Lab cancelled due to weather

Due to weather afternoon classes and labs have been cancelled today.

Lab 04 is about heritability and quantitative traits.

Expect information about a make up lab for both sections, with the possibility of a partial lab and the rest of it as an assignment.

I don't like to cancel class or lab and I'll do it only if it is impossible to actually do the lab (case of the Drosophila gene mapping lab), or if the school closes due to weather, like today. My apologies for those cases. We'll make up for it. And yes, you shall learn! (no joke)

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Lecture - Polygenic inheritance

Phenotypes controlled by two or more genes often show
a normal distribution (click on image for a full-size pic)

We are covering chapter 5 in the textbook, on polygenic inheritance and the influence environment has on phenotypes.

Important concepts include continuous and discontinuous variation, polygenic and multifactorial traits, complex traits, polygenic inheritance, and regression to the mean.

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Midterm survey and discussion about class

We did a survey about things that students like about this class and aspects that could be improved. After the survey we held a discussion about those same topics.

The goal of a mid-term survey is to address student concerns (as long as they are reasonable) before the quarter ends, instead of waiting to get student evaluations and make improvements for another group of students the following quarter.

A summary of the main positive aspects and concerns that students brought up follows:

Positive aspects:

• The class has a good pace and it has a relaxed atmosphere
• Instructor is approachable and available outside of class
• Instructor encourages participation
• Instructor is willing to stop and explain concepts and ideas
• Instructor actually listens to students
• Good combination of PowerPoint and board usage
  
• Power Point presentations follow the book and summarize information
• Presentations are posted on the p-drive
• Pop quizzes encourage studying the material
• "I think your pop quizzes are WONDERFUL!" (this is a direct quote)*
  

Aspects to improve:

• More organization in lab exercises
• Make lab guides available earlier
• More specific requirements for bioethics paper and lab notebook
• Include also material and concepts that are not covered in the book
  
• Upload PowerPoints to the p-drive earlier**
• "Pop quizzes are evil" (this is a direct quote)*
  

* Notice the rather interesting contrast of opinions regarding pop quizzes... It seems like about 70% of people like quizzes and the remaining 30% don't...
** I will, if I finish them soon enough...

Opinions about the textbook:

• About 90% of students like the textbook as a clear tool to understand the material, because it is easy to read and it provides helpful graphic material.
• The remaining 10% either doesn't use the book or thinks it is not challenging enough for a college-level class

Opinions about the PowerPoints:

• Easily followed
• Layed out nicely
• They summarize the lecture well
  
• Too wordy
• We go over them too fast

These points include what was written in the section where you told me what you would do different should you be teaching this class. There is a wide range of opinions and levels of satisfaction.
Many valid points were made, as well as a few unreasonable ones. I'll do my best to keep up the good things and improve the not-so-good ones. Pop quizzes are staying the way they are, perhaps with a few changes in the way questions are asked. I'll post PowerPoints to the p-drive as I make them, so you may see several incomplete versions before the final product (will that help?)
For those of you who are worried about writing down everything in the presentations... they will be posted anyway. I suggest you relax a little, pay more attention to what is being said, and then download the presentation if it is not up by the time lecture starts.

Please feel free to post comments to these results...!

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