Spring 2027

Biology of Microorganisms

Microbiology course covering basic biology of microorganisms, including structure, function, physiology, genetics, ecology, diversity, and evolution.

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

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Lectures moved extremely fast, making it hard to take notes while comprehending the material. Exams were described as hyperspecific, while lecture slides were often vague and unhelpful for understanding.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain the historical context of microbiology from a human and evolutionary perspective.

  • Compare different microbial cell structures and predict behaviors based upon those structures.

  • Explain how mutations occur in cells, the mechanisms organisms have to combat these changes, and how these changes relate to the evolution of species.

  • Predict the modes of growth of microbes based upon the enzymes they contain and the metabolic breakdown of substrates.

  • Describe the regulatory paradigms in microbes and predict the changes in behavior that occur when these pathways are disrupted.

  • Explain the symbiotic and dysbiotic state in a host-microbe interaction and list factors that can affect this relationship.

  • Compare common virulence factors and explain their effect on symbiotic relationships and how these virulence factors contribute to disease.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101,ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151,BIOCORE 383, or BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 130) and (CHEM 104 or 109) or graduate/professional standing

MICROBIO 303 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
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: 3.6/5 raw quality · 3.6/5 difficulty · 5 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Timothy Paustian’s lectures were dense and fast-paced, making it difficult for students to take notes while comprehending the material. Exams were described as hyperspecific and confusing, often testing details that contradicted his stated emphasis on the big picture. One student noted the course required a large amount of memorization and hard study for each exam.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 2.95 GPA, 30.5% A/AB (n=223 letter grades); Spring 2024: 2.96 GPA, 31.3% A/AB (n=163 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.01 GPA, 38.2% A/AB (n=186 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Melissa Christopherson

Melissa Christopherson's lectures often relied on PowerPoint slides, which some students found lacked important details. Exams consisted of multiple-choice questions that one student described as cryptic and full of distractors, though others found them hard but fair. She was frequently noted as caring, enthusiastic, and willing to help students who were struggling with the substantial amount of course material.

JON ROLL is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Spring 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MELISSA CHRISTOPHERSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHELLE RONDON is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ROBIN KURTZ is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TIMOTHY PAUSTIAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, 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 / 4000

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

Paustian delivers dense, fast-paced lectures that some found entertaining but difficult to follow. Students noted the course required significant memorization and careful note-taking to keep up.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.16 GPA, 50.8% A/AB (n=181 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.17 GPA, 51.9% A/AB (n=264 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.01 GPA, 38.2% A/AB (n=186 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Lectures moved extremely fast, making it hard to take notes while comprehending the material. Exams were described as hyperspecific, while lecture slides were often vague and unhelpful for understanding.

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

Opinions on Paustian varied widely; one student found his teaching strange and trip-up questions frustrating, while another praised his passion and custom textbook.

Topics

  • Microbial structure, function, and physiology
  • Microbial genetics, ecology, diversity, and evolution
  • Virulence factors and their contribution to disease

Skills

  • Compare microbial cell structures and predict behaviors based on them.
  • Explain mutation mechanisms and their relation to species evolution.
  • Predict microbial growth modes based on enzymes and substrate metabolism.
  • Explain symbiotic and dysbiotic states in host-microbe interactions.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.12 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

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 303 · Spring 2027

Biology of Microorganisms

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": "1274:192:001600",
    "course_id": "MICROBIO 303",
    "course_uid": "course_b38eddf04e5d9b58f70c1241",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "001600",
    "source_subject_id": "192",
    "title": "Biology of Microorganisms",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
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": "62c530490d370b4a4aad9330fa3fc1c286978f85db83cbe301694ede7d019954",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}