PHYS 101: Energy and Waves
This course focuses on sound, waves, motion, and biological applications. This course builds upon knowledge that should have been taught in Grade 12 physics. This course has Mastering Physics, which consists of numerous practice questions, these are key to succeeding in this course, as many questions on the midterm and final are derivatives of these types of questions. This course has an associated weekly lab, in which you get to conduct hands on experiments in topics related to that being tested. The lab involves graphing and the calculation of statistical properties such as mean, standard deviation and uncertainty. The lab also has its own final that takes place during the lab session, in which you are randomly placed to do an experiment similar to one that was already tested before, so make sure to pay attention and ask lots of questions beforehand!
The exams in this course consisted of multiple choice and short answers. After completing the exam individually, students form groups of 3-4 in which they are able to answer multiple choice questions similar to those that were on the exam. The mark from this group portion is added into the exam mark in lieu of your individual mark if it benefits your overall grade.
Marking:
Midterms (1 and 2): 15% (2.5% of each came from group component)
iClicker: 5%
Tutorial: 5%
Mastering Physics: 5%
Labs: 20%
Final: 50%
CHEM 123: Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Organic Chemistry
This course had it’s own custom textbook, which contains many practice examples, and explanations. This course focuses on equilibria, Hess law, Entropy, Spontaneous/Non-spontaneous reactions and free energy. The kinetics components emphasizes the rate of reactions and looking at different factors that may effect reaction speed. The latter portion of this course begins an introduction into Organic Chemistry which will then lead into the course Chem 233. This focuses heavily on stereochemistry of different reactions (cis/trans isomers, enantiomers and diastereomers). It also looks at different types of reactions that may occur such as SN1 and SN2.
This course similarly to Chem 121, has a lab component that involves biweekly wet labs. This means that students are given a week to prepare for the lab during the dry week. In comparison to Chem 121, this lab requires writing formal lab reports that have greater detail and research in understanding underlying mechanisms involved in the experiments.
To succeed in this class, you should definitely hand draw notes, this helps ensure that you get directionality correct and can label all components of a reaction, as reactions build and get complicated very quickly! Take advantage of the practice midterms posted as they contain many examples that are similar in the level of difficulty to the actual exam.
BIOl 121:
This course focuses on evolution and genetics (mitosis, meoisis, cell cycle and alleles within the population). There was analysis of pedigrees, sex-linked alleles, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was introduced, and the principles surrounding Mendelian genetics. There was also focus on topics surrounding gene flow, genetic drift, bottleneck effects and the influence these events may have on genetic variation within a population.
This course had two midterms and a final, in which students were allowed a cheat sheet. However, this course was much less memorization based and instead required problem solving abilities and the ability to understand new situations. The exams can be difficult as they are very picky on the word choices, and therefore it is important to be extremely clear when describing a phenomenon.
Marking:
Midterm 1: 15%
Midterm 2: 20%
iClicker: 5%
Online quizzes: 5% (only have one try!)
Field trip: 5% (we went to the beach)
Final: 50%