B.U.+Science+Courses

Astronomy Biology Earth Science Neuroscience Oceanography Physics Psychology Sociology

 Professor: Michael Mendillo
 * CAS AS 101** The Solar System

This was a GREAT course. It’s an introductory astronomy course for non-science majors. You don’t have to be really good at science to take it, but I found the material covered really interesting, and it was definitely not something that I had learned before. Prof. Mendillo talks a lot about science history and science in different cultures; my favorite part of the class was when we learnt about the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Tycho Brache. Mendillo is THE BEST; he is an entertaining, thorough, and clear lecturer. He is very thoughtful and inquisitive about science and non-science; he was, quite honestly, an inspiring teacher. Day labs were pretty boring, but not difficult. There were two required night labs, held at around 7pm on the roof of CAS, where you get to use telescopes; I really enjoyed them! Reviewer: Anne Goncharov

Professor: Kenneth Brecher
 * CAS AS 102** The Astronomical Universe

This was an amazing course. Sadly, there is not much physics involved, as it's a course for non-science majors, but the sheer amount of cool stuff that you learn about makes up for the lack of "real science". AS102 deals with the birth, development, and death of stars, as well as black holes, quasars, and anything Brecher feels like adding. Prof Brecher is absolutely amazing while lecturing; he's very clear, uses loads of demonstrations, and reminds me of a Kramer-Einstein hybrid. Like Anne said, the day labs are very boring (but are easy As!), so pray that you get an interesting TA. The night labs, which are required, are absolutely amazing. I'm even considering an astro minor in college because of them. In short, I highly recommend this course. Reviewer: Sarah Esterquest  Professors: Monette, Godrick, Deshler, Eldred Navigating the BU biology program is just going to be difficult for BUA students. I don’t think that there is really a good way to go about it. But if you want to go on and study bio after Junior year, you really must take this class as a Junior. Everyone will warn you against it, and they are not wrong – the semester grade is determined by four exams (one of which is the final) and your lab grade. The lectures are huge (200 ppl) and the tests are all scantron-style multiple-choice. On the other hand, there are many support systems in place for the struggling student: your lowest exam grade is dropped, there is a student-run tutoring service called Student-2-Student. These tutors attend every lecture, take notes, and post the notes on line. They also host two review sessions the week before each exam. I was interested in taking bio after Junior year, but I but was scared off of this class and took the BI107-105 sequence instead. I was stuck with no pure bio class to take first semester senior year (BI108 is a prereq for all higher level pure bio classes), and second semester am stuck doing essentially the same labs as I did last year in BI105 – intensely boring! If you can handle the structure of BI108 as a Junior, then do it. Also, the course description mentions that it would be helpful to have taken CH101 before taking this class. It’s really not important. Especially as a Junior, when chemistry is still more or less fresh in your minds. Just make sure you take the class with someone else so that you aren’t swallowed up by the huge lecture size. Reviewer: Sonja Boet-Whitaker
 * CAS BI 108** Biology 2

Professor Elizabeth Godrick
 * CAS BI 114** Human Infectious Diseases

This was, bar none, the most interesting course I have ever taken at BU. The course covers a lot of different material, and the final exam covers essentially all of 100 or so diseases that you study in the course, but the material is fascinating. Labs can be fairly boring by the eighth week or so, as experiments tend to become repetitive; the fact that labs meet twice a week is also a hassle in fitting this course into a schedule. The lectures, while long at roughly an hour and a half each, cover all the material covered in the notes. The book is never used, not even by the professor. Godrick’s delivery can be a little dry at time, but she knows the material very well, explains it clearly, and does make the occasional joke. She managed to tie the course into current events very well when I took it; the first few weeks, we discussed the E. coli breakout in spinach, and some lectures were about HIV/AIDS and Avian Flu. The exams are all multiple choice, and can be fairly tricky, but she grades fairly, and as long as you study the lecture notes (she makes available for purchase a notebook with her lecture notes in them; this was the single greatest studying tool I had in that course), you’ll know all the material you need. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who enjoys biology in any way, shape, or form. Reviewer: Charlie Miller

 Professor: Terry Plank
 * CAS ES 101** The Dynamic Earth

This was an introductory earth science course. There were non-science majors in it, but it also serves as one of the introductory courses for earth science majors. Prof. Plank was a pretty good lecturer. The material could seem a little dry sometimes, so if you’re not really into earth science I wouldn’t recommend taking it. But if you think you might like earth science, this is a great class to take. I definitely did not know any of the stuff we learned before. We studied things like: plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, ocean currents, volcanoes and earthquakes, rivers and streams, and weathering and erosion. My TF, Eric Moore, was great. He was good at explaining things, and had a great sense of humor. Labs were interesting and often quite challenging, especially ones where you had to identify 20+ rocks and minerals. Reviewer: Anne Goncharov

