Professor Austin is awesome! She is super welcoming and friendly. Her lectures are very engaging and she really encourages participation. Lecture content is super interesting and she makes it easy to follow, even if you don't have a science background. During every lecture she recaps the past lecture, which is really helpful for reviewing material. She also hosts office hours before midterms where she reviews all of the lecture content which are really helpful. Lectures are very engaging and there are often polls and discussion questions.

Professor Austin was a great professor, definitely one of my favorites at UCLA so far. Although the class was tough, especially for students like me who did not have as strong as a research background, Professor Austin did everything she could to make students learn a lot from the class and come out of it as better scientists. You can definitely tell she cares deeply about her students and their learning in the class. She consistently asked for feedback and actually implemented what students told her could be improved on. She always allowed students to feel welcome participating and voicing their opinions and thoughts during class, which I found to be refreshing, especially since so many professors at UCLA tend to just lecture without allowing for student input or participation. The research proposal and presentation were the two most time consuming assignments, and students who started them later on felt rushed. However, if started when the assignments were given, many students including myself felt that we were given an adequate amount of time to complete them. In terms of grading, throughout the quarter, the TA had given most students lower than expected grades, which many students were frustrated about. However, Professor Austin recognized this issue, listened to the feedback that the students gave, and corrected it by hiring a different grader to grade the assignments in a more fair manner. She also gave lots of extra credit assignments that were basically guaranteed points so long as you completed them. Because of this, I feel that people ended up with grades that they were ultimately happy with and reflected the effort they put forth in the course. Overall, I definitely feel that I learned a lot from this class. It helped me grow as a researcher and I find myself understanding my work in the lab to a greater extent after taking this class. It was difficult at times but ultimately worth it, and if given the chance, I would take the course with Professor Austin again.

Professor Austin was overall a great professor. Students complained about due dates being randomly assigned but everything was clearly stated in the syllabus and no due dates changed. I would suggest following the syllabus throughout the quarter and you will stay on track. She offered SO much extra credit. If you do all the extra credit and put effort in your presentations you will have nothing to worry about. She was also very friendly and approachable. At the end of the quarter you will have a ted talk as well as a chalk talk. I really enjoyed the ted talk and had a lot of fun with it. You can submit a video for this or do it in person but she provides many examples from past students which was a huge help. I came into the class really worried about the chalk talk because it is a 6 minute presentation in person. But, I ended up having a lot of fun with it as well because she gives you a lot of freedom to do whatever you want with the topic and engage with the class. If you are a nervous presenter, you will not be after leaving this class. She makes it a very laid back and fun environment for presenting and meeting your peers. When students expressed their stress for the chalk talk, she even pushed back the due dates. She is accommodating and listens to feedback. I feel much more confident in my presenting skills especially with presenting my research in the future. It is an essential skill and I wish more classes made us learn these skills. Overall, it is a great intro class to the minor and it is just a small taste of the presenting we have to do compared to 193H and 194H.

This class was all around a nice experience. Very manageable workload, fair tests, interesting content, and an understanding professor/TA made for an overall great experience.

There isn't much else I have to say; if you're looking for a class to take and are interested in stem cells, regenerative medicine, or biological science at large, I'd definitely recommend this class!