100 vocabulary words. The tests had two short essay questions, three short-answer questions, and about 40 multiple choice, which were relatively easy if you completed the entire study guide, which had 10 short-answer prompts and about 120 vocabulary words. There was also a final project, which was also pretty easy (a short paper outline and a 5-minute podcast recording). She provides a lot of extra credit opportunities, which, in combination with discussion assignments and the final project, were able to boost my grade from my lower test scores. Overall, it is a worthy course that challenges memory skills and includes a lot of key biological terms and concepts in relation to culture.
AD
1 of 3
