I did not like this quarter of the cluster. I rarely understood what Professor Vaughn was trying to say. The tests were still easy if you studied the content from the slides. The assignments/projects were boring. This quarter was very different from the first quarter and a lot less STEM-y. I'm not even a STEM major and I still didn't like it.

The class itself is a lot easier compared to the other clusters because we have less reading. Her lectures go all over the place and don't follow a set outline, so it's very hard to take notes. Vaugh's lecture slides are very disorganized and don't summarize the important information. She also isn't the most helpful because her slides often have important questions for us to consider. She often asks for volunteers to share their answers, but the lecture hall is big, so it's often hard to hear the answer and she doesn't tend to repeat them. She never really shares her own perspective or answers to the questions she poses. Despite that, I still really enjoyed this class since I took this cluster for the topic rather than for the extra GEs. Many people make the mistake of taking clusters just for the extra GEs but end up hating clusters. They're a lot of work, so only take it if you're genuinely interested in the topic or willing to put in the work for it.

I usually went into Professor Vaughn's lectures excited to learn, and left more confused than before. Her lectures and slides are very loosely organized, and don't provide a lot of concrete information. Fortunately her portions of the exams were more straightforward. She tends to assign longer readings that are generally relevant to the class material, but do take some time to finish.

I think the Dr. Vaughn often tried her hardest to be a good professor, but she was often all over the place and her lectures could be hard to follow. I felt that they weren't coherent, and the exams were only doable because she would hint at what would be on them.

This cluster has three professors Michelle Rensel, Rachel Vaughn, and Aaron Panofsky. Vaughn's lectures are entirely too difficult to understand based on the structure of the slides and how little information she clearly states; most of her lectures are references to research and no clear bullet points. Rensel and Panofsky are easier to understand. There are about 6-8 readings a week and not short readings either, it's too time consuming for someone with more than one class. In the first quarter there's also something called the "GMO Game", and this is really why I don't recommend the class. This "game" is overly complicated and not explained thoroughly. You and members of your discussion have to plan out meeting days and a whole bunch of extra stuff. In my personal experience this class takes a toll on your mental a little bit especially as a freshman. If you don't need a cluster don't take one just to GE classes that can help satisfy major requirements, and if you do want to take a cluster READ THE SYLLABUS!

First of all take this cluster!!! Super interesting, very manageable workload, much easier A than most of the clusters, and gets you a ton of GE credits
As far as Professor Vaughn: Super nice and knowledgable person, not the greatest teacher. Most of the reason I didn't like her lectures was because of the organization, not the content itself or her speaking. Her lectures jump around a ton from topic to topic which can make it hard to string together information into cohesive notes, and she always makes more slides than she can present so she ends up rushing at the end. Her slides are also the least helpful to look at to study because they include a ton of rhetorical/broad questions rather than actual information. I did think she presented a lot of interesting topics and her perspective was a valuable addition to the course, the information just could have been conveyed in a more clear way.
The class started providing audio recordings for lectures and they post the slides, so I just skipped Vaughn's lectures and listened to them on fast speed and followed along with the slides whenever was more convenient. Definitely recommend this

I really enjoyed this class. It had four professors who all specialized in different things. There are three quizzes a quarter (you can drop one) and two papers. The workload is pretty light; there are only a few readings to do before each lecture. While I would recommend taking this class, Professor Vaughn was the worst of the four. Her lectures didn't make sense at all and were all over the place. When she spoke, it wasn't clear what we had to take notes on and remember for the exams. The content of her lectures was also just the most boring in general. While she isn't a great professer the others are and keep the class fun and engaging, so you should definitely take it!

Tell me why her slides had a ton of circles and arrows and nothing else. If I wanted to take geometry I would've. Her slide decks are like 60 or 70 slides long and completely full of pictures. I love a good collage as much as the next person, but sometimes it gets to a point. Her actual lecturing is adequate, but oftentimes fast paced, yet nothing is actually said. Take this class if you need an extra hour of sleep. Luckily the midterm is manageable even if you didn't read all 700 pages assigned every lecture, so good luck to everyone in the future! I love biotechnology.

I really enjoyed her material and lectures, very informative and engaging. quizzes are best of 2, and there are 2 papers throughout each quarter!

While Dr. Vaughn is only one part of the M72 cluster, I dreaded her lectures the most. Her content seemed disorganized and hard to follow, and don't even get me started on her slides. They were a jumble of text, pictures, and concepts. Each slide seemed to be about a completely different topic than the previous one. She also assigned way too many readings that seemed to not help at all in lecture, on the essays, or quizzes. Her quiz questions were never hard, as long as you paid attention, but if she was the only professor, this cluster would be unbearable. She doesn't introduce any interesting or revolutionary ideas, just rehashes past societal concepts that make you think "duh". I love this cluster, but Vaughn is my least favorite professor out of the team.