Professor: Rand Course format: Lecture w/lab w/section Number of respondents: 50 Total Enrollment: 73 Class Composition: Froshs: 9 Sophs: 19 Jrs: 23 Srs: 19 Concs: 29 Non-Concs: 11 Don't Know: 8

Instructor Average: 1.82 Course Average: 1.74

“Evolutionary Biology” is an introductory course which provides “an overview of the important ideas of evolutionary biology” and teaches students to develop “a way of thinking about evolution.” Biology 20 is the official prerequisite for this course, although some survey respondents say that a background in genetics is also helpful.

The respondents’ evaluations of Professor Rand were largely positive. Class members praised his engaging lectures as well as his effective PowerPoint presentations. Nonetheless, some people found the fast pace of the course a little frustrating, and a particular complaint was that Professor Rand didn’t answer enough questions. Overall, most students said that the content of the course was interesting and that Professor Rand did an excellent job of explaining the course material to them.

The graded assessments for this course consisted of two midterm exams, one paper, one presentation, two problem sets and a final exam. Most of the class members thought that these were very reasonable expectations. In general, students were pleased with the textbook but were not as fond of the readings for section, which they found to be “not terribly useful”.

Most students said that they spent four to six hours a week outside of class on the work for this class, but spent more time on the class when there was an exam coming up. The majority of the survey respondents reported that the class was worth taking, especially for those with an interest in evolutionary biology; however, they warned potential future students that the class was very “tough.”

View BI/0048 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.