Academic Changes in Biochemistry

Academic Changes in Biochemistry

Hello thugs, whats going on? 

Today I will talk to you about some changes that I would make to my career program. So, Pablo Richter take notes. I will limit myself to mentioning only the negative aspects of the career as well as my experience as a student, this does not mean that my opinion does not also consider notable aspects or virtues, but you know Anton Ego, right? Uneducated yokels should know about it. "We critics thrive on negative reviews that are fun to write and read", well, this is one of those reviews.

In this blog I will approach three main topics: the curriculum, teaching and academic burden.

Teaching 

My experience with professors and assistants at the University has been generally good. IN GENERAL, they are good teachers who make sure you understand the subject and who you can turn to in case of doubts. But in at least 90% of the courses I have taken at university, the teaching material is horribly bad. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, it's bad.

The seminary guides in almost all the fields that I have had do not include a solution or at least the answers to the exercise, which in my opinion is absurd, since it does not allow the student to find out if what they are doing is right or wronG. I think that if the faculty departments cared more about improving the teaching material, keeping it updated and with solutions, the understanding regarding the topics that are evaluated would be much greater and that would also focus the doubts on more advanced issues.

Censored for the
police of thinking

It seems incredible to me that the exercises in the seminaries have been the same for years and no one has ever bothered to improve the material. On the other hand, I believe that this material should be available in some information cloud, because it has happened that while one is teaching the course, the material is made available to the student late or too quickly. If the guides are never updated, at least if they are available from the beginning of the course it would be the minimum.

I have had some bad experiences with assistants, really too small to criticize them as a whole, many times the assistants have taught me more than some teachers so I believe that they are a fundamental pillar of teaching.

Even so, I believe that no matter how much students complain about a teacher or an assistant, in most cases nothing changes. It is disappointing in that sense and frustrating at times, but things have always been that way and they are unlikely to change because we are here to criticize them. I suppose they will have to die one day (which won't be long away) and those like me who currently study and who perhaps one day will teach, will improve teaching based on what we have experienced.

Academic Burden

Well, this topic is interesting. The faculty of chemical sciences is privileged compared to other faculties because we have two weeks of recess, two weeks that if they did not exist, I really don't know what would happen to me. They are very necessary, I don't know who the genius was who came up with it, applause.

Even so, and as I said at the beginning of this blog, today we will be haters and we will tell great truths that deserve to be pronounced. The mental health of FaCiQyf students is going like a plane swooping. Most of the people I have met at the university have had at least one moment of academic collapse, at least one.

Beyond my faculty, the Universidad de Chile is very negligent with the mental health of its students, the majority suffer from anxiety or some type of deterioration in their mental health as a result of academic demands. The psychological units do not do enough, I must say, not to disparage them, but it is not enough to have a paper at the end of a test that says that a test does not define me, because at the end of the day if it does, one can fall behind years to leave the degree and have to pay for several semesters with money that in many cases does not exist.

I appreciate that at least there is a psychological unit but the discourse that a test does not define us falls short when when we leave we feel that we are of no use. It has happened to me and I think it has happened to others. Evaluations often represent truly horrible moments and it shouldn't be like that, my chest tightens when I write this because I have felt that anguish of having studied a lot, really a lot, of having stayed up late and standing in front of a test and not knowing what to do, staying blank with the pencil in my hand while time runs out and an assistant or teacher sees from afar how really bad I am having it, how that can somehow reflect what I know. It should not be like that.

Average student in testing week

I think that some people not ironically say, well if you went to university, things are demanding. And it is true that things are demanding and it is good that it is like that, I think that the problem does not lie in that direction.

The problem is not the demand, but the frustration that one can experience when not meeting the standards. We all have our own abilities and facilities for one thing or another, but evaluations in many cases have major deficiencies when it comes to being instruments that demonstrate the knowledge acquired. I have often heard teachers talk about how the test is not even planned, two or three days before the evaluation date and it seems disrespectful to me. What interest does that show in generating an instrument that really allows us to show what the student knows? And sometimes the seminary exercises are not related at all to the test exercises, so returning to the issue of teaching material, it is PENCAAAAA!

Another negative aspect is the time limits and in general the planning of subject schedules. The space between two classes can be 4-5 hours, obviously it is a complicated issue, matching the schedules, but it should not happen that two courses that must be taken in the same semester collide, IT MAKES NO SENSE. Furthermore, it is assumed that the faculty is committed to sports and students who attend the selection of some sport within the

And the dean
Callampín Bombín

 university have priority to take subjects to avoid clashes with their training, but it turns out that in practice, the schedules of training clash with subjects and there is no alternative schedule. On the other hand, evaluations after lunch are stupid, it is literally the moment when one is most idiot after lunch. After this disclaimer I will propose some things so as not to feel so critical.

-No academic evaluation can exceed 30% of the course weighting and this weighting must be distributed over at least four evaluations.

-You cannot set more than one A test per week.

-The teaching material must contain solutions and must be available to the student from the beginning of the course.

-Tests cannot be set for the week immediately after the academic discharge week.

-Perhaps if the schedules were fixed, that would allow teachers to organize their research activities based on a fixed schedule, but I do not know the feasibility of this proposal. If this were possible, every year the subjects would be taught in a more or less fixed order for several generations and if it is a functional schedule, the same classrooms would also be designated. Perhaps a program could be designed that would automatically organize this and look for the best way, but I think that if the teachers do not change too much over the years, a fixed schedule over time is much better.I love all that about organizing systems that work over time, if they pay me for my university degree I will solve their problem.

-This idea is not very feasible due to the infrastructure of our faculty, but perhaps a protected schedule for sports practices or extracurricular activities would motivate participation and encourage the development of students in other areas. Now, it is not feasible for them to be taking place at the same time all extracurricular activities due to a matter of space, perhaps if the sports infrastructure and spaces to hold workshops were improved, the university experience could be greatly improved.

Your name is not MOOOON!

I said, case closed, problem fixed!

Perhaps with more time, I would carry out an analysis of the university credit system to see if it is really efficient and if it meets its objective, because perhaps part of the problem lies in the assignment of credits and that the arrangement of schedules does not have a connection with this system. Interesting to analyze.

Curriculum

Well, let's go to the most general thing, which is what a biochemist should know. I am still too young to contemplate the curriculum and detect its deficiencies at the training level, but of course I have opinions about it.

This is a diagram that he made of the curriculum, because the one on the internet is ugly. On the other hand, this one contains arrows so it's cuter. I hope you understand my handwriting.

Here is my curriculum proposal, I really did not modify it too much, I maintained the initial requirements with the exception of the Organic Chemistry I requirement for Physicochemistry I and the requirements for laboratories, since I believe that they should be taught in the same semester that the corresponding theoretical asignature is taught. Except de requirement of Chemistry Laboratory Techniques for Laboratory of General Chemistry.

Apart from that, I reduced the number of specific asignatures to the degree because I consider that it could be synthesized into two parts, one that provides the context of the degree and what to do as a biochemist and the other that teaches general aspects of the degree such as divulgation, teaching, the presentation of projects and management to do research. 

I moved the field of bioethics, because I consider it to be important long before, since in the following semesters research units begin to be carried out. Add a specialized elective in the fifth semester and a third professional internship, because you never know, just in case, the more practice you have the better.

With respect to the content, I would adapt the English courses to the biochemistry degree, teaching a more technical English and I would have all the subjects of the first two years, which correspond to the basic cycle, be taught semiannually.

Universidad de Chile reading my post

Well, those are my macaque modifications to improve the career. I think that was an 8.8 earthquake on the Richter scale, poor, he was tousled.

Klau