Alice Heicklen

Lectures 9-11. Lecture was very dense and content for the second test in general was a bit all over the place. Out of 5 lecturers, her practice tests are probably most important since her test requires drawing, fill in the blanks, and a lot more memorization of specific details than other lecturers. Overall, this test also seemed to trip up men because of its focus on reproductive health (kinda questionable that premeds don’t know about women’s reproductive health but whatever…)

The reviews are right about speaking Heicklenese: if you get her style, you're set, and if not, the experience will likely be a lot more intense than you would have liked. Heicklen is a great instructor as in she cares so much about the subject and you'll learn a ton, but her slides can definitely be confusing unless you go over them a few times and she is definitely less forgiving than other instructors in terms of grading (especially the article questions). I recommend dev bio to everyone, but only if you're ok with maybe getting a lower grade than you would in other courses. The median is curved to a B+, and many people drop after the first exam, so it's much harder to get an A in dev bio than in other bio courses at Columbia. My GPA certainly took a hit from this class, but I don't regret taking it at all. If you're on the fence, see how the first few lectures go, or maybe think back to how Heicklen's 3 lectures in intro bio were for you. Those 3 lectures are certainly faster paced than dev bio, but much of the content is what you will see in DB, just scaled back a lot.

Dr. Heicklen was one of the most souless instructors I've ever come across. A bad teacher with barely understandable lectures, and it feels like she doesn't even try to feel any compassion whatsoever. Her exam writing is horrible and she has no leniancy for any students regardless of what they're going through. If you have any mental health issues or anything going on in your life, avoid her at ALL COSTS.

The class was a very helpful introduction to the latest research in a breadth of fields, and for understanding different research techniques used in labs. The class consisted of weekly presentations by Columbia professors on their research, ranging from mosquitoes, microbiology, molecular biology, and cancer research, among others, which are thoughtfully sequenced. The speakers usually provide background information for the first half to two-thirds of their talk before delving into their research for the remainder of the class time. It was a great opportunity to talk to experts in the field without having to follow the etiquette of prepping or obtaining a certain level of knowledge about the topic. This is an optional but recommended class for biology and biochemistry majors.

The first three weeks or so of the course gives you background on molecular and cellular laboratory techniques, and the remainder of the semester is used for the independent project. It's a great opportunity to do original research. The course takes up a lot of time (being 5 credits), but it is worth it. Dr. Heicklen expects you to come into the lab outside of the scheduled time to complete experiments, but you have a lot of flexibility during the scheduled lab period. In general, the class will meet together once a week to discuss a research article for one or two hours at the beginning of the lab period, with rest of the time free to complete experiments. As long as you have a good amount of time to dedicate to this class, you will be fine. Dr. Heicklen is a great professor, and you will learn a lot from her in this class.

The second prof for the intro bio II sequence, taught only for the majority of exam 2. Best lecturer by far, but prepare yourself for a completely different exam format. This is the only exam where content memorization comes especially in handy, as there's an entire section of true/false questions with no partial credit, testing your knowledge of a bullet point on one slide mentioned for 5 seconds in lecture. I found her exams slightly more straightforward and less problem-solvey for this reason

I enjoyed Dr. Heicklen's lectures (although the pace can be fast) and she provides lecture recordings to help stay on top of lectures if you miss things in class. The content of this course is fascinating but tough: iPSCs vs HESCs, embryology/fetal development, hormonal regulation, cell differentiation pathways and growth factors. My only issue was that it was extremely memorization-heavy, which isn't a critique, it just doesn't suit my learning style particularly well. That being said, the case studies were fun, Dr. Heicklen genuinely cares about the success of each and every one of her students in her class, and my TAs were phenomenal. Overall, it is fairly tough, but has been one of the classes most fundamental to my academic growth at Columbia, and affirmed my love for Biology despite me not getting a great grade in the course.

Wow, it looks like the same person has been reviewing Professor Heicklen at 10 day intervals. Just kidding. I did like her two lectures on development in the Mowshowitz, which made issues like somatic nuclear transfer (Dolly!) and the histone modification code very accessible. Some people complain about the way she phrases things, but, on the whole, I found her to be very understandable. However, she does cover several transcription factors and their binding to DNA in the course of development. She says that we should not bother to know what they do. I do wish that, at least for FYI purposes, she had explained what each family of transcription factors does. They keep coming up in the news, and I wish I knew what it is they do.

Essentially weekly presentations where a different Columbia professor comes in and talks about their research for an hour. Overall, quite enjoyable if you are interested in biological research or a wide range of biology-related stuff, not much else to it. Good place to find possible labs to do research in, would recommend taking if you have a spare credit to spare in your first semester.

The class moves at a fast pace early on, but it is definitely manageable. You won't spend much time reading or studying but rather you will be doing stuff in the lab. The labs are time-consuming, and depending on your skill level and prior lab experience, you may or may not have to spend extra time in there. Dr. H is a great teacher, and while she may initially seem intimidating, she is very friendly and approachable. She is also very good at explaining and clarifying things. This class primarily teaches you advanced laboratory techniques and provides you with an opportunity to take part in original research. As such you won't have much new material to learn, but will often have to recall and apply knowledge from earlier biology courses (not nearly as bad as it sounds). This is a very good course. This biggest issue is the time-commitment, and that is only early in the semester. As I became more familiar with what I was doing, I found myself spending less and less time in the lab. Finally, if the other people in your class are friendly (like mine were) you will have a great time.