Class was reasonable, and if you pay attention in lecture it should be very doable. There are 60 quizzes throughout the quarter that take up 25% of your grade, and this was probably the biggest grade dropper. If you do the reading you should at least get 80-90% of the points - everything else was pretty straight forward. The class kind of assumes everyone has a background in biology so I'd only take it if you took AP bio.

Terrible class with a horrible professor that does not seem to realize that not everyone in the class has prior knowledge to complete the frustratingly confusing assignments for the course.

1 midterm, 1 final, weekly discussion worksheets. Turlo is incredibly intelligent and is very specific in what she expects to see from you in the midterm and finals. However, the course material is very fascinating and eye-opening. Turlo is a great professor and very engaging. My TA Tong Xia is extremely intelligent but is not the best at explaining concepts in easily-understandable ways. I recommend this class as a diversity requirement.

Lectures were a mix between actual lectures and the occasional guest speaker. The first half of the course was dedicated to diversity/inequity in STEM, and the second half was dedicated to actual science (which I personally found more interesting), like focusing on a genetic disease and COVID vaccines.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty solid GE. The homework/problem sets/midterm/final were actually essays, which I found kind of annoying, but they weren't that bad. There's weekly quizzes after every lecture, which is kind of a lot, and it's easy to miss one if you don't keep track of when they're due. I didn't find the required discussions that helpful.

I liked Dr. Turlo, and I would recommend this class to anyone who wants an easier science-based GE or to learn more about biomedical research. She was very accommodating throughout the quarter with providing past recorded lectures and helping the class out with assignment resubmissions/quiz re-dos, if the class did especially poorly on a quiz. In turn, we did have a few occasions where the class was unfortunately canceled or changed at the last minute because of COVID/health related reasons, but I didn't find it to be a big deal.

Dr. Turlo is the sweetest lady ever and you will definitely do well if you put in the effort. She is absolutely passionate about research and making sure you understand the material. However, her lectures are a bit disorganized and if you don't have any kind of research background, a lot of what is said will pass straight through your ears. If you are bold enough, ask questions during lecture because that will probably facilitate your understanding (I say probably because I never did). For me, I learned more from talking to peers and doing my own reading and analysis than trying to soak in what was said. If you are confused at all, I highly highly recommend going to her office hours. This is especially critical when you do your midterm proposal and group symposium project. Work on your assignments and go to her office hours EARLY to get her feedback on your ideas! With that, good luck.

Dr. Turlo is amazing! She's so nice and very helpful. You can tell she genuinely cares about her students overall and any class with her is great

Profesor Turlo is awesome and probably one of the best professors I’ve had at UCLA. She’s really invested in her students’ success and will definitely help you with whatever you need in the class (including answering emails at 4am lol). The class itself is super interesting and really allows you to go in depth to a specific field of research, and for me it even inspired me to pursue the field of research I’m in now. The main project in the class is a research grant proposal and allows for a lot of creative freedom. Overall, it’s a great class, and I would definitely recommend Turlo as a professor.

This class was very enlightening for me, it covered issues of inequities in STEM and the basics of research. The class itself was pretty dense workload-wise. There was a quiz every lecture, but the professor said she might change it to once a week in the future, and there were assignments called problem sets. In terms of quizzes, they are multiple choice and sometimes are worded pretty vaguely and it can be difficult to know what Dr. Turlo is asking, but for the questions that affect the majority of the class, she usually takes them off/gives everyone the points for it. In terms of the problem sets, they are written assignments. Depending on the TA, the problem sets may be graded very rigorously. The problem sets themselves took the place of midterms and the Final was pretty similarly structured to those problem sets. I would recommend taking advantage of the office hours, Dr. Turlo and the TAs will clarify what they are looking for in the problem sets if you ask. I would also recommend having a basic understanding of biology, as learning key biological concepts all at once can be a bit jarring, but the TAs try to fill the students in on the bio context during discussion. I would not consider this class to be an easy A, but if you're interested in the topics I would highly recommend, this class was very enlightening regarding research and diversity in STEM.

Grading:

Figure Analyses (2) 10
Speaker Worksheet 5
Laboratory Safety Cert 5
Laboratories of interest 5
Post-Panel/Speaker Reflection (7): 35
Pre-Conversation questions (7): 14
Attendance/Participation (12): 36
Total 110

This class is really just to understand what research is, how to do it, etc. Professor Turlo does a great job explaining concepts and is very engaging. You get to speak with lots of different researchers at UCLA. I was able to get multiple research position offers from this class.

The class was super easy to pass-- not even a concern.

Oh my did I love taking this class, and I think it's very helpful for those who are thinking about a Ph.D or other research related degrees.

In short, the class delves into what it is being a researcher and the logistics of research. It talks about the money, the methods, how to write a proposal, how to read a paper, and dips a little into the politics behind research. The class is structured into 2 halves, with the first half discussing diversity in research and alcohol and the second half discussing about vaccine research.

Grading was very light, and it shows that Dr. Turlo heavily values your participation in class. Most of the grade came from participating in lecture by filling out a paper worksheet based on the content Dr. Turlo covered in-class and attending discussion, so bring a pen/pencil. There are also 2 papers assigned in the class, but they're both designed to be very brief and concise -- it was more of a struggle attempting to shorten the paper compared to actually lengthening it. Discussion was kind of lacking compared to lecture however, and I found it boring to attend discussion other than for peer reviews for the papers. There are also some problem sets that need to be completed for homework, but they're really not too hard to complete.

Dr. Turlo's lectures are one of the few lectures I was actually excited to go to. She's very engaging and loves to entertain questions, and it is very clear she is very enthusiastic about teaching the class. Even though lectures are technically mandatory, it's not that big of a deal considering how much effort Dr. Turlo puts into ensuring that you learn. Furthermore, the class size is relatively small, so it is a lot easier to speak up and ask questions. At one point, Dr. Turlo brought in a professor colleague to discuss what it is like being a professor and the many challenges research brings. You may need to put your phone away for this class, as Dr. Turlo doesn't particularly like it when you are doomscrolling or texting during her lectures.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and would heavily recommend taking it if you are interested in learning about research as a life scientist.