SOC GEN 5
Integrative Approaches to Human Biology and Society
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Introduction to concept of problem-based approaches to study of biology and society and areas of concentration, such as bioethics and public science policy, evolutionary biology, culture, and behavior, historical and social studies of life sciences, medical genetics and public health, and population genetics and history, and central thematic issues shared across concentrations, such as commercialization of life and public understanding of science. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2025 - I took Soc Gen 5 with Scroggins in the Summer Sessions and recommend this Professor for anyone who is an HBS major. You do weekly discussion posts on the week's assigned articles and pay close to these articles because the prompts on his essays will require you to cite them for full credit. Our essays were online, but I had a friend who took him in the Fall of 2024 and he said his midterms/finals were in-person essays. He is a fair grader and offers extra credit. I believe the extra credit assigned to us was to listen to a podcast and submit a two page reflection on it. His lectures are pretty easy to follow and I don't find him to be a boring Professor. He is the opposite: enthusiastic and expands on the slides rather than reading directly off of them. I recommend attending his lectures because the slides are mainly bullet points and when you are preparing for his midterms/finals, it is difficult to really grasp on the themes he covers if you just look at his slides. His slides are mainly pictures with brief bullet points and quotes from the readings. Attend his lectures and read the articles and you should be in good position to succeed in his class.
Summer 2025 - I took Soc Gen 5 with Scroggins in the Summer Sessions and recommend this Professor for anyone who is an HBS major. You do weekly discussion posts on the week's assigned articles and pay close to these articles because the prompts on his essays will require you to cite them for full credit. Our essays were online, but I had a friend who took him in the Fall of 2024 and he said his midterms/finals were in-person essays. He is a fair grader and offers extra credit. I believe the extra credit assigned to us was to listen to a podcast and submit a two page reflection on it. His lectures are pretty easy to follow and I don't find him to be a boring Professor. He is the opposite: enthusiastic and expands on the slides rather than reading directly off of them. I recommend attending his lectures because the slides are mainly bullet points and when you are preparing for his midterms/finals, it is difficult to really grasp on the themes he covers if you just look at his slides. His slides are mainly pictures with brief bullet points and quotes from the readings. Attend his lectures and read the articles and you should be in good position to succeed in his class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - This class was fantastic. When I took this class, Dr. Shapiro taught the first half and Dr. Allard taught the second half, and I absolutely loved this class. Dr. Shapiro had a great understanding of antibiotic resistance and environmental racism, the topics that the first half of the quarter touched on. The class wasn't difficult and was very informative. It's very interdisciplinary and great if you're interested in healthcare.
Winter 2020 - This class was fantastic. When I took this class, Dr. Shapiro taught the first half and Dr. Allard taught the second half, and I absolutely loved this class. Dr. Shapiro had a great understanding of antibiotic resistance and environmental racism, the topics that the first half of the quarter touched on. The class wasn't difficult and was very informative. It's very interdisciplinary and great if you're interested in healthcare.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Prof Venkat is a PHENOMENAL professor. He brings an infectious enthusiasm, humor, and joy to the course which definitely improved my own interest in the material. He is super knowledgeable about his field of study, heat, and the class definitely changed my outlook on ideas and parts of my environment I take for granted. Dr. Venkat is super approachable if you have any questions, and he frequently checks-in during lecture and encourages students to ask for clarification on any confusing points. On the whole, Prof Venkat is a great professor and I would highly recommend him. If you come to lecture consistently, participate in section, and review some of the most important readings (not all of them are necessary), you will comfortably receive an A in the class. The unit test is short answer questions, and the final is long-answer paragraphs.
Winter 2024 - Prof Venkat is a PHENOMENAL professor. He brings an infectious enthusiasm, humor, and joy to the course which definitely improved my own interest in the material. He is super knowledgeable about his field of study, heat, and the class definitely changed my outlook on ideas and parts of my environment I take for granted. Dr. Venkat is super approachable if you have any questions, and he frequently checks-in during lecture and encourages students to ask for clarification on any confusing points. On the whole, Prof Venkat is a great professor and I would highly recommend him. If you come to lecture consistently, participate in section, and review some of the most important readings (not all of them are necessary), you will comfortably receive an A in the class. The unit test is short answer questions, and the final is long-answer paragraphs.
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