BSCI473 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2024	I think this class deserves more like 4/5 stars, but I don't think Dr. Lee deserves such a low rating, so I will inflate it a bit. I took this class in 2024. Apparently, in 2023 it was terrible (judging from reviews) but the format has completely changed. It is now a lecture-based class with 3 exams (1 dropped) and a final paper, as well as supplementary assignments for said paper. There wasn't a single group project, actually. Dr. Lee is caring and very knowledgeable, and you can tell she's passionate about marine ecology. I liked the interactive assignments in class. I will say she is a bit disorganized at times - assignment due dates kept getting pushed back, some assignments cancelled (which really, I didn't mind, but it is a bit inconsistent), and it sometimes took a while for grades to come back. I think she is still trying to figure out the class format that works best. But, this class was not too hard and quite interesting (to me). The exams were fair and based on learning objectives she would explicitly outline. The paper was a bit difficult - perhaps I am just stupid, but it involves critically analyzing the arguments of scientific journals you find. It's not just compiling a bunch of random facts and citing journals you didn't read aside from that 1 sentence you needed to prove your point. It's difficult to do that with papers about relatively unfamiliar topics with a lot of terms you don't know. But, that is just a personal problem. In general, the paper isn't that bad, and it's appropriate for the level this class is at. I just hate reading.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/27/2024	Professor Lee is a nice person and an excellent professor. For BSCI361 (2023) and BSCI363 (2024): I like her teaching style and find the exams to be directly related to the content. All exams are based on the learning objectives and quizzes and therefore everything on the exams is what I expect to be on them. She sometimes gives us a notecard or something to use on the exams which is great. The other assessments are also pretty reasonable with a few confusing activities here and there. She is also helpful if you go to her office hours and makes the classes engaging and fun. She also records her lectures which is super helpful. BSCI473 2023: It was horrible and all student presentation-based. I spoke with her after the class and with some of the current students and the structure has been completely changed. I would say look at reviews from 2024 onward for this class because I believe it is much different now. Still giving her 4 stars since that class was a trainwreck, but hope its better now and I would 100% recommend her other courses.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Anonymous 05/26/2023	She barely taught the class herself, and instead had students in groups teach the whole textbook to the class. She also provided the last half of the objectives for the exam a week before the final, which was not enough time to study. Her exams were ridiculously hard for a class she doesn't teach and she grades presentations harshly.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/25/2023	This was the worst class I have ever taken at UMD and was an overall horrible scenario. The professor is completely not understanding, grades very unfairly, and is very stubborn. AVOID IF POSSIBLE!
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2023	This class has always been set up as a student presenter class. She has always been very clear about what will be on the different exams and puts up learning objectives for what she wants students to know and study for the exams. A lot of the class is determined by what the students present on and so she will adjust the exams to what we talk about rather than just using the chapters. She also put up a survey that she actually used to adjust the class to make it more compatible with what we were comfortable with. I personally really enjoyed the class, and would take it again the same way. She is very clear about how you are going to be graded with the rubric for all of the presentations very clearly laid out, and you can go into her many office hours to talk about what is on your presentation to see if it fits. This is a 400 level class, and it is reasonably difficult, but definitely very doable.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/13/2023	This whole course felt very experimental. It was all student presentations that were harshly graded with no flexibility. She seems like she really knows a lot about the course content and genuinely wants her students to learn but she's too controlling or has too strict of a vision on what she wants for her assignments. I definitely understood the content but if you didn't write or do exactly what she wanted, you lost points. Side note but I also had to physically buy a ~$100 textbook for the first time in years as a senior, which just irked me extra.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Anonymous 05/04/2023	I don't know if the class is set up by the department or by Dr. Lee, so I can't pass judgment on the "student-led" style of the class. But Dr. Lee is a pleasant-enough person with a decent sense of humor, but god forbid you should inconvenience her. Won't put out a final exam practice exam because it is too much work (her words). Doesn't adjust grades until after the midterm or after the final, so you don't know how excused absences and other things might affect your grade. Her expectations are unclear and she grades harshly. Is a stickler for rules that apply to students (see sick day absences), but will gladly break university policy to take attendance and ask for things that are not in the syllabus. She'll change agreements with students on a whim (open-book open-note exam changed to cheat-sheet only within a week of the exam). She'll give you an "exhaustive list" of topics to be covered on an exam and then two days before the exam she will notify you she forgot something, add it to the content you need to study and change the exam. I would not take her again unless the class was led by her instead of students, and even then I would have serious reservations.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/01/2023	A nice lady but it is clear that her dedication to actually teaching us content is quite small - since most lectures are given by students through harshly graded presentations. The presentations receive low grades but we are still expected to learn from it, which doesn’t make sense. It also takes her weeks to put up grades for individual presentation scores. This keeps us quite in the dark with our grades for a long period of time. Only take this class if you do go to class all the time, already have good presentation skills, and are good at teaching yourself through the textbook.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/20/2023	She does not teach the class. She changes expectations frequently, and grades very harshly. Her rubrics are not well described and very hard to find. She taught the first two lectures, so many students used her work as an example for their project, assuming this was the best example of good work. Those students got terrible grades, meaning she didn't even grade her own work well. She's nice, but the class is all self-taught. You read a textbook chapter, then she gives you topics to present (Some of the topics are not even in the book). There's no curve even though the test average was high 60s and the presentation average is low 70s.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an F Anonymous 04/17/2023	She does not teach the class. Students teach every lecture on material they don't understand to other students. This makes learning very hard and it does not help that she is such a tough grader. She also told everyone exams were open note and internet then took that away the week of the exam because "I just felt like it". Please do yourself a favor and take another class. Do not let the grade distribution for 473 fool you since she has never taught it before. Her first exam average was around a 68 and the presentation averages are around a 72.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/17/2023	I just cant recommend her as a professor. She sets up the class in a very lazy way, she has students teach every lecture but then is very harsh when it comes to grading. she said exams would be open internet and book but then just changed her mind the week of the exam. Just find a different professor to take and if that's not an option choose a different class.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/11/2023	Incredibly fake professor! Her teaching method involves having the students present every chapter, and she grades these presentations unfairly and excessively harshly. Furthermore, she is inconsistent with her exam instructions, changing them just two days before the exam date from an open note and open internet to only one paper of notes with no internet access. She displays favoritism towards certain students and grades inaccurately, so it's crucial to analyze any grade deductions she makes as they're just outright incorrect sometimes. At the end of the day, this should be an easier biology class but in reality, I have a lower grade in this class than I do in biochem. AWFUL TEACHER DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HER. Grade distribution is from the previous instructor so its not accurate to the grade distribution of Sarah Lee.
Sarah Lee BSCI473 Anonymous 04/11/2023	DO NOT take this professor she doesn't teach the lectures, instead has each group of students teach 2 of the lectures to the whole class. She told us our exam would be online open internet and note but a couple days before the exam made it closed internet and only one page of notes, her reasoning was that she just felt like it. She also grades so slow and harshly (low C class averages on everything). The only times she "teaches" she sounds like she is trying to prove to you she knows what she is talking about. Very lazy professor has just set up the class in a way where she does as little work as possible and comes off just nice enough so that people don't complain.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/13/2024

