Galen T. PickettAssoc. ProfessorPhysics and AstronomyPH3-103
California State University Long Beach 1250 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90840-3901 (562) 985-4934 vc (562) 985-7924 fax
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Analysis of written comments:
At the time of evaluations, enrollment in the course was 134, and 88
students filled out evaluation forms. Of those 88, 53
had extra written comments to make.
Students this semester had a wealth of suggestions for improving the class. Some I'm working on (for instance, compressing the online notes to accomodate students with a dialup connection, preparing a packet of notes for students that don't want to spend their own ink) and some I'm happy to hear about (like extraneous conversations in the lecture hall distracting students). Some, like the suggestion that I adopt a curve for the grading scale I don't think are appropirate for this course, but I am glad to have these opinions reported to me.
Comments made during standard class evaluations:
1. My teacher is very good teacher. We need more teacher like
you. Thanks, sir.
2. Overall, the class was great. Well,
I guess there's no other way to set up a system to pass out those assignments
that help, I guess your system is good enough because its consistent and
students don't always turn in assignments at the same time.
3. Overall you were fair, this is a very difficult course.
Thanks for all the opportunities to recieve extra points.
4. The course was hard, but I appreciated all the effort on the
professor's part to help us to well. Thank you!
5. This class was very difficult, but the instructor was great.
6. I am not a fan of science classes, but enjoyed this class.
The fact that I got to re-turn things in for more points made me want to
strive to get all points possible.
7. Throughout the semester, Prof. Pickett went to great measures
to assist me in understanding class information.
8. Galen Pickett is the greatest instructor I've had at CSULB ever
in my 3 semesters. He honestly wants his students to suceed and is
willing to give them as much help as possible. There was a problem
with a lab instructor, and he was right there to help fix it.
9. I heard that on the CSET there were questions
relating to the moon and tides. Maybe there needs to be some explainations
to help the next set of students out.
10. He was clear about the things he heaching. Great knowledge
about the course!
11. Very helpful teacher!
12. The class is difficult, however the grading procedure is fair.
13. I felt that Dr. Pickett was a great Professor and the grading
and assignments were clear and fair.
14. The formulas and math section of this
class needs a better explaination or breakdown.
15. Dr. Pickett is a wonderful instructor who makes an extremely
difficult subject interesting and understandable.
16. Good guy!
17. Your teaching methods make it very easy to understand the material.
18. I am overwhelmed by Prof. Pickett's commitment to this class
and to his students. He has a genuine concern for his student's success
and will sacrifice much of his own personal time to help in any way possible.
he is one of the best teachers I have ever had and an *excellent* role
model for future teachers such as myself.
19. Suggestions: perhaps, instead of giving
us 6 study questions before the test and choosing only one question, I
think that you should have 2 essay questions that we should answer.
This allows us to at least answer a question that we may understand, and
have the answer for. Also, perhaps you should give less questions
because they are too lengthy.
20. Lectures and labs should be about the
same things. Sometime some concepts weren't explain enough.
I think it would if sample test questions were given.
21. Web questions are helpful.
22. Always very helpful and offers extra credit that is useful and
needed in class. Notes are helpful, more so than the actual book.
23. Great professor! *Always* willing to help students.
Liked the fact that he gives extra credit and an opportunity to re-do work
for full credit. Notes online are really helpful. Professor's
notes are easier to understand than book.
24. I personally felt that being able to resubmit take home experiments
and homework was very beneficial. It helped me understand what I
did wrong and what I needed to do to fix my mistakes. However, I
was rather lost during the lecture and on the tests. I did well on
the takehome experiments as well as in the lab class, but something about
the lecture left me confused. Maybe online
questions that could be counted to improve our grade will give us incentive
to do them as well as prepare us for questions similar to the exam.
25. For difficult concepts that were covered, you did a good job
presenting it.
26. It would be helpful if youcould do more
examples of problems that are going to be on exams.
27. Thankyou for your dedication to the class. You did a good
job teaching the material. I liked the fact that you make sure people
understood what they got wrong on the test.
28. This course wasn't really what I expected. But, it was
interesting. The only thing I would change
is more instruction tying in the take home experiments to the lectures.
