Taken Fall 2010
Instructor: Al Bartolucci
I never took a statistics course as an undergraduate. I was terrified of statistics, so when it finally came time to take it at the graduate level I had many regrets for not taking it as an undergraduate. Those fears were put to rest from day one in this course. It is the recommended course for MSFS students lacking statistics and it is a great choice for us! The material was relevant to what we do from day to day as scientists in a laboratory setting. Although most of the cases were clinical, the concepts are the same for any type of experimentation in which a population (lots of data) must be shown as significant or insignificant. This course teaches you how to understand your data and make a conclusion that is statistically accurate and acceptable. It made me feel like a real scientist and helped my perspective in reading scientific articles with statistical analyses.
What really made this course amazing was the instructor. Dr. Bartolucci is a riot, to say the least. He made the scary process of learning statistics fun and interesting. He is a great teacher and he knows his stuff!! As a heads up, he is a die hard Boston Red Socks fan so if you are a Yankee fan keep that information to yourself. He took any questions I had at anytime and made sure the class as a whole was understanding the material. He is very strict on his homework format but it is not too terrible. Even better, all tests are open-book and notes. Make sure to buy the book!! All tests come from problems out of the book and in fact, if you do not have the book you cannot do the graded homework or take the test. The homework he assigns are relevant to the tests and as long as you do the homework you can take the tests no problem.
So, if you have any fear of statistics like I did, Dr. Bartolucci will mend that quickly. Once you get passed the first few weeks, the entire class is the same 10 step concept over and over and over! No worries, statistics is actually cool and will bring to light any misunderstandings you may have had in reading statistical analysis of scientific data in the past. Good Luck!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
CH 555: Quantitative Chemistry and Lab
Taken Summer 2010
Instructor: Sergey Vyazovkin
This class took concepts from general chemistry and then elaborated on them. You will review significant figures, standard deviation, titrations, and even more titrations. Dr. Vyazovkin is the type of instructor where his lectures are hard to stay interested in since he just reads off his PowerPoint slides. The material for this class is mostly mathematical and not so much concepts so the PowerPoint are especially difficult to try and learn the material from.
Instructor: Sergey Vyazovkin
TA: Jia Bei
This class took concepts from general chemistry and then elaborated on them. You will review significant figures, standard deviation, titrations, and even more titrations. Dr. Vyazovkin is the type of instructor where his lectures are hard to stay interested in since he just reads off his PowerPoint slides. The material for this class is mostly mathematical and not so much concepts so the PowerPoint are especially difficult to try and learn the material from.
The only way to succeed in this class is to do all the problems assigned for homework for each chapter. There are a lot, but Dr. Vyazovkin likes to pull questions directly from them and the examples in the chapters or slides. DO NOT fall behind because the amount of material is massive for each test and there is no way you can cram for this class. Plan on studying the very first day or else your life will be miserable.
Attendance is key only because he offers a 3-point bonus towards your final grade for perfect attendance. The final is an ACS standardized test so don't expect to do well in it. The only way to ace this test is to memorize the entire textbook and nobody expects you to do this. In the end, I thought I did miserably on the final but it did not bring down my grade. I've heard it really only boosts your final grade if you did exceptionally well, but that could just be hearsay.
The lab is a crucial part of the class because the total lab grade counts as one test grade towards your lecture grade. The tests are very hard, so it is very important to spend time achieving a perfect lab grade. The TA is very helpful throughout the labs and really wants you to do well. Most of the labs involve titrating an unknown solution to find a fairly accurate concentration. These titrations require a steady hand and patience because if you don't record every little increment you are off in your final answer, your grade for your unknown decreases by a a letter grade. The lab grade is comprised of 3 unknowns, lab reports, a midterm, and a final. This TA is a hard tester and when she says know it all, she means it. The labs were fairly straight-forward. You have to do calculations on your own to find the concentration of the analyte, but make sure you are using the correct significant figures and error percentages because she will take off for lack of detail.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
JS 672: Adv Conventional Criminalistics
Taken Spring 2010
Instructor: Mitch Rector
Advanced Conventional Criminalistics focuses on firearm examination, bullet analysis, and toolmark examination using a variety of methods. You will learn about the difference in calibers of bullets (as well as the guns that fired them), how to examine a bullet microscopically, how to determine the distance a bullet was fired before hitting its target, and how to compare toolmarks. There are many others, but these are the labs/lectures that I remember most. The labs take a fair amount of time, but definitely help learning the lecture material.
