EE BIOL C179
Communicating Science to Informal Audiences
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory or fieldwork, two hours. Requisite: one course from course 25, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences M10, Chemistry 2, 14A, 20A, Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences 1, 15, Environment M10, Life Sciences 1, or 7B. Designed for juniors/seniors. Combined instruction in inquiry-based teaching methods and learning pedagogy, with six weeks of supervised teaching experience at Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. Students practice communicating scientific knowledge and receive mentoring on how to improve their presentations to develop ocean science literacy at all levels and to encourage broad public understanding of science and environmental stewardship. Need for young scientists to learn how to communicate about their science to audiences is especially critical when considering that Americans are expected to comprehend and respond to increasingly complex issues, such as global climate change, with limited understanding of how natural world works. Concurrently scheduled with course C237. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - My experience taking this class with Dr. Barber-Choi is by far the worst of all my lectures and classes I've taken at UCLA. Although it is true that class is not very difficult, it is not worth the trouble because Dr. Barber-Choi has little regard for her students, does not plan assignments well, does not take her job seriously, and lacks professionalism. 1. Dr. Barber-Choi does not respect the time and efforts of her students. She is almost always late to class and makes her students wait upwards to 10 minutes outside the lecture room. She never explains nor apologizes, and does not make an effort to be prompt. Because of this, we waste valuable class time in which are we are forced to make up by regularly meeting with her outside of class weekly. She does not consider how much valuable time she wastes and its extremely disrespectful. 2. She does not create or plan assignments well. She never plans out an agenda and wastes class time focusing on one or two groups. There have been many instances where there is nothing to do for whole class periods. There have also been many instances where when we do complete work, she wastes our time because she revises the assignment after the fact. Because of this, her students suffer the consequences of her lack of foresight and planning. There have been numerous times where our work has been undone because she changes her mind about details. 3. She does not take her job seriously. She comments about how she does not have time for the class because she is focusing on her family and her other "real job". She always comes late and she doesn't care about our experience in assignments. I will describe a defining example of these weaknesses. She made an extra credit assignment to teach a science project at a local high school event. She promised that anyone who helped on a project would receive extra credit, regardless if they could attend. So I went out and purchased materials for my group's project, brought materials from my lab, and helped coordinate the logistics for the the project. After the event, she asked me to meet her before class to discuss my participation. She explained that she did not have the foresight to predict that I would not be "learning to communicate science" and that I therefore would receive 0 points. Although it us true that I learned very little, she went back on her word AFTER I had committed to the project and AFTER the event. I expressed that I had already spent money and time on the project and that it was not fair for me to be punished because she did not plan the assignment carefully. She proceeded to lecture me on how to manage finances and how I should not be committing to projects if I am not comfortable spending my time and money. The way that she communicated to me was condescending and rude. I have never felt so disrespected and disregarded from a faculty member at UCLA except from Dr. Barber-Choi. I felt that my time and money was trivialized and that I was punished because of her weakness in class planning. This is not only unacceptable, but it is unethical, especially for a professional. These weaknesses stem from her experiences working with younger students (high school, middle school). She treats her UCLA college educated students as such, and it's frankly belittling to be treated like how she treated our class this quarter. I would not recommend any of my peers to take her class and I hope that this criticism prevents future students from feeling like this ever again, even if its a free A.
Spring 2019 - My experience taking this class with Dr. Barber-Choi is by far the worst of all my lectures and classes I've taken at UCLA. Although it is true that class is not very difficult, it is not worth the trouble because Dr. Barber-Choi has little regard for her students, does not plan assignments well, does not take her job seriously, and lacks professionalism. 1. Dr. Barber-Choi does not respect the time and efforts of her students. She is almost always late to class and makes her students wait upwards to 10 minutes outside the lecture room. She never explains nor apologizes, and does not make an effort to be prompt. Because of this, we waste valuable class time in which are we are forced to make up by regularly meeting with her outside of class weekly. She does not consider how much valuable time she wastes and its extremely disrespectful. 2. She does not create or plan assignments well. She never plans out an agenda and wastes class time focusing on one or two groups. There have been many instances where there is nothing to do for whole class periods. There have also been many instances where when we do complete work, she wastes our time because she revises the assignment after the fact. Because of this, her students suffer the consequences of her lack of foresight and planning. There have been numerous times where our work has been undone because she changes her mind about details. 3. She does not take her job seriously. She comments about how she does not have time for the class because she is focusing on her family and her other "real job". She always comes late and she doesn't care about our experience in assignments. I will describe a defining example of these weaknesses. She made an extra credit assignment to teach a science project at a local high school event. She promised that anyone who helped on a project would receive extra credit, regardless if they could attend. So I went out and purchased materials for my group's project, brought materials from my lab, and helped coordinate the logistics for the the project. After the event, she asked me to meet her before class to discuss my participation. She explained that she did not have the foresight to predict that I would not be "learning to communicate science" and that I therefore would receive 0 points. Although it us true that I learned very little, she went back on her word AFTER I had committed to the project and AFTER the event. I expressed that I had already spent money and time on the project and that it was not fair for me to be punished because she did not plan the assignment carefully. She proceeded to lecture me on how to manage finances and how I should not be committing to projects if I am not comfortable spending my time and money. The way that she communicated to me was condescending and rude. I have never felt so disrespected and disregarded from a faculty member at UCLA except from Dr. Barber-Choi. I felt that my time and money was trivialized and that I was punished because of her weakness in class planning. This is not only unacceptable, but it is unethical, especially for a professional. These weaknesses stem from her experiences working with younger students (high school, middle school). She treats her UCLA college educated students as such, and it's frankly belittling to be treated like how she treated our class this quarter. I would not recommend any of my peers to take her class and I hope that this criticism prevents future students from feeling like this ever again, even if its a free A.
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