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 127, and 87
students filled out evaluation forms. Of those 87, 61
had extra written comments to make.
Many students commented on the relationship between
the lab and lecture. It is very
true that the lecture and the lab seldom deal with the same topics during
the same weeks of the semester, a situation that is common to all of the
100 level courses on this campus, perhaps in most physics departments generally.
Synchronizing lab and lecture may never turn out to be possible, but I have
tried to be aware of what is going on in lab, and have tried to make links
between experiments that have already been done to topics that we are currently
talking about. I do not know if this approach will be successful
in the end, but given the comments below, I will try to put more effort
into putting the weekly lab into the contect of the lecture.
As always, there are many suggestions on how
to improve the course. One think I will
particularly think about is the mechanics of handing homework in and getting
it back graded. With 127 students in the class, I've not thought
it feasible to hand assignments back individually, and with my policy of
allowing students to turn in corrected assignments after the formal due
dates, some students have been taking assignments from the hand-out stack,
copying them, and then returning them to the turn-in stack. Keeping
electronic copies of *all* assingmnets coming in and going out may be the
best way to track down this behavior. Also, many students wanted
to be able to pick up dopies of the online notes printed in the bookstore
ahead of time, to save their printers ink/paper/ and wear and tear.
This is something that I'll take a look at.
Comments made during standard class evaluations:
1. I liked it very much that there were due dates for our THExp's,
but that they were flexible. I like how you made us very aware of
what they entailed like that one that had to be done on a certain date
and others took a month, because I talked to people in the other teacher's
class and they had no idea and have procrastinated so now they can't do
at least three of them. Also at first, I didn't
like that the labs didn't coincide with the class, but it didn't really
matter and I think we moved at a good speed.
I also like that we had a chance to fix out mistakes on our THExp so that
we could learn.
2. I really enjoyed this class! I think that you're a fantastic
instructor. My only suggestion is that when
it came to the multiple choice portions of the exams, I felt very unprepared.
SO I think that it would be helpful for future classes if you gave short
quizzes (whether graded or e/c) containing questions which are similar
to those that they would see on the exams. Therefore they would have
some sort of idea as to the wording and depth of the questions on exams.
Other than that, I feel that this class was more than fair, and that you
really are a great professor. Good luck in the upcoming semester,
and have a great summer!
3. I appreciate how much extra credit you have given in this course
because I would be sinking without it. I think you are an excellent
professor and have explained the material the best that you can.
I think that there is too much information in this course to learn and
understnad. Also, the labs did not follow what
was in lectures.
4. Please find a better way for students to
get their graded papers back. Several of us had our THExp. and Mini-Exp.
stolen.
5. You are a wonderful teacher but I had a hard time understanding
everything we went through the chapters really fast. As far as take-home
experiments thanks for giving us time to do them. I
have one complaint - people take the take home exp. and copy them.
Maybe you should hold on to them until we ask for it.
6. Loved the way you taught this course!
7. I thought this was a great class, for me not being too good in
science. I think I did fairly well in this class. I thought
being able to redo experiments for the full credit was great.
8. I really felt that this was a great class with a very compassionate
and understanding professor. His classroom tactics regarding assignments,
exams and homework were fair and his teaching style showed that he really
wanted his students to do well and succed with a good grade in this class.
9. Great class! Great idea to use notes on test! Good
to turn in HW after chance to fix it.
10. I normally hate science and science classes but after taking
this class I feel more confident and actually enjoy science. Professor
Pickett was a great teacher. He is extremely fair in grading.
I appreciated the fact that he gave us chances for extra credit, redo of
THExp., and the fact that he provided notes online. All in which
were a huge help to my grade. He is the kind of teacher that want
his students to suceede and I appreciated that. All of his class
was great and I would change a thing. Thank you and good luck!
11. Dr. Pickett, I must say that I enjoyed this class. I learned
material that was never presented to me in past science classes and material
was refreshed from past classes as well. It's amazing how this universe
works. The only problem that I had was that
the multiple choice questions were sometimes tricky, but overall it was
great. Thankyou. One more thing. When I emailed you in
regards to exam questions, I always recieved them late at night.
12. I thought this course was good for people who were not as proficient
in acience. The fact that we were able to turn in the homework late
and the extra credit helped a lot if one had not done well on the exam.
13. Pickett was always well prepared for class, lectures were very
informative. He went above and beyond to help his students.
He would stay after lecture everyday and help students.
14. I like how we were able to turn in our take home exp. throughout
the semester. Also, the study guides and notes onine were very helpful.
15. The teaching style was good. The
notes to printout online are just too much. They should be on a powerpoint
file. so we can print them smaller and not have to bring 1000's of papers
for notes on the day of the test. Overall he's a good professor.