I think this class deserves more like 4/5 stars, but I don't think Dr. Lee deserves such a low rating, so I will inflate it a bit. I took this class in 2024. Apparently, in 2023 it was terrible (judging from reviews) but the format has completely changed. It is now a lecture-based class with 3 exams (1 dropped) and a final paper, as well as supplementary assignments for said paper. There wasn't a single group project, actually. Dr. Lee is caring and very knowledgeable, and you can tell she's passionate about marine ecology. I liked the interactive assignments in class. I will say she is a bit disorganized at times - assignment due dates kept getting pushed back, some assignments cancelled (which really, I didn't mind, but it is a bit inconsistent), and it sometimes took a while for grades to come back. I think she is still trying to figure out the class format that works best. But, this class was not too hard and quite interesting (to me). The exams were fair and based on learning objectives she would explicitly outline. The paper was a bit difficult - perhaps I am just stupid, but it involves critically analyzing the arguments of scientific journals you find. It's not just compiling a bunch of random facts and citing journals you didn't read aside from that 1 sentence you needed to prove your point. It's difficult to do that with papers about relatively unfamiliar topics with a lot of terms you don't know. But, that is just a personal problem. In general, the paper isn't that bad, and it's appropriate for the level this class is at. I just hate reading.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/27/2024

Professor Lee is a nice person and an excellent professor. For BSCI361 (2023) and BSCI363 (2024): I like her teaching style and find the exams to be directly related to the content. All exams are based on the learning objectives and quizzes and therefore everything on the exams is what I expect to be on them. She sometimes gives us a notecard or something to use on the exams which is great. The other assessments are also pretty reasonable with a few confusing activities here and there. She is also helpful if you go to her office hours and makes the classes engaging and fun. She also records her lectures which is super helpful. BSCI473 2023: It was horrible and all student presentation-based. I spoke with her after the class and with some of the current students and the structure has been completely changed. I would say look at reviews from 2024 onward for this class because I believe it is much different now. Still giving her 4 stars since that class was a trainwreck, but hope its better now and I would 100% recommend her other courses.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Anonymous
05/26/2023

She barely taught the class herself, and instead had students in groups teach the whole textbook to the class. She also provided the last half of the objectives for the exam a week before the final, which was not enough time to study. Her exams were ridiculously hard for a class she doesn't teach and she grades presentations harshly.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/25/2023

This was the worst class I have ever taken at UMD and was an overall horrible scenario. The professor is completely not understanding, grades very unfairly, and is very stubborn. AVOID IF POSSIBLE!

