Spring 2027

The Microbial World

Introductory course on microbial roles in nature, health, and ecology; covers disease principles, body defenses, and biotechnology.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Timothy Paustian3.2/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Past students reported that Timothy Paustian required them to buy his own textbook; one called his exams extremely hard, while another called quizzes a guessing game with deliberately vague wording.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Understand, analyze, and evaluate information effectively.

  • Describe what makes up a microorganism. How is the make up different between a microorganism and a human being?

  • Define a disease. Describe how your body, your doctor, and the government fight disease.

  • Understand where we came from. Analyze the various theories of how life originated and express an opinion on which is most plausible.

  • Articulate the positive impacts microbes have on your health, the well-being of their host organisms, the cycling of important elements, and the environment.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

Not open to students with credit forMICROBIO 101 or 303.

MICROBIO 100

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

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.12/5 from 104 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.

For this course: 2.0/5 raw quality · 3.4/5 difficulty · 9 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Timothy Paustian's lectures were described as rambling and off-topic, with students reporting that questions were dismissed rudely. Exams were characterized as difficult and confusing, while the required self-published textbook was noted for technical issues.

One student found the course easy with clear grading criteria, noting that the required textbook was inexpensive and that discussion posts were manageable for full credit.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.60 GPA, 76.8% A/AB (n=233 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.56 GPA, 75.8% A/AB (n=326 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 65.3% A/AB (n=308 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

TIMOTHY PAUSTIAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 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 001Online Only0 / 3500

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

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Past students found Timothy Paustian's MICROBIO 100 challenging: one described it as more like a 300-level class, while another found it much harder than an introductory course.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.60 GPA, 76.8% A/AB (n=233 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.56 GPA, 75.8% A/AB (n=326 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 65.3% A/AB (n=308 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Past students reported that Timothy Paustian required them to buy his own textbook; one called his exams extremely hard, while another called quizzes a guessing game with deliberately vague wording.

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Timothy Paustian's lectures rambled into irrelevant tangents. One reviewer said he consistently changed the syllabus and used a buggy website; another said comments about questions seemed rude.

Topics

  • Microorganisms and viruses in nature, health, agriculture, pollution control, and ecology.
  • Disease production, epidemiology, and body defense mechanisms.
  • Biotechnology and genetic engineering.
  • Theories of life origin.

Skills

  • Understanding, analyzing, and evaluating information effectively.
  • Analyzing theories of life origin and expressing opinions on their plausibility.

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.

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Selected offering source records
MICROBIO 100 · Spring 2027

The Microbial World

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": "1274:192:001592",
    "course_id": "MICROBIO 100",
    "course_uid": "course_b5f639659cb8a96aad25c1b8",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "001592",
    "source_subject_id": "192",
    "title": "The Microbial World",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  }
]
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
Download part 1
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": "c868f30963b2e063189f273f0242cbd15a2e4a16f11a8201a3a897db4c6d9101",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}