Professor: Mierke Course format: Seminar	Number of respondents: 10 Total Enrollment: 14
Class Composition: Froshs: 12 Sophs: 2 Jrs: 0 Srs: 0 Concs: 1 Non-Concs: 2 Don't Know: 6

Instructor Average: 1.98 Course Average: 2.17

"Proteins: Primary Molecules of Life" focuses in detail on the structural features of proteins and their functional consequences. Although there are no official prerequisites to the course, some students felt that advanced placement in biology, chemistry and even physics was useful. The course is mandatory S/NC.

Professor Mierke led this course and students thought that although he was very knowledgeable in the subject matter and used good diagrams and pictures to explain things, he was a little disorganized and went though the class materials too quickly for students to grasp and digest. Reviewers noted that Professor Mierke was willing to re-explain the concepts although it seemed that the professor assumed that the students understand much more than they did. When the class did not have the time to cover everything however, the professor sought the consensus of the class on what they wanted as the lecture topic.

Almost all the students regarded the textbook very negatively. They thought the book was too dense and extremely difficult to understand. Students felt that rather than serving its purpose as an aid, it only confused students more. The class consisted of two exams, one final, one written report and five labs. Some students thought the labs were confusing because it required the usage of computer software that they were not familiar with.

Overall, students do not recommend this course as an entry level course. Although most students only spent an average of one to three hours per week on the class, the material is not easy and focused less on biology and more on chemistry. As a student puts it, “if you are interesting in protein structure, take it. If you are interested in protein function, don’t.” Most students thought that this should be offered as an upper level biology course and Professor Mierke is planning to offer this class as a graduate level course instead.

View BI/0019 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.