 Professor Daniel Bullock
 * CAS CN520** Models in Cognitive Neuroscience

This class has prerequisites, and they need to be fulfilled in order to do well in the class. If you have not had computer programming (specifically Matlab), don’t take the course. Half of the lecture is about the mathematical models to explain phenomena, while the other half is introductory neuroscience (the brain, central nervous system, neurons…). The material is interesting, as is the textbook, but there is a significant amount of math. Lab reports are common and difficult. I would recommend this course only if you have experience with Matlab. Reviewer: Vanessa Rubin

 Professor Helen White
 * CAS ES 144** Oceanography

This has been my favorite course at BU so far. The material was interesting and the professor was great. The class was pretty easy even though a ton of material was covered. There are three tests and a final exam and she scaled the final grade. I definitely recommend this course even if you’re not very interested in science. Reviewer: Terra Hittson

 Professor: Skocpol I was very unhappy with this class. The teacher treated all of the students as if they were idiots, and the students didn’t do anything to disprove him, except for sit in the back of the lecture hall wearing headphones, or read the newspaper up near the front. It just doesn’t make sense to try to study Physics without using calculus. Because all of the formulas are derived using calculus, the professor just gives them to the students without the students having any idea where they same from and therefore how to use them. The labs were confusing and always ill-prepared: much of the equipment was unusable, and we often had to work with obviously skewed data from our instruments because there were simply no working machines available. The exams were very difficult and went beyond the level of the material addressed in class. They were two hours long and held at night, which was very inconvenient. The final exam is also at night and it is three hours long. Although the professor was very disorganized and wasn’t able to explain anything, he was happy to meet with students in his office and would give points back on exams just for coming to see him and showing him that you cared. Reviewer: Sonja Boet-Whitaker
 * PY 105** Elementary Physics I

Professor Karl Ludwig
 * PY 211** General Physics I

This class is intended for engineers and scientists. I would not recommend taking this class unless you're good at physics or prepared to work very hard. Professor Ludwig is a great professor. Professor Stone, who taught another section of the course and substituted for Ludwig once, was mediocre. Exams are held in the evening (7pm), which can be inconvenient. All three professors teaching the course, as well as the numerous TF's, held office hours frequently and students in any lecture and discussion section could go to any professor or TF for help. I never had trouble getting help with my homeworks or getting my questions answered. I found that I had to do a lot of work outside of class and that I needed to go to office hours a lot to master the material, but help was always available. This a hard, but rewarding, class. Reviewer: Anne Goncharov

Professor Claudio Rebbi
 * CAS PY 251** Principles of Physics I

1 Hour Discussion Section 3 Hour Lab Section

In this class, the lectures are your worst enemies. They are amazingly confusing, to the point where there’s nothing to do but listen on without trying to understand. It shocked me, however, that everything else in the class is forgiving and fairly low-level. The labs are as easy as our ninth-grade experiments, and the admittedly lengthy homework is quite doable with the assistance of the TA, Ron Babich. Ron is very helpful, and he’s willing to carry on fairly long email discussions if your schedule doesn’t match his office hours. Once you’re able to do the homework, the exams shouldn’t be a huge problem – they frequently feel like easier timed homework assignments, though certain poorly chosen problems have hurt the class average in the past. This class is doable, and the scaling of exam grades is nice, but the impenetrability of lectures and low exam averages aren’t so great. Reviewer: Ed Pastuszenski

Unlike many other intro level courses, this class, intended for physics majors, is a much smaller section and had students who, as physics majors, were passionate and excited about the class. It was rewarding to see that this was true While the lectures go over very complex derivations that are very difficult to follow, Claudio provides the class with his lecture notes which are very comprehensive, and which you can follow along with while he’s lecturing (not that it makes it much less confusing). Because the homework can be quite challenging at times, do not take this class alone. It is much more manageable if there are a couple of other BUA students in the class. The exams are not easy, per se, however if you study adequately they are manageable. I feel I should note that, although it may have been, as Ed noted, “poorly chosen problems,” the class average on the final exam was a 59 after scaling, however the average test average over all three tests was about an 80. Reviewer: Toby Waite

 Professor: Stefan Hoffman
 * CAS PS 101** General Psychology

This is a broad survey course, covering a huge number of topics (but none in much depth), and there’s a fair amount of work to get through. However, the material is generally interesting, and the professor is excellent. He’s a very fair grader, and in class tends to be very funny, which, while not necessarily the only quality one wants in a teacher, helps to lighten the mood during times of especial amounts of work. TAs in this course are helpful, explaining the lecture notes of the past week and many times introducing material not covered in lecture with videos or exercises. The homework is a fair bit of reading; last term I read the entire book, 20 chapters and over 300 pages, for homework (not all at the same time, of course). Overall, this is a very interesting course that I would suggest for those who find the study of psychology, or even neurobiology, which is discussed a fair amount, interesting. Reviewer: Charlie Miller


 * CAS SO 100** Sociology

2 papers and about 5 multiple choice tests. OK amount of reading, but dry and not very interesting. Professor Demetriou (sp?) sometimes made mistakes on the test, so make sure you argue for more points. Discussion was not really relevent to the actual course as the leader had little communication with the professor. Reviewer: Jon Sachs

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