Anyone have their old stuff from previously taking this class i.e. notes, old tests, etc...

Also, looking for additional insight on how people liked this class with Thakkor. thanks.

1/4/2007 10:59:00 AM

BO 250 with Thakor is NOT one of the most difficult courses a life sciences major would take. If you aren't a life science major, then take BO 200. BO 250 is more detail intensive than BO 200. BO 250 requires alot of memorization, but still is very easily doable. I made a B in the class and looking back, I realize that I really didn't put much effort into the class.

The lab is probably the worst part of the course. There are a couple of interesting experiments, but for the most part, Thakkor makes this lab very boring. Plenty of basic things are covered in detail in the lab that would already have been learned from other courses. There are a couple of field trips to local forests, however, which are kind of cool.

The class is based on a very fair point system, and ultimately your grade is determined only by how much time you're willing to spend on the work. There are videos that you have to watch, I think like 10 of them, in the media center of the library. You fill out worksheets while you watch them and turn them in, one per week, and that counts as a decent portion of your grade. Obviously, its a class thats not difficult but can be time consuming. I think there was a decent amount of taxonomy around the second test also...

Thakor is a sweet lady though, she reminded me of a grandmother who would keep lots of plants and flower gardens. She uses powerpoints with incredibly detailed slides...so be prepared to write alot and quickly. If you can't do it, then you'll have to read the book.

I heard great things about BO 200, but that when when Van Dyke was teaching (he's now retired I believe). If you plan on taking more Botany classes, I would recommend taking BO 250 though.

BTW, I don't have the class materials anymore.

1/4/2007 6:06:43 PM

chad jordan is teaching BO 200 now, he is a good guy. the 200 class is easier than the 250 but they are both pretty easy... if you take 250 be prepared to learn photosynthesis/respiration inside and out. you don't need anybodys old shit because now she has a coursepack that is the notes for the class. you just go and fill in the blank.

1/4/2007 6:38:08 PM

awesome! thanks alot stewdabaker and skewfield!

1/4/2007 6:49:09 PM

I personally found the class easy but rather aggrivating because of the unbearably boring lectures and powerpoints that looked like a second grader made them, the ridiculous (and elementary-audience) videos, and the lengthy and useless labs.

I think we did one lab that was actually hands on; the rest we could have just used our books to answer the lab questions. The lab book will guide you like this "Take a look at the stamen under the disecting microscope and label x, y, and z. Refer to page 235" Well, page 235 is a picture of a stamen under the disecting microscope, with labels x, y, and z. *sigh*

Don't expect a single lab to end early; perhaps 15-25 minutes early tops. Also, she uses the lab on several occassions to continue lecturing off even more powerpoint slides (so much for LAB). Sorry, the only field trip we went on was one to look at a greenhouse in Fox.

STEWDABAKER was probably an old student; you can DL her ppts off the website. Her tests were nice because we selected which questions we wanted to answer, and then got extra credit for the others. I can say that without our awesome TA who held study sessions, I would have been had a helluva time studying because as Thakor puts it when we have questions or need to know something, "just read the book." I got really tired of that response.

In hindsight, I do agree that she is a nice old lady, but she just goes way too in detail for a 200 level course and just cannot adequately instruct (crappy powerpoints, struggles to put things into words, doesn't present material in a cohesive order, tells us to "just read the book and then you'll get it").

I'm a Bio major, and I think 200 would have been fine. The course focused on photosynthetic processes, and having to know a crap load of worthless taxonomy. For my future courseload for BLS, that isn't going to help me.

EDIT: I had her last semester...so the "coursepack" you might have been referring to was the lab notebook...a rather pricey notebook that comes out of order, so once you buy it, you have to make changes to it.....that makes sense.

[Edited on January 4, 2007 at 7:46 PM. Reason : see "EDIT"]

1/4/2007 7:42:54 PM