Professor
Tonya Kane
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2016 - This class is okay. It is mainly an introduction of basic biology. I would suggest students who have doubts about the bio major to take this class first and re-consider, as it is also a GE. Prof. Kane is funny and engaged, though she basically reads from the slides. So overall there is no need to take much notes in the class as you can find mostly everything she said on the slides, which she posts before class. The hw on launchpad is relatively easy, the lab works are harder but the TAs are really helpful. Go to the OH! The class materials are all on the launchpad, which includes an access code and an ebook. Selling BRANDNEW class materials for LS1. Text me if interested at **********
Spring 2016 - This class is okay. It is mainly an introduction of basic biology. I would suggest students who have doubts about the bio major to take this class first and re-consider, as it is also a GE. Prof. Kane is funny and engaged, though she basically reads from the slides. So overall there is no need to take much notes in the class as you can find mostly everything she said on the slides, which she posts before class. The hw on launchpad is relatively easy, the lab works are harder but the TAs are really helpful. Go to the OH! The class materials are all on the launchpad, which includes an access code and an ebook. Selling BRANDNEW class materials for LS1. Text me if interested at **********
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - THIS IS PRETTY LONG AND DETAILED SO BE WARNED: To start off, Dr. Kane is an "average" professor. I can't really think of anything bad about her lectures, she was pretty clear most of the time, and if not, she'd explain the material again. The lecture material itself is pretty boring unless you are interested in ecology. However, Dr. Kane was pretty fun and nice herself. She definitely tried to connect with her students and make this a pretty welcoming environment. If you're having to choose between a professor who doesn't have any reviews on Bruinwalk, I'd definitely take the safe route and go with Dr. Kane. Nothing can really go wrong with that. About the class itself, LS7B is everything that is wrong about the LS core curriculum. Launchpad is either too in depth and has nothing to do with the course or lacks material that we need to know for the course, which is honestly ridiculous. A complete waste of time. However, if you don't at least skim, the lectures won't make sense, and you end up guessing on all the clicker questions. The midterms and finals brought confusing wording to a whole new level. One benefit is that the structure is pretty similar to LS7A so it's not a big adjustment. The point distribution is as follows for this quarter: Lecture/iClicker: 72 points (80 possible) Launchpad Assignments: 45 points (50 possible) Launchpad PRQs: 45 points (50 possible) Launchpad PEQs: 45 points (50 possible) Lab Worksheets: 135 points (150 possible) Midterm 1: 120 points (123 possible) Midterm 2: 120 points (123 possible) Final: 200 points As you can see above, there is a drop for most of the categories, which was honestly really helpful for this class especially. The launchpad assignments and the PRQs were pretty standard and doable. However the launchpad PEQs for this class is where it all went to hell. Most of them are around 10-15 questions in an hour, and never had I actually taken up the whole hour for these PEQs. They were oddly (insanely) hard, especially the for the first four weeks, but they gradually got easier towards the last few weeks. Like LS7A, 7B is a point based class, so just try to rack up as many points as you can. One of the best parts about this class is that the midterms and finals aren't worth as much as they were in 7A since the extra bonus of the labs being worth 135 points instead of the usual discussion being worth around 80 points was really helpful, but I'll get into that a little bit later. Now on to the midterms and the final. I had no idea what I sat through those 2/3 hours I was supposed to take the test. The tests got progressively harder, making the final the hardest test. The first midterm was alright considering the material was a bit easier in the beginning (despite the absurd difficulty of the PEQs). The second midterm was...rough to say the least. I know a lot of people did really well on it but it was the complete opposite for me, meaning I barely had a passing grade. HOWEVER THIS IS WHEN THIS CLASS COMES IN CLUTCH....THERE'S EXTRA CREDIT AFTER EACH MIDTERM!!!! You can earn up to 8 points extra credit on each mini midterm assignment that's assigned after each midterm. This really helps boost your score and gives you a slight buffer in this class. However, this wasn't an option for the final unfortunately, which also made the final so much harder. The final was the only test I seriously studied for and I barely managed to get a B. However with the help of all the extra credit from the mini midterms and the other small ec assignments (9 points total) and getting full credit on the other categories, I did manage to pull an A out of this class. This just really goes to show how much of a joke this class/this entire series is. To save the best for last, my lab section was absolutely *chefs kiss*. I had an amazing TA, shoutout to Shomik. I highly recommend having him as your TA if he ever decides to TA for this class again. Unlike the other TAs, he graded the labs based on completion (which was basically a free 135 points) and completely disregarded that BS rule of having to submit lab/discussion work no later than 15 min after the section. I never understood the need to grade discussion work based on accuracy. As mentioned in the LS7B syllabus, students are supposed to cement their understanding of the material in discussion, meaning we are supposed to LEARN and not be worried what grade we receive on each worksheet. So overall thoughts? LS Curriculum itself: -10000/5 if thats even possible :/ LS7B itself : 3/5 (saved by my amazing TA) Dr Kane: 3.5/5 (nothing bad or particularly outstanding, she did her best and she's a fun professor) If I'm going to be honest, I completely finessed this class. Still don't know how I made it out with an A. I didn't go to a single office hour or problem solving session or run over the learning outcomes for each unit. This is a far cry from the amount of work and effort I put into LS7A. So if you are slacking this quarter, know that you can still do well in this class. But the real question is, would I take this class again? Heck no, I'm not a masochist.
