Dr. Rensel was great. She was one of three professors who taught during the fall quarter, and focused on biology concepts while the other two focused on the economic and social implications of biotechnology. Her lectures were accompanied by slides with visuals and everything was very clear. I'm not a STEM major and still did well on her portions of the exams. There are two exams which are each worth 20% of the final grade, and the final didn't include topics from before the midterm so it was extremely manageable. The TAs provided study guides that were very similar to the actual tests. 15% of the final grade is based on an essay and a short speech that you present in your discussion session about GMOs, and the rest of the grade is from participation in discussion, lecture attendance, and annotations on the readings. The workload was pretty light, except that before each class you had to read 2-3 articles and write a couple comments (just graded for completion). I definitely recommend this cluster! It was really interesting, not too difficult, and balanced between STEM and humanities topics.

genuinely prof rensel was the best part of the class. overall class is rlly focused on policy/socioeconomic side of biotech so it got a little boring sometimes, but overall the workload is super light. the tests are also super easy so u don't really need to listen to the lectures, i just did hw most of the time. all the slides are posted, but prof rensel's slides were consistently the most clear for reviewing. she's also a great lecturer and there's honestly no need to review if you listen during class. panofsky is also a good lecturer and engaging, but his concepts are a little more abstract. scroggins is rlly engaging during class but genuinely i didn't understand anything from his lectures and had to review it later from the slides themselves. the discussions are also pretty light but there's a couple group parts and a speech which can be a little annoying. overall the class is pretty boring and tbh i regret not taking regular GEs as they're a good way to explore niche interests, but at least it's a low stress easy class

DONT DO IT
Honestly, clusters are only helpful if you really need the GE help, and writing 2 credit, but writing 2 is WAYY easier than this class. 2 weekly reading which average 5 articles that average 20 pages EACH. Then you go to lecture, and the lecture is bar for bar the reading, so you learn nothing new. However, they'll drop like one random thing in their lessons and that is what the tests are on. This class is taught by 3 different professors: Rensel focusing on biology, Panofsky focusing on the like sociology of it, and Scroggins focusing on the economic/business part of it. Rensel and Panofsky's lectures are manageable, but Scroggins will literally talk about nothing all lecture, then somehow the whole final/midterm is about what he taught. On top of there being a final for this class, during discussion you will have to do a speech about a GMO game, and present it in front of everyone. The speech isn't too bad, but then you have a debate, AND a final position paper. ON TOP OF A FINAL. There's just too much work to justify for this class, it doesn't make it worth it. This was the only class I would fall asleep in that's how bad it was. No one I would ask liked this cluster, so I would either recommend just doing the writing 2 and a couple random GE's and it will be the exact same thing, if not way better. This is one of those classes where its supposed to be your "easy" class but then it ends up being your hardest, most time consuming class for no reason. Dont fall into the cluster propaganda, they are not sunshine's and rainbows like everyone makes them out to be, just take the GE's, you'll dread taking this class everyday.

I would recommend this class and felt like an A was very manageable. I found it difficult to pay attention during lecture but, for me, reviewing the slides and all of the review materials (they provide A LOT) was sufficient to do well on the 2 quizzes in the class. In discussion, there is a GMO simulation game in which groups work together to defend different sides in a debate-type scenario and then everyone individually writes a research-based paper after. This was slightly annoying but very manageable. There are required pre-class annotations but they are easy and helpful to understand the content.

It's an interesting class and I like that it is interdisciplinary because I'm able to study the same topic and it uses different angles/lenses. Through the first units (COVID and GMO) I was able to learn a lot about emerging technologies and how they shape society, and also how society shapes the technology. The workload is manageable!