Lazazzera clearly cares about her students, but the class itself is not great. Almost none of the lectures felt useful – the class uses a "flipped classroom", which normally means you learn the basics of the material ahead of time and then use classtime to go deeper/have discussions. However, in this class the flipped classroom feels more like an excuse to allow the lectures to achieve nothing. The lecture is just a review of the material you already had to learn, but it's often less clear and not at all engaging.

The grading scheme is extremely forgiving – she uses a points system and a lot of the points are based on completion, so doing well in the class shouldn't be a problem as long as you do okay on the tests. The tests are also very doable; you take the test twice (once on your own, once with a group), and your score is the average of the two.

Professor Lazazzera is not a bad professor. The problem is the course. The LS series is based on the "flipped classroom" philosophy where you should learn the material, all by yourself, and THEN come to class. Then, the lectures should be dedicated to answering most common doubts. It sounds okay in theory, maybe a lot of work, but in practice it was TERRIBLE. Everyone was on a completely different page and the materials we have to use to learn the content (Launchpad) are not helpful at all when it comes to exams. I would use almost everything BUT the textbook to take notes. Professor Lazazzera is alright, her lectures aren't bad (maybe a bit all over the place) but attendance matters. A lot of the class points come from the clicker questions and just signing into class. As a disabled student this was awful.

Also, the materials often were videos with no subtitles which made the course very inaccessible. Professor Lazazzera seems to care about making her class accessible and the things that were in her control weren't bad. The materials and the course structure itself were the awful parts. Materials were expensive, unhelpful, and inaccessible. The course structure made the material hard to master.

The most helpful parts of the course are for sure the problem solving sections and the TAs.

They don't really check the biweekly reading guides. I have friends who submitted theirs blank and got full credit.

I learned a lot with Professor Lazazzera, and I believe she is one of the most helpful professors I have had this quarter. She lends her time to students very often and the workload is not crazy. All of the work we do and all the lectures are very engaging and help towards getting good grades on the midterms. The discussions are engaging as well and all the information is spaced out so the class does not become overwhelming. She is a good professor and helpful when you are struggling, so I recommend taking this class 100%.

This class was very difficult for me. Lazazzera is a professor that definitely has her heart in the right place, but I feel she falls short in many aspects. There were many times where she would try to explain a question and her explanation would leave me more confused than before. I found I really began to understand the course more when she had students explain the clicker questions instead. The homework is just unnecessary in my opinion. LaunchPad felt like a bunch of busy work and sometimes there would be concepts in class that I did not recall reading at all for homework. This was especially frustrating considering it takes a few hours to complete the LaunchPads. I suggest reading the entire chapter for each week instead of relying on the assigned LaunchPad. It still requires a lot of time, however I feel it is much better for getting the bigger picture. Tests were also extremely difficult, but I do strongly feel like it would have been slightly easier had the tests been on paper. This is not through the professor's error, though. This is simply a result of online learning. Tests are first done individually, and within the next two days you are assigned a group to discuss the exam. You are also allowed to change your answers with explanation. However, there is no way of knowing whether your original answer or changed answer is correct. You will not see your results until after everything is done.

good professor. difficult material. dont cram for the exam. lots of opportunity for extra credit. I got an A in the class and never got higher than an 87.5 on the exams. Dont sleep on the office hours. go to ALL OF THEM listen to other peoples questions. you will be alright

Lazazzera is super sweet but she doesn't know how to teach in an online setting. Launchpad isn't helpful and includes a lot more information than you need to know for the midterms and final, but I would advise against just skipping through the reading to get all your points. Just read the titles of each textbook blurb and watch the animations, that's what I did. Use Khan Academy, especially for the DNA/RNA/cell cycle topics. Clicker questions are helpful, but I still think the midterm and final questions were harder than them. There are several opportunities for extra credit - do yourself a favor and do them. She does have good music taste though.

Although, Lazazzera is not the best at explaining questions and concepts during lecture I don't believe that should completely turn you off from taking the class. Since the class is taught in a flipped classroom style you essentially have to teach yourself most of the material on launchpad which I personally didn't find very helpful. She assigns a lot of Launchpad even during the week of midterms and finals so make sure to stay on top of it and don't fall behind. As has been stated in other reviews there are TONS of resources available which are very helpful and key to success in the course. There are many office hours throughout the week so if you have any questions or confusion from lecture, launchpad, discussion etc. make sure to attend them. The TAs are super friendly and helpful and I found they were able to better explain the lecture material than Lazazzera. My last tip would be to attend Lazazzera's midterm and final review sessions as she will likely go over material or content which she expects you to know for the exam but didn't go over in lecture.

I took this class during a pandemic/Covid quarter. The professor tends to not explain things very well during lecture and commonly puts us into breakout rooms in hopes that we will explain concepts and talk about the clicker questions with each other (newsflash: we don't) so it can be confusing at times if you don't prepare and know the general concepts well ahead of class.

For me at least, I never really prepared before class. More often than not, I had no idea what was going on. I would just click the "Next" button on Launchpad to give me the points so I would finish the homework in under an hour without actually reading any of the material. The weekend before exams, I would read a detailed study guide, look over the slides, and review the clicker questions. Although this routine worked for me, I HIGHLY advise against doing this. Everyone studies/learns differently but it was honestly a miracle that I was able to pull it off and get a good grade in this class. I recommend not worrying too much about the little details and try to understand the general concepts well (if this happens, how would it affect something else?).

I think this class really suffered due to it being online. Lazzazera was super difficult to understand in lecture and in office hours, especially to a student unfamiliar to Biology concepts. The class had a large workload (had 80 reading assignments + quizzes in one week) and two midterms which stressed the hell out of me and probably the rest of the class. The tests in this class require critical thinking and a clear understanding of topics which were often difficult.

My best advice: get Prof. Maloy. I think a good chunk of the students in Lazzazera's just went to Maloy's office hours and got help there. If he's not available though, make use of your TAs, Fernando and Lizzie were super helpful for me. If you're able to, get a PLF for this class. If you have Lazzazera, your PLF will basically be your professor. If all else fails, surround yourself with the smart kids in the class (the ones who took AP Biology and actually passed) and ask them for help too. Everyone in the class really did learn from each other so make use of all your resources!

I think Lazazzera is a knowledgeable researcher and a nice lady but she wasn't a particularly effective instructor. This is because she's largely unable to breakdown complex concepts and explain them coherently to the students. They are often convoluted or confusing elabortations. Her office hours often left me more confused than before I attended them. I remember an instance where I asked a question and she replied with "I don't know" which isn't reassuring.

It's possible to get an A in her class, but you'd need to attend TA office hours, do the CLC problem solving worksheets, review the clicker questions religiously, and watch review sessions. If you want a good grade, you will have to do most of the work yourself and don't expect much help from the professor :////