Spring 2027

Principles of Physiology

Study plant and animal physiology, focusing on environmental interactions, nutrient acquisition, gas exchange, reproduction, and regulatory systems.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Paul Bethke

One student said they were mostly graded on participation, which made confusing in-class questions less problematic.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Frame biological questions about physiological systems, formulate testable hypotheses to guide in answering the questions, design experiments to test hypotheses (including appropriate controls), and predict/recognize/graph data that support these hypotheses.

  • Build logical arguments about the operation of physiological systems based on evidence.

  • Use and manipulate basic mathematical equations that model physiological systems.

  • Integrate past experience, accumulated knowledge, and creativity to solve complex physiological problems.

  • Recognize diversity in organismal design and response to environmental challenges

  • Define the components of regulatory systems, propose models to explain observed physiological phenomena, and explain the fundamental role of regulation in physiological processes.

  • Explain and give specific examples to demonstrate how structure - function relationships underlie/determine physiological phenomena.

  • Evaluate the reliability and validity of scientific information.

  • Use scientific terminology precisely and appropriately.

  • Demonstrate effective scientific discourse as a member of a group.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

BIOCORE 383

BIOCORE 485 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ELAINE ALARID is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PAUL BETHKE is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Fall 2015. 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

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Elaine Alarid, Paul Bethke

Two past students reported different teaching experiences: one found Professor Alarid’s lectures engaging and informative, while another found Dr. Bethke’s lectures disorganized.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.51 GPA, 58.2% A/AB (n=91 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.70 GPA, 80.3% A/AB (n=76 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.82 GPA, 87.2% A/AB (n=78 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Paul Bethke

One student said they were mostly graded on participation, which made confusing in-class questions less problematic.

Past student reviews · Paul Bethke

One student said Dr. Bethke sometimes made students feel ashamed for answering questions.

Topics

  • Environmental interactions, nutrient acquisition, gas exchange, and reproduction
  • Neural, endocrine, hormonal, and environmental regulation systems

Skills

  • Formulate testable hypotheses and design experiments for physiological systems
  • Use and manipulate basic mathematical equations modeling physiological systems
  • Build logical arguments about physiological system operations

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— 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 Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · 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

1316 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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f9350fc11f99ddadabfbb89bf646c69c74531b2387d923d6a20c410314d37f52",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}