Students feedback

In 2015 and 2016 we tried to collect as much students feedback as possible -- this would give us a chance to improve! Here are general opinions as well as some of the feedback to particular aspects of the course.

We previously had problems with over-planning, missing the schedule and lack of free time in 2015. Changes we introduced in 2016 seem to have solved these problems. For 2018 more improvements are planned, so we will await new students' feedback to see how they are perceived.

"I really enjoyed this course and thank everyone involved, especially Sergey and Darya. They really worked so hard to make this course a good course. And it is appreciated more than they know".

"In general. I learned a lot. Everything almost was new for me, so not easy to follow, but very interesting"

"I keep good memories and we had a lot of fun"

"Teachers were nice and we could share laughs, and I wouldn't have wanted to miss it for the world"

"This place, the people and the course will be missed"

"I enjoyed my stay here and I really thank the teaching staff for sharing their knowledge with us"

"Thank you! I did learn a lot, and had a good time"

One wish to the next generation of BAMSE students:

• "Everything will be different to what you imagined. But you will enjoy it anyway".
• "I hope you get a chance to go swimming in the lake!"
• "More free time, please..."

About biological drawings:

• "It's nice to practice, and you feel that you're improving"
• "Difficult, it takes a lot of time to do it well"
• "Drawing were moderately difficult; I enjoyed it because it sharpened my skills"
• "I loved drawing and it definitely helped me retain information"
• "Drawing was fun and learfull, but sometimes too much"
• "Very time-consuming. But It is a great way to memorize!"
• "It was unexpected but useful"
• "Time-consuming, yet was useful for remembering structures and now I go home with great reference material"

Excursions:

• "Really enjoyed the sampling! Excursions were a nice way to exercise"
• "Very useful"
• "Sampling was interesting, it was nice to do most of it ourselves although I hurt my back pulling up the dredge"
• "Sampling days were great, physical activity is great"
• "The labour was sometimes hard but I didn't mind"
• "So much fun!!! "

Learning Latin species names:

• "I will forget easily, but the experience is interesting"
• "It is interesting because it gives a base of organisms that we know"
• "I don't know whether it was useful but I liked it"
• "I enjoyed learning new species names, however I did not have enough time to properly study and remember them"
• "This is a standard part of such a course so I didn't have any issues with it"
• "Very useful, since I work with fauna very close by"
• "Loved it. Also I felt we had a lot of help with this. There was an emphasis on it, and names were repeated often"

Work with identification keys

• "It can be difficult but it is a really useful skill to have"
• "It was an interesting activity and I liked the fact that I felt I improved my skills at the end of the course"
• "What could probably improve is more visual guides to the identification characters mentioned"
• "Good keys for local fauna"
• "I enjoyed, it's challenging but fun"
• "Very useful! This was a great part of the course. It made me really get to know intimately the differences between organisms structures"