Winter 2021 - THIS IS PRETTY LONG AND DETAILED SO BE WARNED: To start off, Dr. Kane is an "average" professor. I can't really think of anything bad about her lectures, she was pretty clear most of the time, and if not, she'd explain the material again. The lecture material itself is pretty boring unless you are interested in ecology. However, Dr. Kane was pretty fun and nice herself. She definitely tried to connect with her students and make this a pretty welcoming environment. If you're having to choose between a professor who doesn't have any reviews on Bruinwalk, I'd definitely take the safe route and go with Dr. Kane. Nothing can really go wrong with that. About the class itself, LS7B is everything that is wrong about the LS core curriculum. Launchpad is either too in depth and has nothing to do with the course or lacks material that we need to know for the course, which is honestly ridiculous. A complete waste of time. However, if you don't at least skim, the lectures won't make sense, and you end up guessing on all the clicker questions. The midterms and finals brought confusing wording to a whole new level. One benefit is that the structure is pretty similar to LS7A so it's not a big adjustment. The point distribution is as follows for this quarter: Lecture/iClicker: 72 points (80 possible) Launchpad Assignments: 45 points (50 possible) Launchpad PRQs: 45 points (50 possible) Launchpad PEQs: 45 points (50 possible) Lab Worksheets: 135 points (150 possible) Midterm 1: 120 points (123 possible) Midterm 2: 120 points (123 possible) Final: 200 points As you can see above, there is a drop for most of the categories, which was honestly really helpful for this class especially. The launchpad assignments and the PRQs were pretty standard and doable. However the launchpad PEQs for this class is where it all went to hell. Most of them are around 10-15 questions in an hour, and never had I actually taken up the whole hour for these PEQs. They were oddly (insanely) hard, especially the for the first four weeks, but they gradually got easier towards the last few weeks. Like LS7A, 7B is a point based class, so just try to rack up as many points as you can. One of the best parts about this class is that the midterms and finals aren't worth as much as they were in 7A since the extra bonus of the labs being worth 135 points instead of the usual discussion being worth around 80 points was really helpful, but I'll get into that a little bit later. Now on to the midterms and the final. I had no idea what I sat through those 2/3 hours I was supposed to take the test. The tests got progressively harder, making the final the hardest test. The first midterm was alright considering the material was a bit easier in the beginning (despite the absurd difficulty of the PEQs). The second midterm was...rough to say the least. I know a lot of people did really well on it but it was the complete opposite for me, meaning I barely had a passing grade. HOWEVER THIS IS WHEN THIS CLASS COMES IN CLUTCH....THERE'S EXTRA CREDIT AFTER EACH MIDTERM!!!! You can earn up to 8 points extra credit on each mini midterm assignment that's assigned after each midterm. This really helps boost your score and gives you a slight buffer in this class. However, this wasn't an option for the final unfortunately, which also made the final so much harder. The final was the only test I seriously studied for and I barely managed to get a B. However with the help of all the extra credit from the mini midterms and the other small ec assignments (9 points total) and getting full credit on the other categories, I did manage to pull an A out of this class. This just really goes to show how much of a joke this class/this entire series is. To save the best for last, my lab section was absolutely *chefs kiss*. I had an amazing TA, shoutout to Shomik. I highly recommend having him as your TA if he ever decides to TA for this class again. Unlike the other TAs, he graded the labs based on completion (which was basically a free 135 points) and completely disregarded that BS rule of having to submit lab/discussion work no later than 15 min after the section. I never understood the need to grade discussion work based on accuracy. As mentioned in the LS7B syllabus, students are supposed to cement their understanding of the material in discussion, meaning we are supposed to LEARN and not be worried what grade we receive on each worksheet. So overall thoughts? LS Curriculum itself: -10000/5 if thats even possible :/ LS7B itself : 3/5 (saved by my amazing TA) Dr Kane: 3.5/5 (nothing bad or particularly outstanding, she did her best and she's a fun professor) If I'm going to be honest, I completely finessed this class. Still don't know how I made it out with an A. I didn't go to a single office hour or problem solving session or run over the learning outcomes for each unit. This is a far cry from the amount of work and effort I put into LS7A. So if you are slacking this quarter, know that you can still do well in this class. But the real question is, would I take this class again? Heck no, I'm not a masochist.
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2019 - I think this is my favorite EEB class I've taken at UCLA so far. Dr. Kane was very helpful and nice and this class was very good in terms of having clear expectations. Not an easy class, but definitely reasonable, enjoyable, and interesting. Would definitely recommend it. Also offered some EC!
Summer 2019 - I think this is my favorite EEB class I've taken at UCLA so far. Dr. Kane was very helpful and nice and this class was very good in terms of having clear expectations. Not an easy class, but definitely reasonable, enjoyable, and interesting. Would definitely recommend it. Also offered some EC!
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