Anyone ever taken this class? I have an interest in Paleontology and hunt for fossils on the weekend. I'm an Accounting major and I have to take a course over the summer to fulfill a free elective.
I don't think Biology is very hard at all, and I'm a bio major. Unlike other sciences that tend to "build" off one-another, biology is more or less like moving to the side, for most undergrad stuff at least. Taking other bio classes makes it easier, but just getting in is by no means very hard at all if you pay attention.
>>7996607
I would say that as a rule of thumb; the more classical the subject sounds the easier it is for starters, like botany or zoology.
I've known engineers and other non-science students that don't know that DNA translates in triplets or what an aminoacid is or its structure(or at least the usual position a certain aminoacid takes in a protein) which depending on the teacher/matter can give you bigger problems or not.
>>7996591
What does Biology I contain in your uni? Is this an American term?
>>7996607
Depends on the bio degree I guess. Some degrees are more focused on mol. bio, some others on zoology or botany; in some degrees you can specialise and build off of previous knowledge. The thing with bio is that it spans many more subjects than other sciences and bio degrees attempt to help you scratch the surface of each topic.
>>7996641
this is correct
>>7996666
checked
you'll probably be doing a lot of organismal classifications, rogue memorization about cellular components, and a little mendelian inheritance to leave you with the impression that biology is a hard science
>>7996675
Ya probably. I just want to learn about evolution, which is the main reason why I'm interested in it. I'll also be taking a Historical Geology class in the summer too.
>>7996591
SE here. Had to take Bio I to fulfill a "science" requirement. It was pretty easy, except for the metabolism and photosynthesis chapters. Fucking Krebs cycle.
>>7996698
you can learn all you need about evolution from a short youtube video
It's such a well-understood concept that's been re-digested so many times by so many people that we've figured out how to convey it very intuitively at this point
>>7996675
>to leave you with the impression that biology is a hard science
Are you implying it isn't?
>>7996749
I don't consider general biology (99% of an undergrad curriculum) to be a hard science. Biochemistry, bioinformatics, genetics, etc? Yes, certainly. But all biology has its roots in chemistry and physics. Think about allostericity, a fundamental concept of general enzymatic biology. How can you even begin to accurately explain that without chemistry or physics? "Lock-and-key", "induced fit", etc are completely fucking bogus and a joke as they are taught in biology.
>>7996591
easy basic biology classes are route memorization
I made the mistake of taking a non-science bio course, basically they just throw a ton of information at you without teaching you why these things happen. I had to fill in the blanks on my own. Take a science course.
>>7996781
Eh? Even if we accept that biochem, genetics, bioinformatics etc are the only hard science part of bio, most of the bio degrees consist of that stuff, with fewer small courses in ecology and evolution for the rest of the degree (in Europe where I live at least). So there's no way that 99% of undergrad bio is not hard science, even when we go by your definition of hard science.