As you may know from JS 671, Mitch Rector is very detailed and extremely knowledgeable of his field, yet a "laid-back" instructor. I enjoy his classes. However, my one complaint about the class is that it is very hard to learn about guns when you are unable to have hands-on education. As someone who has never fired a gun, I had a hard time describing how they worked on tests (as you would see with the big, red "NO" written across my answers). Obviously, Mitch could not bring in guns to show us in class or take us to the firing range, but he did show videos and pictures of firearms.
Overall, I would recommend this class to other students, especially if you are thinking about toolmarks and firearms as a career path.
Instructor: Mitch Rector
Advanced Conventional Criminalistics focuses on firearm examination, bullet analysis, and toolmark examination using a variety of methods. You will learn about the difference in calibers of bullets (as well as the guns that fired them), how to examine a bullet microscopically, how to determine the distance a bullet was fired before hitting its target, and how to compare toolmarks. There are many others, but these are the labs/lectures that I remember most. The labs take a fair amount of time, but definitely help learning the lecture material.
As you may know from JS 671, Mitch Rector is very detailed and extremely knowledgeable of his field, yet a "laid-back" instructor. I enjoy his classes. However, my one complaint about the class is that it is very hard to learn about guns when you are unable to have hands-on education. As someone who has never fired a gun, I had a hard time describing how they worked on tests (as you would see with the big, red "NO" written across my answers). Obviously, Mitch could not bring in guns to show us in class or take us to the firing range, but he did show videos and pictures of firearms.
Overall, I would recommend this class to other students, especially if you are thinking about toolmarks and firearms as a career path.
Tox 711: Principles of Toxicology
Taken: Summer 2010
Instructor: Coral Lamartiniere
This class covered different aspects of toxicology. Many of the lectures in this class were a bit disjointed, and the first few lectures were very difficult to follow as they were geared towards those in the pharmacology/toxicology program. However, the second half of this class was more interesting and easier to follow even it wasn’t related to our program much at all. Quite a few people taught this class, including someone from Poison Control and the Southern Research Institute and some professors in the Pharmacology/Toxicology department. Overall, a great amount of effort was required to get through the class, and I don’t feel like I got much out of this class. Any information from this class that was even related to our program could’ve been easily obtained from other JS classes. If you’re looking for an elective to take over the summer, I would suggest taking something else.
Instructor: Coral Lamartiniere
This class covered different aspects of toxicology. Many of the lectures in this class were a bit disjointed, and the first few lectures were very difficult to follow as they were geared towards those in the pharmacology/toxicology program. However, the second half of this class was more interesting and easier to follow even it wasn’t related to our program much at all. Quite a few people taught this class, including someone from Poison Control and the Southern Research Institute and some professors in the Pharmacology/Toxicology department. Overall, a great amount of effort was required to get through the class, and I don’t feel like I got much out of this class. Any information from this class that was even related to our program could’ve been easily obtained from other JS classes. If you’re looking for an elective to take over the summer, I would suggest taking something else.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
CLS 505: Laboratory Management
Taken Fall 2010
Instructor: Pat Greenup
I registered for this course thinking that I could obtain an overview of general management topics from a laboratory perspective...hence the title Laboratory Management. The course description that I originally read in the UAB catalog said all of the right things to pique my interest (leadership styles and management theory; recruitment, interview, and selection of personnel; team building), but it only took one class to figure out that it would not be very applicable to forensic science students. This course would more appropriately be named Clinical Laboratory Management as it seemed to be heavy on the Clinical Laboratory and light on the Management. Although I'm sure this class would be thoroughly stimulating for the Hematology enthusiast, don't waste an afternoon on it like I did.
