The class itself isn’t hard and getting an A is very manageable . However , Hirsch as a professor is quite unbearable. She can’t seem to say anything in a clear matter and says a lot of things that are off topic. She isn’t a bad person I think she might just be too old to be effective . The TA was great so that was a big plus.

I am surprised Hirsch has any positive reviews. I think it's largely because it is so easy to get an A in the class. Outside of that Hirsch is totally unfit to teach or do research. She can't even operate her laptop or remember stuff. She needs to leave. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!

This was the first quarter the class got changed to lab and lecture together. Two days a week was lecture, and the other two days were 4 hours of lab. yes you spend the entire time in lab. You sit with people the first day and they are your group. You get assigned a plant and you write a proposal on a microbiome experiment relating to that plant. You start on that experiment and do it the entire quarter in lab, while in lecture is different material everyday about soil, plants, etc. There is a midterm week 5 and it is on lecture material. It is hard and focuses on details, chemical structures, and terms. In lab, you continue the experiments and do PCR on bacterial isolates and keep a record of it in a lab notebook. The final was cancelled due to corona, but it was suppose to be open notes and laptop. Instead, we wrote a final paper about our research (10 pages) and a poster we made on our research. Teamwork is a big part of your grade in this course. My team did not work well, so she lowered our grade. Choose your team wisely on day 1. The class is better I think then other mcdb labs. The prof is nice and very kind.