Spring 2027

Biochemistry First-year Seminar

First-year seminar introducing the discipline of biochemistry, the UW Biochemistry Department, faculty research projects, university resources, and career options for students with a biochemistry background.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Mario Pennella3.7/5Danielle WidnerRae Brown

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=44 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=118 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Determine whether biochemistry is a major they want to pursue and defend that decision based on knowledge of the biochemistry major at UW-Madison

  • Establish connections within the biochemistry department community including interacting with faculty

  • Discuss the career opportunities available to individuals with biochemistry and/or life science backgrounds

  • Identify resources available at the university that will support success at UW-Madison

  • Describe the format and content of a scientific paper

  • Discuss complex issues related to current issues in Biochemistry and individual faculty research topics while considering multiple evidence-based perspectives.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
BIOCHEM 100

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.73/5 from 30 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=18 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=118 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=118 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

DANIELLE WIDNER is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARIO PENNELLA is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 300

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=44 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=118 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Biochemistry discipline overview
  • UW Biochemistry Department and faculty research
  • Career options in biochemistry
  • Scientific paper structure

Skills

  • Describe the format and content of a scientific paper
  • Discuss career opportunities for biochemistry and life science backgrounds
  • Identify university resources supporting student success

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
BIOCHEM 100 · Spring 2027

Biochemistry First-Year Seminar

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:200:024045",
    "course_id": "BIOCHEM 100",
    "course_uid": "course_efe02c42716591dd16a8fc03",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024045",
    "source_subject_id": "200",
    "title": "Biochemistry First-Year Seminar",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3aa653095473446fe214167d663234eca2c671654ea3a2adcca2c3723ad39a18",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}