I took this class based on the reviews that are on here and while I received an A, I just wanted to warn whoever is thinking of taking this class.
First of all, Turlo is incredibly kind, and super passionate on the topic. She gives off the energy of someone who reads research articles for fun and in general she wants other people to be just as excited.
However, this class is so.... like I was taking four classes at the time, one of them being a writing class, and yet this was the one that I felt like took the most work. I don't remember everything 100%, but there were quizzes (short, but) they were right after every lecture and were incredibly specific. I feel as though for people who are very interested in STEM, this is a fascinating class to take, but as someone who was taking this course as a GE, the amount of effort I had to put in was honestly insane. There were problem sets, two in all, that took really long to complete, and the midterm and final... girl our final was to "make our own vaccine." Essentially you had to read a lot of research articles and synthesize ways to improve it and I had to work on that all through Thanksgiving break. I think that these assignments are really good ways to have students apply knowledge and all, but the standards are incredibly high and it just feels very very high effort for again, something that is supposed to be a GE (general education) class. We're supposed to gain broad knowledge but it almost feel like I was expected to become an expert overnight. I wish that this class was slightly easier and not as overly science heavy (I know how that sounds... I'm interested in science somewhat but not like this... not like this).
Tldr do not take this class unless you're suuuuuuuper interested in research and STEM. It is NOT an easy class and you'll have to really put in a lot of time and effort. It was not worth it imo

Lectures were a mix between actual lectures and the occasional guest speaker. The first half of the course was dedicated to diversity/inequity in STEM, and the second half was dedicated to actual science (which I personally found more interesting), like focusing on a genetic disease and COVID vaccines.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty solid GE. The homework/problem sets/midterm/final were actually essays, which I found kind of annoying, but they weren't that bad. There's weekly quizzes after every lecture, which is kind of a lot, and it's easy to miss one if you don't keep track of when they're due. I didn't find the required discussions that helpful.

I liked Dr. Turlo, and I would recommend this class to anyone who wants an easier science-based GE or to learn more about biomedical research. She was very accommodating throughout the quarter with providing past recorded lectures and helping the class out with assignment resubmissions/quiz re-dos, if the class did especially poorly on a quiz. In turn, we did have a few occasions where the class was unfortunately canceled or changed at the last minute because of COVID/health related reasons, but I didn't find it to be a big deal.

Dr. Turlo is clearly passionate about this course, and is a compassionate and kind person. I learned something new everyday, and I learned useful skills on analyzing research and learning to interpret things myself. I liked how we learned about relevant things, like COVID-19, vaccines, and the media surrounding it. It was also helpful to hear from guest speakers about their experiences in the field of biomedical research. Lectures on the grant and publishing process helped me solidify that I don't want to be a biomedical researcher, but I still benefited from taking this course.
I LOVED that Dr. Turlo made lecture so accessible, having recordings, live zoom lectures, and live in person lectures. This was a pretty easy GE, I only got a B+ because I turned in my last problem set late and I don't think my TA graded it lol but if you turn in your assignments in on time you'll be fine.

This class was very enlightening for me, it covered issues of inequities in STEM and the basics of research. The class itself was pretty dense workload-wise. There was a quiz every lecture, but the professor said she might change it to once a week in the future, and there were assignments called problem sets. In terms of quizzes, they are multiple choice and sometimes are worded pretty vaguely and it can be difficult to know what Dr. Turlo is asking, but for the questions that affect the majority of the class, she usually takes them off/gives everyone the points for it. In terms of the problem sets, they are written assignments. Depending on the TA, the problem sets may be graded very rigorously. The problem sets themselves took the place of midterms and the Final was pretty similarly structured to those problem sets. I would recommend taking advantage of the office hours, Dr. Turlo and the TAs will clarify what they are looking for in the problem sets if you ask. I would also recommend having a basic understanding of biology, as learning key biological concepts all at once can be a bit jarring, but the TAs try to fill the students in on the bio context during discussion. I would not consider this class to be an easy A, but if you're interested in the topics I would highly recommend, this class was very enlightening regarding research and diversity in STEM.