[BIOL W3005] Neurobiology II: Development & Systems

Dr. Kelley is really quite remarkable. I don't think I've ever come across someone who has the same level of mastery of such a broad range of topics within a discipline. Ok, most professors at Columbia have their specific realm of expertise, and know their stuff within that, but her knowledge of all things neuroscience and biology is profound.

Classes are interesting, she lectures from the top of her head - you never really know what she might say next. Expect a lot of interesting asides and anecdotes. She has obviously taught this class many times before, so the structure is very organized. That said, she still brings in plenty of very recent research into the lectures. Dr. Kelley clearly reads a lot of journals!

She will respond to emails, although she can be a little blunt, even gruff. It's hardly a let down though, she's a great lecturer and always happily fielded questions in class.

This is obviously not a course for history majors! Most of the class were neuroscience majors who are premed. The course is clearly geared to such people. That said, I am a psychology major with no background in biology, physics or chemistry and I was ok.

The papers we read for recitation were challenging at first read, but usually made sense after discussion in seminar. I'm glad I took this course - it's really broadened my knowledge base of neuroscience.

Darcy is an amazing teacher. She is funny, comes well prepared for the lectures and her breath of the subject is extraordinary. The exams are well made and thoroughly enjoyable. She has also started putting the audio recording of the lectures on courseworks along with the entire set of slides she shows in the lectures. I don't know of any other biology professor who takes her/his job that seriously.
Her selection of the papers for discussion is also good. She does go a little overboard when explaining her frog sexual behavior stuff, but she usually doesn't give it unnecessary importance in the exam.

In case you're not entirely aware of the intellectual powerhouse that Columbia is, this is the class to take. Rafa's a wonderful, soft-spoken gentleman with an extensive knowledge of the subject. That said, I think he lectured about 3 times. The rest of the class was taught by professors of the likes of Kandel and Jessell, both authors of the class' text book, and the former a Nobel Laureate.
So, this class is a great opportunity to meet some very distinguished members of the Columbia faculty, but be warned: a number of them haven't taught for years (or so it seemed), so the lectures tended to border on the mediocre or too technical. But the lecture topics were really fascinating and contemporary, and there was always 15 minutes of Q&A at the end.
The exams are really easy and straightforward--just take thorough notes in class and understand the weekly scientific papers. I did just that, and studied the night before the midterm and final and ended up with an A that I don't think I deserved because I did next to nothing for the class.
Overall, I think this was a good class, and a breath of fresh air from the rigour of Mowshowitz's bio. It's a good choice for a bio elective.
Oh, one last thing: the TA's can suck. I didn't get much out of recitation, but there were a couple that I'm glad I attended. You're better off dissecting the papers with a friend.

Professor Yuste does a good job teaching the course. His lectures were clear and easy to follow. However, he only lectured maybe three or four times throughout the entire semester, so perhaps he should be rated more on his administration than teaching. The rest of the lectures were taught by various faculty members of the Kavli Institute and the graduate neurobiology program, so, overall, there's a pretty wide spread of teaching quality in this class.

The administration of the class was a bit botched though. TA-run exam reviews didn't cover most of the material, and background reading was often posted after the corresponding lectures, which pretty much rendered such reading useless. Furthermore, this class covers a huge amount of information, yet provides no review sheet/practice final for the final exam. Grading is pretty lenient; with enough effort, it shouldn't be too hard to get an A (it's a lot easier than cellular neurobio).