Instructor: Pat Greenup
I registered for this course thinking that I could obtain an overview of general management topics from a laboratory perspective...hence the title Laboratory Management. The course description that I originally read in the UAB catalog said all of the right things to pique my interest (leadership styles and management theory; recruitment, interview, and selection of personnel; team building), but it only took one class to figure out that it would not be very applicable to forensic science students. This course would more appropriately be named Clinical Laboratory Management as it seemed to be heavy on the Clinical Laboratory and light on the Management. Although I'm sure this class would be thoroughly stimulating for the Hematology enthusiast, don't waste an afternoon on it like I did.
TOX 711: Principles of Toxicology
Taken: Summer 2010
Instructor: Coral A. Lamartiniere
This was a very fast paced course giving different views on toxicology. It was taught by several different lecturers, including pharmacology/toxicology professors, poison control center personnel, and animal researchers. The first few lectures were very difficult to follow because they were focused more for pharmacology students. Very little, if any, information was relevant to the field of forensic science. The other lectures were interesting, easier to follow, and could (slightly) be related to forensic science, but most of this information can be found in other classes, such as JS670: Elements of Forensic Science and JS673:Forensic Drug Analysis and Toxicology. It is possible to get a good grade, but A LOT of effort is required. If you are debating between taking this class or another class for the summer, I would suggest taking the other.
Instructor: Coral A. Lamartiniere
This was a very fast paced course giving different views on toxicology. It was taught by several different lecturers, including pharmacology/toxicology professors, poison control center personnel, and animal researchers. The first few lectures were very difficult to follow because they were focused more for pharmacology students. Very little, if any, information was relevant to the field of forensic science. The other lectures were interesting, easier to follow, and could (slightly) be related to forensic science, but most of this information can be found in other classes, such as JS670: Elements of Forensic Science and JS673:Forensic Drug Analysis and Toxicology. It is possible to get a good grade, but A LOT of effort is required. If you are debating between taking this class or another class for the summer, I would suggest taking the other.
JS 672: Advanced Conventional Criminalistics
Taken Spring 2010
Instructor: Mitch Rector
This course is primarily focused on firearm and toolmark examination and identification. There are several labs to be completed throughout the semester including, serial number restoration, classification and examination of fired cartridge cases and bullets, as well as the classification of marks left from tools like hammers, screwdrivers, and pliers. The notes given in class are sometimes powerpoint handouts and other times will need to be handwritten, but they are what the two tests, the midterm and final, are based upon. The book, Handbook of Firearms and Ballistics, follows along with the notes provided in class and can give some extra details and photo examples, but it didn't seem necessary to have to do well in the course. Also, a research paper may possibly be part of your final grade; This will be decided on a semester to semester basis. Overall, this course provides you with an in-depth knowledge and the skills necessary to identify different types of toolmarks, created by both firearms and tools, that could lead to an interest in the career of a firearm and toolmark examiner.
Instructor: Mitch Rector
This course is primarily focused on firearm and toolmark examination and identification. There are several labs to be completed throughout the semester including, serial number restoration, classification and examination of fired cartridge cases and bullets, as well as the classification of marks left from tools like hammers, screwdrivers, and pliers. The notes given in class are sometimes powerpoint handouts and other times will need to be handwritten, but they are what the two tests, the midterm and final, are based upon. The book, Handbook of Firearms and Ballistics, follows along with the notes provided in class and can give some extra details and photo examples, but it didn't seem necessary to have to do well in the course. Also, a research paper may possibly be part of your final grade; This will be decided on a semester to semester basis. Overall, this course provides you with an in-depth knowledge and the skills necessary to identify different types of toolmarks, created by both firearms and tools, that could lead to an interest in the career of a firearm and toolmark examiner.
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