Biology 1

[greentea101]

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I'm taking Bio 1 (I've taken advance bio classes but need bio 1 as pre-req). The professor is new to the school. She gives discussion tasks each week, so for the first week it was to discuss 'unity in diversity' and given examples and to respond to classmates, 2nd week it was about vaccine testing on animals and why do we not test on mosquitos instead of mice and monkeys. The weighting for the discussion boards is quite high, 24% of the overall grade. She gave me a 10/15 for the first board and 12.5/15 for the second. Now she doesn't give any prompts and doesn't really tell you what she expects before grading. And even after grading the feedback is minimal and not really helpful. For the first board I basically got 66% which is D and the second was 83% a B. For the first board she said I didn't give good examples and it wasn't thought provoking enough, I did not ask for feedback for the second board.

Considering that my classmates responses were poor, I can't see how she graded me so low. I have asked to have a discussion with her on zoom tomorrow. I don't really see how I can do well in the course if she isn't clear on expectations and gives a guideline on how she is marking these. It seems like she just give random points with no guideline.

On the mastering biology assignments I am averaging 95% so I would finish with a C or B if I continue I think as 24% of the grade is discussion boards.

This is a community college class too, so it will look so bad if I get a B or lower.

Should I drop it if the meeting on Thursday is not successful?

 

[paradoxic_toxic]

Drop, retake elsewhere (preferably at a 4 year college).

 

[Osminog]

If you’re going to stay in the class, express a strong desire to improve your discussion board contributions, and ask for specific feedback and guidelines. You might even want to schedule a Zoom/WebEx meeting with her to talk about critical thinking and effective written communication in the sciences. If the instructor thinks you have a genuine interest in improving, she’ll be more inclined to give you higher grades.

 

[Leahjoos]

I'm taking Bio 1 (I've taken advance bio classes but need bio 1 as pre-req). The professor is new to the school. She gives discussion tasks each week, so for the first week it was to discuss 'unity in diversity' and given examples and to respond to classmates, 2nd week it was about vaccine testing on animals and why do we not test on mosquitos instead of mice and monkeys. The weighting for the discussion boards is quite high, 24% of the overall grade. She gave me a 10/15 for the first board and 12.5/15 for the second. Now she doesn't give any prompts and doesn't really tell you what she expects before grading. And even after grading the feedback is minimal and not really helpful. For the first board I basically got 66% which is D and the second was 83% a B. For the first board she said I didn't give good examples and it wasn't thought provoking enough, I did not ask for feedback for the second board.

Considering that my classmates responses were poor, I can't see how she graded me so low. I have asked to have a discussion with her on zoom tomorrow. I don't really see how I can do well in the course if she isn't clear on expectations and gives a guideline on how she is marking these. It seems like she just give random points with no guideline.

On the mastering biology assignments I am averaging 95% so I would finish with a C or B if I continue I think as 24% of the grade is discussion boards.

This is a community college class too, so it will look so bad if I get a B or lower.

Should I drop it if the meeting on Thursday is not successful?

I personally wouldn’t drop. Have a discussion with her maybe there is something you are simply missing out. Do what you can’t to get a B. Find out what you are doing wrong & improve that. You did better on the second one so make sure the rest you don’t bomb.