Lawrence Chasin

Awful. Horrible. It seems like he teaches for 20 or maybe 40 years now and he's so tired of the material that he doesn't wanna teach it. Going to his lecture is totally useless and also his PPT slides don't say much. I don't know how to advise people to deal with it because he was one of the worst lecturers I ever had. He doesn't take question and gets very annoyed if someone has something to say in class.

I learned about the mechanisms of experimental approaches including PCR, electrophoresis, cloning genes in bacteria and sequencing.

He's kinda an asshole. He isn't gentle to students who ask questions he deems "stupid," he's a goddamn SHARK as a proctor (if he randomly chooses to pounce on you, don't even dare to work for 2 seconds after time is called... even if EVERYONE around you is still working). He gives absolutely NO impression of warmth and caring in the classroom (unlike Mowsh, who seems like a genuinely nice person). I found his section to be the drier part, but probably because I am not a chem fan at all. Elementary biochem/orgo and some stuff like glycolysis. His exam (he only teaches 1/3) is the most straightforward and possibly the easiest because it isn't full of those Mowshowitz tricks you will soon come to know (and hate). His powerpoints are relatively useful, which is good,since the material is dry as fuck and you aren't going to want to go to class.

A lot of molecular biology techniques, sequencing methods

So Chasin just finished the 10 lectures he gives in Intro Bio. Man, what's wrong with all these negative people?!?!?! He's a very good lecturer. I'd say great, except for a few abstruse topics where he could have been a little better. The class is run very well; the "problem-based" approach keeps you honest. The web-site is great. The recitations are helpful. The only thing: --and now I understand why there are so many negative reviewers-- it's hard to get an A in this class... you need to really be on top of things, and you face stiff competition, so there won't be much of a curve. It's not because the instruction is bad, not because the two textbooks are bad (they're very good), not because the exam questions are unfair, not because the grading is arbitrary, etc. etc. IT'S BECAUSE THIS IS AN IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL, AND THIS IS A SCIENCE CLASS. If you want an A just for showing up, switch to something else.

I learned so much about biological engineering and mechanisms to study molecular systems. It's a very fundamental course that taught from the perspective of solving biological problems that one would encounter at the bench.

Guys. It wasn't that bad. I admit he was a little dry, but if you listened rather than snigger at his mannerisms and joke with your friends you'd do fine. Why be an aspiring doctor if you can't manage a simple lecture class? It gets harder. Trust me. Chasin really seemed to me to care very much about the class and the subject, even if he wasn't always the best at getting the information across. He told a story about spending hours and hours in his basement recording all his lectures from his notes to post online for his students, years ago, only to find that they turned out too short and the actual experience of lecturing was based on the interaction in the classroom. This isn't your enemy speaking! I see this guy around and he always looks harassed and depressed. Lighten up a little. Anyway, I thought Chasin was decent, but he's nothing compared to Mowshowitz, who's just a Force. Listen. Study. Ask questions. Check out the text book. Stop whining.

This course taught me a lot. Professor Kalderon demonstrated the core principles of the course and Dr. Chasin did an awesome job of presenting the applications of these foundations. This class haddifficult material.

I don't think most of the reviews of Dr. Chasin are fair. I think he's an excellent and extremely dedicated professor. He personally answers in detail all the questions students email him and is always willing to help in office hours where he is both friendly and concerned that you are learning. However, the class in general holds students to very high standards, which, depending on how much you enjoy biology, is extremely good or bad. His lectures are all on PowerPoint, which may not be to everyone's taste (it takes some effort to figure out how much you should copy into your notes), but extremely detalied lecture notes provide either a backup or alterenative to taking notes in lecture. Given this, you really could skip lecture and teach yourself the course, but be advised that it takes considerably more time to teach yourself what you would absorb in a mere 75 minutes in class (and because of this it's very easy to either never learn what you skipped or leave it till just before an exam, which makes things pretty stressful with all the problems you to work on). The grading scheme is also more generous than people let on, but A-range grades aren't just handed out.

Several techniques used for manipulating DNA or protein of an organism.