favorite class and why

madscientist

Whats been your favorite class at SFU so far in terms of value and enjoyability? I took a first year psychology class this semester just as an elective and I found it to be awesome...it really opened my mind to the way we are as humans and the way we are programmed/designed to think. Especially knowing how many things influence our day to day lives without us evening knowing it! Anyone else find any gems so far?

Messiah

Labour Studies 101. Worth taking, if for no other reason, than to get a different perspective on much of the world's politics and economic issues, even if you don't agree. Plus, because the Labour Studies faculty is so small the Profs and TAs are all really passionate and willing to make the experience as enjoyable and informative as possible.

Pro

isn't there already a thread like this?

imelting

doesnt mean u cant answer the question anyways :p


i found my econ 250 last semester was really challenging and the course material was quite interesting, it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination (definately not a 2nd year level course)

though during the course, i was freaking and stressing out since i did really bad in both midterms, so the final exam ended counting for 100% of my final grade and studying for that was an adventure all in itself (there was a point i literally listened to the lecture tapes to sleep haha)

NukeChem

PHYS 380. It's a great particle physics course that's taught at a fairly accessible level by Dr. Vetterli.

noname

Bus 232. I think it's 232 but I took it a long time ago so I sorta forgot the numbering. The course was on organizational behaviour. I liked it cuz lots of it was based on common sense, and you can sorta apply the ideas learned in that particular class towards to corporate world, and it was easy to earn a good grade in that class.

JohnnyBoy

NukeChem said:

PHYS 380. It's a great particle physics course that's taught at a fairly accessible level by Dr. Vetterli.

exactly what I was looking for!...........................................................................................NOT

El_Cambumbo

Physics is pure torture, it's even worse than calculus.

For me the course I enjoyed the most is BISC 302, I get to breed flies as a class project and I get to mutate them so that they have white eyes and extra sets of legs. Fun stuff.

NukeChem

There's actually very little math in PHYS 380. :tongue:

El_Cambumbo

NukeChem said:

There's actually very little math in PHYS 380. :tongue:

The reason why I dislike physics is not because of the math, but the abstractness of that stuff. Math is straight forward, they give you equations and you have to solves it or proof it. Physics is all probelms, they give you a question like "A bullet hits a block and it moves 1 m, find the velocity of the bullet". They give you so little and you have to figure everything out. And the majority of the marks comes from the concept, so you have to actually write down all the diagrams and formulas and explain every step. That is no fun at all.

Messiah

I'm horrible at math and have never really done physics, but the it appeals to me more than math because of it's logical aspect. Bullets hitting blocks FTW!

NukeChem

I actually find I have the opposite problem to yours.

Physics and chemistry apply mathematics to systems for which I can get a physical intuition for. Math by itself is far too abtruse and abstract especially once you start getting into linear algebra and vector calculus, and I find it hard to relate to such concepts.

For example, the closure properties of a Hilbert space mean sweet fanny adams to me, even though I'm a quantum mechanic and we use Hilbert space all the time (because eigenfunctions in QM exist in Hilbert space). What I care about is that whatever properties it has, it lets me use the rules I've learned in QM to correctly determine the eigenvalues of operators.

Another example - take the spectral theorem. I don't care what the abstract properties of the spectral theorem are or its derivation. What I DO care about is that the immediate practical consequence is that a symmetric matrix will always have mutually orthogonal eigenvectors, and in particular, any Hermitian operator expressed in matrix form will also have orthogonal eigenvectors (if you remember to use complex conjugates as required by quantum mechanical rules).

JayDub

CRIM-355 was an interesting course, the Forensic Sciences.

Insatiable

Crims 410, 315, 343, and I've heard 455 are good ones to take.

Avoid any lower division Crim course if you're able!

JohnnyBoy

Insatiable said:

Crims 410, 315, 343, and I've heard 455 are good ones to take.

Avoid any lower division Crim course if you're able!

that doesn't make any sense, how would you get into the upper division crim classes without the lower division pre requisites

siuying

JohnnyBoy said:

that doesn't make any sense, how would you get into the upper division crim classes without the lower division pre requisites

i'm wondering the same thing too.. i've got my eyes set on taking a couple of upper crim courses for interest's sake.. but you can't get there unless you're in the faculty and have taken the pre-reqs..=( so if anyone knows how to bypass the lower division courses.. please let me know.. i've sworn off crim 103 and 104.. they're horrible..