Professor
Blaire Van valkenburgh
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Dr. Blaire really cares about her students, and tends to have very useful office hours. The TAs are equally really helpful about questions you may have about labs. Their research is also really interesting. This is a very challenging class, as it should be because it is 6 units. It isn't recommended that you take this class with Ochem or Physics because of the amount of time you would need to study for the class. There are two types of exams: lab practicals and lecture exams. The tests are all very fair, but there is a lot of memorization involved (which will be time consuming). The memorization involved in the class is mostly insertions/origins/functions/homologies of the animals and bones/bone parts (it helps with later understanding of the functions). The labs are really useful because they help understand the lecture material. Lecture, for the most part, is mandatory because of the participation points you would get via iclicker. The questions are very integrated with the lecture material, and help with later studying for the exams. Dr. Blaire is an amazing lecturer because she is very passionate about what she teaches. There are a lot of resources to do well in the class, and I wish I could take it again.
Winter 2019 - Dr. Blaire really cares about her students, and tends to have very useful office hours. The TAs are equally really helpful about questions you may have about labs. Their research is also really interesting. This is a very challenging class, as it should be because it is 6 units. It isn't recommended that you take this class with Ochem or Physics because of the amount of time you would need to study for the class. There are two types of exams: lab practicals and lecture exams. The tests are all very fair, but there is a lot of memorization involved (which will be time consuming). The memorization involved in the class is mostly insertions/origins/functions/homologies of the animals and bones/bone parts (it helps with later understanding of the functions). The labs are really useful because they help understand the lecture material. Lecture, for the most part, is mandatory because of the participation points you would get via iclicker. The questions are very integrated with the lecture material, and help with later studying for the exams. Dr. Blaire is an amazing lecturer because she is very passionate about what she teaches. There are a lot of resources to do well in the class, and I wish I could take it again.
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Most Helpful Review
I took EEB 110 with this professor and I have to say this is one of the best courses I've taken here at UCLA. Dr. Van Valkenburgh is an expert in functional morphology and an amazing lecturer. If you're looking for an easy A, EEB 110 is definitely NOT what you're looking for. You have to take two lab practicals and three lecture exams (one of them final, but none of them is cumulative) for this course. You have a 5-hour lab every week and that could be kind of painful. The lab practicals take forever to study for because it's a lot of memorization, while the lecture exams are more about concepts. I really like how the lecture and lab materials come together and help you understand the concepts better. I'm usually not the kind of person who takes a class because it's "rewarding," but this course is definitely worth the time. I had Patrick Green as my TA and he's always very helpful & he knows exactly what he's talking about; I'm sure it's the same for other TA's. If you're a bio major looking to fulfill upper division requirements, definitely sign up for this class.
I took EEB 110 with this professor and I have to say this is one of the best courses I've taken here at UCLA. Dr. Van Valkenburgh is an expert in functional morphology and an amazing lecturer. If you're looking for an easy A, EEB 110 is definitely NOT what you're looking for. You have to take two lab practicals and three lecture exams (one of them final, but none of them is cumulative) for this course. You have a 5-hour lab every week and that could be kind of painful. The lab practicals take forever to study for because it's a lot of memorization, while the lecture exams are more about concepts. I really like how the lecture and lab materials come together and help you understand the concepts better. I'm usually not the kind of person who takes a class because it's "rewarding," but this course is definitely worth the time. I had Patrick Green as my TA and he's always very helpful & he knows exactly what he's talking about; I'm sure it's the same for other TA's. If you're a bio major looking to fulfill upper division requirements, definitely sign up for this class.
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