Testimonials
(Students were asked to comment about their experience in Genetics 677 the Spring semester of 2009.
All students have been given permission to post these unedited comments)
"One of the greatest benefits of this course is the small size and the close working relationship you develop with the instructor. Ahna is very open and willing to help, often meeting with students outside of class. The course also provides a good opportunity to improve your presenting skills both by presenting work that is not your own and work that is. Overall, a valuable course to take."
"Ahna was very helpful throughout the semester and made the class interesting and fun. She was very influential in her ways to get students to interact and achieve what was needed. The course really opened up my eyes to present technologies and the areas in genetics where advances are going to be made. It was also a great overview for techniques that are useful in the laboratory setting."
"I knew little about the breadth of genomics and proteomics coming into this class. However, leaving this class my understanding has improved greatly and feel it is a very helpful class for anyone focused on genetics"
"I loved this course. Ahna was very helpful in my website construction and made class fun to attend. And she brought snacks."
"This was the best course i have ever taken, I am one of those people who does better when I can tie in what I am learning to a context of how it is applicable. In addition, I do better in an environment where I get hands on work. Plus, the professor is amazing!"
"Taking this class will certainly helped me prepare for grad school."
"I learned more from this class than many others; it was a great way to synthesize everything from my Genetics undergraduate major, and to help prepare me for research in graduate school."
"This class was very beneficial to my understanding of the array of resources that are available to everyone on the web. This class was my only exposure to most of them and that has been very valuable."
"This is one of the best courses I have taken at UW Madison. Even though the topic sounded a little intimidating at first the way the course was organized not only helped me acquire new skills but allowed me to utilize knowledge from previous classes and understand the material a lot better."
"This class presented topics to me that I have not been exposed to in my previous genetics classes. The topic of proteomics is important, yet I knew little about it. This course really helped me broaden my range of knowledge."
"The class is ran efficiently with a non-stressful environment. The website project was extremely helpful in understanding these techniques and what they may indicate. I would recommend this class to anyone."
"This course has been an excellent addition to my Genetics major. It was one of the best approaches that I have ever seen taken in teaching this type of material. The ability to focus in on a disease/gene that was of interest to us and apply all of the informational techniques that are currently being used to investigate our topic throughout the semester was the best way to fully understand what is currently being done in research. I would strongly recommend this course to anyone in the Genetics Major."
"I learned so much about bioinformatics that I am sure will be put to use again and again in my future. I also felt this class gave me a great opportunity to improve my scientific presentation skills. I think I will look back on this class for years to come and think it was one of the most valuable course I took here as an undergrad at the UW."
"One of the most helpful classes I've had. It taught me how to learn about diseases and genes. It also helped me learn how to communicate science to an audience. I will be able to use this in my future profession. Ahna is an amazing instructor. One of my all time favorites."
"It was great! Thanks Ahna for all the personal attention and encouragement! I really enjoyed the small class environment and the experience of making my own website. Peer led "lectures" were great!"
"Genetics 677 is an excellent way to integrate the basic knowledge we as undergraduates gain about genetics into developing more complex, analytical viewpoints which will undoubtedly increase my ability to critically examine genetic data. I feel as though the class would be great for someone looking to understand the current state of genetic research and to help develop an understanding of the most important currently used techniques."
"I loved this course. You don't get an opportunity to participate in a class this size and really delve into a project that you can make your own anywhere else in your college career. This is what would make this a better Capstone course than the current Genetics 566."