MCD BIO 160
Principles of Light Microscopy
Description: Lecture, three hours; laboratory, two hours. Requisites: Life Sciences 7A, 7B, 7C, 23L. Over last two decades, there has been explosion of new techniques in light microscopy which has provided us with invaluable tools for biological research. Study of light microscopy techniques currently used in research laboratories. Basics of light microscopy (image formation, magnification, resolution, contrast), widefield and fluorescence microscopy, optical sections (confocal, multi-photon, light-sheet and total internal reflection fluorescence microscope), and super-resolution microscopy. Laboratory sessions include setting up and using simple, rail-based microscope; hands-on time and demonstrations on brightfield/epiflurorescence, confocal, light-sheet and super-resolution microscopes. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Coming into this class, it seemed quite interesting and fun, however, after the 10 weeks spent on the material, I did not learn anything at all and had more of a headache than any other class I've taken so far. Let me get started: The professor is quite unclear about his expectations and his exams don't really reflect what is taught during class. Some questions were memorization-based, and others practically covered topics/concepts that were never taught at all. It seems like his grading rubrics are quite unclear according to the TA, and that sometimes the things he expects the students to get are not reflective of what is actually taught. On top of this, he doesn't even respond to emails most of the time and is VERY unclear about most things (doesn't follow the syllabus at all). In terms of the lectures, his accent makes it quite difficult to understand things but most importantly what he 'teaches' is just him reading off his slides and going on these tangents that are completely unrelated to microscopy. The content itself is very dry and disorganized to the point that there is no structure to it. Nonetheless, with that said, he doesn't seem to know too much about microscopy (don't get me wrong, he is quite knowledgeable) and likes to tell people to refer to other sources at times; it seems like he just started learning about microscopy not too long ago, so whether he is fit to teach some concepts/techniques is questionable. TLDR: Overall, if you would like to learn more about different microscopic techniques, I honestly learned more from MCDB 165a (core class), than this class. It is unnecessarily stressful, ambiguous, and a huge pain in the butt even compared to other harder classes. The fact that he is unresponsive to emails, and always relies on other people/is not clear about what his expectations are makes it even harder to succeed in the class; most labs were graded after the final was taken and we were not even given a rubric for the exams. Not only this but the fact that he is quite unaccommodating to the class (the average was quite low, which can reflect on his teaching) and doesn't give people reasonable chances to improve on their scores makes it even worse. Just don't take this class and save yourself a hassle.
Winter 2022 - Coming into this class, it seemed quite interesting and fun, however, after the 10 weeks spent on the material, I did not learn anything at all and had more of a headache than any other class I've taken so far. Let me get started: The professor is quite unclear about his expectations and his exams don't really reflect what is taught during class. Some questions were memorization-based, and others practically covered topics/concepts that were never taught at all. It seems like his grading rubrics are quite unclear according to the TA, and that sometimes the things he expects the students to get are not reflective of what is actually taught. On top of this, he doesn't even respond to emails most of the time and is VERY unclear about most things (doesn't follow the syllabus at all). In terms of the lectures, his accent makes it quite difficult to understand things but most importantly what he 'teaches' is just him reading off his slides and going on these tangents that are completely unrelated to microscopy. The content itself is very dry and disorganized to the point that there is no structure to it. Nonetheless, with that said, he doesn't seem to know too much about microscopy (don't get me wrong, he is quite knowledgeable) and likes to tell people to refer to other sources at times; it seems like he just started learning about microscopy not too long ago, so whether he is fit to teach some concepts/techniques is questionable. TLDR: Overall, if you would like to learn more about different microscopic techniques, I honestly learned more from MCDB 165a (core class), than this class. It is unnecessarily stressful, ambiguous, and a huge pain in the butt even compared to other harder classes. The fact that he is unresponsive to emails, and always relies on other people/is not clear about what his expectations are makes it even harder to succeed in the class; most labs were graded after the final was taken and we were not even given a rubric for the exams. Not only this but the fact that he is quite unaccommodating to the class (the average was quite low, which can reflect on his teaching) and doesn't give people reasonable chances to improve on their scores makes it even worse. Just don't take this class and save yourself a hassle.
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