The exams were fair, and so was the homework load.
29. I know its kind of hard for you to pay
attention to everything going on in a big room like this, but there was
a lot of talking when you were teaching. It is *very* hard for me
to concentrate when those around me are talking. I don't know what
you dould do to remedy this, but maybe ou dould think about it.
30. I know it is hard in a lecture class,
but try to involve the class more.
31. Giving us a study guide for the final
is great but also give us study guides for the other exams.
32. Good w/ final study guide
33. For people who prefer to write down their
own notes (or who don't have easy access to a computer), many times you
wnet through the slides too quickly for us to take down the important information.
You are very accomodating when it comes to tests and homework.
34. This class was easy to understand. Prof. Pickett's willingness
to go over topics for those who don't get it was extremely helpful.
The class notes on the web were great for when emergencies came up that
caused me to miss class. Also, I like how this class wasn't
all about memorizing useless facts just to pass. It was about understanding
and knowing how to use resources available to come up with the correct
answers. After having this class I feel that I better understand
the lasw of motion, astronomy, and aspects of the course and the properties
of mass. All of which are things which will be helpful in teaching
my future students. Thank you!
35. I got confused with the lectures often. I
wished you would have showed us more concrete examples of how to compute
and workout problems step by step. I thought this class was
reasonable. I appreciate that you are concerned about us using our
resources and what we can learn from them rather than memorizing.
36. The material for the class was at times very difficult to understand.
Your notes online were helpful.. However they took
a long time to download.
37. He was a great instructor. The exams, experiments and
labs were helpful. The only problem was his
essay questions sheet. He allowed us to work on 6 or 7 essay ques
before an exam but then when the exam came we did have one of those questions
on the exam. I also don't recomend having those online ques. as part
of their grade.
38. Maybe instead of giving so may essay questions
for us to study you should narrow them down a bit. It was hard to
do all the essay questions and study as well.
39. Dr. Pickett communicates well with the class.
40. We enjoyed power point presentations a lot! But,
it was very time consuming and took a lot of ink. Suggestion > have
notes dopied in copy center so students can but - like Kuck.
41. I think that you should put the class
notes on reference in the library as well as online because they are very
useful and I had trouble with my computer.
42. He was a very knowledgeable teacher on the subject. He
helped make this difficult subject as easy as possible for us to understand.
I reccommend to my friends to take his lecture class.
43. This course is very overwhelming for me given that lab and THEX
#1-7 are required. I think it would be a great
idea that you would consider to grade on a curve. Maybe it
will be less stressful in order for students to learn the materials.
Otherwise I have learned a lot in this course, and I am clad to have
taken PHSC 112. :)
44. Great! I love Pickett!
45. I thought this was a great class. I found that the notes
online were very convenient for letting us follow along during your lecture.
I thought the exams were fair and I liked how you let us use our notes
and textbooks. :)
46. I really did like this course. When we first started the
semester I didn't think I would do good becasue I have a hard time with
science. But it was great, I always got the material. If I didn't
get it right the first time on a THExp, the second time doing it was understood.
Thank I'm leaving with a much better understanding of all the material.
47. Thanks for being so efficient about helping us with our lab
teacher problem! You were a great teacher who values your students!
48. I really enjoyed this class. You are very approachable
for when students have questions. I found THExp #5 to be very interesting.
It was my favorite.
49. The open notebook test policy as well as posted online note
are what I found really helpful in this course. Also, having the
opportunity to redo the THExp helped as well b/c sometimes I couldn't get
them done due to work and other classes. I enjoyed this class.
50. I think that daily assignments would be
beneficial, just small ones withh the moon problems. I think this
would also make people go to class.
The take home experiments were really helpful
in understanding the material, especially the moon experiments.
51. Very well organized, and very dedicated to his work.
52. I enjoyed your class because I learned a lot. The
work given to us was not hard but helpful to us. The
only suggestion I have is that you give your class lectures a bit slower.
53. For me, science is confusing. Dr. Pickett explained everything
in great detail and was always very helpful with questions from the class.
last updated: June 16, 2005
