Dr. Pfluegl is great and the class was really easy especially online. The problem is that the weekly webinars weren't too helpful and I found myself watch an hour-long video, but really not learning much. The weekly quizzes are rly easy too so i wouldn't worry about those. The weekly assignments could be long and sometimes confusing to a point I needed to ask the TA for a lot of help.

Either way, the class was really easy

This class was thankfully a breeze, because I took it with four other STEM classes. Professor Pluegl and all of the staff made sure all the lab assignments and worksheets were understood in their weekly lecture by explaining each step pretty well. I was able to finish all the work for each week in one day. The Labster, worksheets, writing assignments, and other small tasks only take a couple hours, especially if you do the pre-lab quizzes and watch the Monday weekly webinar/lecture before Tuesday, when the assignments open.

Lecture: Once a week, for us it was every Monday for about an hour on Zoom. Pfluegl would review all the material for the week and show us exactly what to do for each section of the worksheet assignments.

Discussion: This was asynchronous so I never actually met my TA. We all just worked on the assignments on our own time but there were Zoom meetings with TAs or LAs as hosts that we could join if we had questions about a problem.

Writing Assignments: There were three of these, and this was the hardest part of the course for me, although it really wasn't too bad. The first one is just the intro and materials, the second one is the results and discussion, and the third is all components. Each write-up is based on a different lab, so the first one was about memory, the second on metabolism, and the third on pulmonary function. There are lots of instructions, the rubric is provided, and there are sample papers that everyone uses as a reference. The only thing that many of us disliked about the writing assignments was that they are graded by peers. So you grade can be way lower than it should've been on the assignment if the peer graders were harsh or picky. I personally didn't have any issues, but others were unfairly marked down. There is a way to complete a self-reflection to receive extra points to makeup for the lost ones, but the idea of a peer-grader system is still debated. There were like 700+ students in the class though, so I can imagine that grading all the papers would take too long and that's why the peer system is in place.

Other: Since we couldn't actually perform labs in person, we did our labs through Labster. It worked out pretty well in my opinion. There were also short multiple choice pre-lab and post-lab quizzes for each week that were super easy. There was also no midterm for this class and the final was optional due to the protests at the time. The final was only 5% of our grade anyway.

Bottom line: It's very easy to get an A+ in this class, and if you're taking it remotely, it's even easier. Pluegl was the only professor, but he was a great one. He was the first out of my professors to reach out when remote learning began and the first to make final exam accommodations, and just overall, the LS 23L course was very organized and prepared. Highly recommend!!

I took this class the first quarter it was online. If you can, I would definitely recommend taking it in person, because there are a lot of really fun labs (such as sequencing your own mitochondrial DNA to discover your ancestry, and running an EKG etc) that I wish I got the chance to actually do. Online, we just used a data base and wrote reports based on that data. The amount of work we have is very manageable, and the class is organized super well so everything we have to do for the week is clearly laid out. The scientific articles we had to write were actually my favorite part of the course, because I found the process of reading published research papers and learning how to set them up to be very beneficial to my learning and applicable to my future. Also, I really loved the peer-review system for grading. You have six peers review your paper so it is very fair, and reading other students' papers is helpful so you know where you stand in your writing. The grading is incredibly generous and as long as you do all the work you can easily get an A. Dr. Pfluegl is also very nice and definitely shows that he cares a lot about his students!

Good class. Very interesting material and the teaching team was very helpful. Remote learning for this class very clear. There were clearly listed bullet points of lab and writing requirements for each week on CCLE. This made each week's work very easy to follow. Although there were some labs that were complicated, the use of the discussion forum as well as the teaching staff made it good. The professor himself is a great person!

I absolutely ADORE Professor Pflugel! This man is the human embodiment of sunshine. He is so sweet and understanding, his lectures are so clear, informative, and entertaining. I can't say enough good things about him.
As for the class itself - it was a lot of work. With COVID and having to do remote learning, it was an interesting class. We used Labster to conduct online labs, and honestly it was fantastic. Everything was super informative, and I genuinely learned a lot in this class.
10/10 would 100% reccommend and take again!

Dr. Pfluegl is very accomodating and cares about his students. He and the TAs have been responsive to feedback.

All of the assigned worksheets have been manageable. Most students will usually ask questions on the discussion forum for help and Dr. Pfluegl tends to go over how to complete the assignments during lecture. The three writing assignments were also very simple to write. We were given one week to write the paper, another week to assess each other, and a third week to write a reflection. Overall, I would say the workload for this class is not too heavy.

This was a great class if you’re interested in the material. It was also quite easy bc all answers and good study material for quizzes were available if you looked for them!
I’m also selling the newest edition (6th I think) of the lab manual for $20. If interested, text me at **********

This class should be an easy A with the adjustments that Dr. Pfluegl has made. For one, he drops the lowest grade in all sections of the class (pre-lab, in-lab, post-lab quizzes, as well as lab worksheets.) Secondly, the lab worksheets are relatively easy and do not really require prior knowledge of the material. As long as you follow the lab manual, you should be good to go. Moreover, pre-lab, in-lab and post-lab quizzes can be found online.
A big component of the class is the CPR assignments. There are 3 CPR assignments on the labs done in class. One of them calls for students to write the first half of a research paper, the second one has to do with the second half while the third one is a full research paper. A big part of CPR assignments is peer review. Even with an average text grade, a perfect peer review grade can really bring up the assignment score. The professor does offer extra credit that increases text rating by 5 points (out of 10). So, if you get anything above a 5 as a text rating, your score can be boosted up to full points.
The final exam is pretty easy and you can score well just by reading through the lab manual once or twice before taking the exam.

Is anyone selling their lab manual 6th edition? Email me at *************

This class was super easy. I think it was one of the easiest lab classes I've taken because I had a super chill TA. Email me if you want to buy the lab manual "Introduction to Laboratory and Scientific Methodology" Edition 5 for $20! I used it while others were using the edition 6 lab manual. They're the same content, so don't worry about it being outdated. Email: *************