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2023

This class has always been set up as a student presenter class. She has always been very clear about what will be on the different exams and puts up learning objectives for what she wants students to know and study for the exams. A lot of the class is determined by what the students present on and so she will adjust the exams to what we talk about rather than just using the chapters. She also put up a survey that she actually used to adjust the class to make it more compatible with what we were comfortable with. I personally really enjoyed the class, and would take it again the same way. She is very clear about how you are going to be graded with the rubric for all of the presentations very clearly laid out, and you can go into her many office hours to talk about what is on your presentation to see if it fits. This is a 400 level class, and it is reasonably difficult, but definitely very doable.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/13/2023

This whole course felt very experimental. It was all student presentations that were harshly graded with no flexibility. She seems like she really knows a lot about the course content and genuinely wants her students to learn but she's too controlling or has too strict of a vision on what she wants for her assignments. I definitely understood the content but if you didn't write or do exactly what she wanted, you lost points. Side note but I also had to physically buy a ~$100 textbook for the first time in years as a senior, which just irked me extra.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Anonymous
05/04/2023

I don't know if the class is set up by the department or by Dr. Lee, so I can't pass judgment on the "student-led" style of the class. But Dr. Lee is a pleasant-enough person with a decent sense of humor, but god forbid you should inconvenience her. Won't put out a final exam practice exam because it is too much work (her words). Doesn't adjust grades until after the midterm or after the final, so you don't know how excused absences and other things might affect your grade. Her expectations are unclear and she grades harshly. Is a stickler for rules that apply to students (see sick day absences), but will gladly break university policy to take attendance and ask for things that are not in the syllabus. She'll change agreements with students on a whim (open-book open-note exam changed to cheat-sheet only within a week of the exam). She'll give you an "exhaustive list" of topics to be covered on an exam and then two days before the exam she will notify you she forgot something, add it to the content you need to study and change the exam. I would not take her again unless the class was led by her instead of students, and even then I would have serious reservations.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/01/2023

A nice lady but it is clear that her dedication to actually teaching us content is quite small - since most lectures are given by students through harshly graded presentations. The presentations receive low grades but we are still expected to learn from it, which doesn’t make sense. It also takes her weeks to put up grades for individual presentation scores. This keeps us quite in the dark with our grades for a long period of time. Only take this class if you do go to class all the time, already have good presentation skills, and are good at teaching yourself through the textbook.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/20/2023

She does not teach the class. She changes expectations frequently, and grades very harshly. Her rubrics are not well described and very hard to find. She taught the first two lectures, so many students used her work as an example for their project, assuming this was the best example of good work. Those students got terrible grades, meaning she didn't even grade her own work well. She's nice, but the class is all self-taught. You read a textbook chapter, then she gives you topics to present (Some of the topics are not even in the book). There's no curve even though the test average was high 60s and the presentation average is low 70s.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an F
Anonymous
04/17/2023

She does not teach the class. Students teach every lecture on material they don't understand to other students. This makes learning very hard and it does not help that she is such a tough grader. She also told everyone exams were open note and internet then took that away the week of the exam because "I just felt like it". Please do yourself a favor and take another class. Do not let the grade distribution for 473 fool you since she has never taught it before. Her first exam average was around a 68 and the presentation averages are around a 72.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/17/2023

I just cant recommend her as a professor. She sets up the class in a very lazy way, she has students teach every lecture but then is very harsh when it comes to grading. she said exams would be open internet and book but then just changed her mind the week of the exam. Just find a different professor to take and if that's not an option choose a different class.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/11/2023

Incredibly fake professor! Her teaching method involves having the students present every chapter, and she grades these presentations unfairly and excessively harshly. Furthermore, she is inconsistent with her exam instructions, changing them just two days before the exam date from an open note and open internet to only one paper of notes with no internet access. She displays favoritism towards certain students and grades inaccurately, so it's crucial to analyze any grade deductions she makes as they're just outright incorrect sometimes. At the end of the day, this should be an easier biology class but in reality, I have a lower grade in this class than I do in biochem. AWFUL TEACHER DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HER. Grade distribution is from the previous instructor so its not accurate to the grade distribution of Sarah Lee.

Sarah Lee
BSCI473

Anonymous
04/11/2023

DO NOT take this professor she doesn't teach the lectures, instead has each group of students teach 2 of the lectures to the whole class. She told us our exam would be online open internet and note but a couple days before the exam made it closed internet and only one page of notes, her reasoning was that she just felt like it. She also grades so slow and harshly (low C class averages on everything). The only times she "teaches" she sounds like she is trying to prove to you she knows what she is talking about. Very lazy professor has just set up the class in a way where she does as little work as possible and comes off just nice enough so that people don't complain.

Reviews for BSCI473