Thank you.
16. Prof. Pickett was a great professor! He made himself available
for any help and questions. He's teaching style is great, especially
since he posts lecture notes online which is helpful. However,
I do wish the exam were a little more straightforward because the class
is only 50 minutes.
17. I enjoyed Professor Pickett's teaching style and lectures.
His online notes were quite useful because it allowed me to listed to the
lectures instead of worrying on writing all of the material. One
improvement that can be made is to make exams a bit shorter since we only
have 50 min. to take it. For exam II most of the class and I did
not have enough time to finish.
18. I have never been very good in the science area. I really
appreciated that you would make an effort for people to do well in your
class. My only suggestion would be to have
the essay questions that you give ahead of time match the one on the exam.
I would spend a lot of time working ahead of time and found myself thrown
when they were different.
19. I like Professor Pickett a lot. He makes obvious effort
to help us understand the concepts of this course and genuinely cares about
the students and our success.
20. The course is well organized and flexible with student needs.
The lab section section of this class, however, doesn't
really coincide with what's being taught in class. It
would be great if specific pages for reading could be placed on the course
outline making it easier to focus on certain parts instead of the whole
chapter.
21. You are an excellent instructor. I liked how you were
so flexible, and willing to help. It seemed like you really wanted
everyone to succed. It was nice having access to the notes online.
Thankyou for a great class.
22. You are a wonderful teacher who really cares about the students.
You do everything so well and you are well prepared for class. One
thing that I dislike is that you are too lenient and nice. You should
let them turn in the THE a week late. Don't let them turn it in at
the end of the semester.
I really enjoy your class and you are such a cool and fantastic
teacher. Your multiple choice is a little bit
too hard, make it a little easier next time.
23. I like the idea that the students get a chance to make better
grades by turning in the THEX until we get full credit. Keep up the
great teaching.
24. I like how professor Pickett was very flexible on the due dates
for the Take Home experiments. It was also very helpful how he had
our lecture notes on his website before class; this way, students would
know what to expect when he lectured.
25. Your class was great. The structure of the curriculum
is awesome. I would only stuggest to put the
THE online so future students can try and reclaim some of the $90 spent
on the book. A very interesting class this was.
26. Exam II was very hard. A study guide
would have helped.
27. I appreciate you giving us opportunities to raise our grade
by doing things like, mini-experiments that raise our test score grade
:).
28. You are a wonderful teacher. Things I might ask you to
consider are (1) giving an outline w/ page numbers
for each section of the class. I found it very difficult to find
topics and info in the book. (the book was not helpful).
and (2) Go into the labs and observe the teachers.
My lab instructor was not the best and I found it difficult to understand
procedures. Please *keep* the flexible due dates, notes online
both were very helpful. Thanks.
29. **** (lab teacher) needs to dramatically
improve on her teaching skills. -Not clear -Not fair - She has nothing
really, or actually very little to do add to your class.
30. Really appreciate the extra time given to complete the Take
Home Experiments! Tests are pretty difficult, but that might be because
I'm not a science person. Fair in workload and expectations for the
course.
31. Very well prepared for classes. The website as well as
the visual aids were very helpful in leanring the subject content.
32. Book was not straight to the point and
was unclear.
33. You're one of the best teacher I've ever had. You throughly
explain everything and I actually understand the materials. I think
the flexible homework due date made my life a lot less stressful.
Thank you.
34. The notes online were helpful, but it
might be more effective to post the notes as a packet in the bookstore
to be purchased as a unit.
35. I think this class was taught very well. I liked the flexibility
in due dates for Homework assignments. I think
it would be effect if we could purchase the notes in the bookstore, because
it took a lot of paper and ink to print them out from home.
36. Dr. Pickett is a wonderful instructor. He made this class
interesting and bearable for the non-science minded. Great class!
37. The subject is difficult, but the professor made it as easy
as possible for us to learn and do well in the course.
38. This class was very flexible. The professor understood
the fact that the material was fairly difficult and offered many opportunities
to increase our individual grades.
39. He was a great teacher. He really knew what he was teaching
and was very helpful. He always had time to help students understand
by answering questions for them.
40. Prof. Pickett was a great teacher. He was always willing
to help and went above and beyond for his students.
41. -Liked the homework due dates flexible. - Liked the notes posted
on website. - Liked the study guides and open note tests. -Wish
lab and lecture were more closely related.
42. Resubmitting assignm. really helped me to understand more.
Thanks!
43. This was a great class because the instructor
provided students with information useful in the course unlike the lab.
He was well organized and kept everything together.
44. You were such an awesome teacher. The most beneficial
aspect of the class that helped everyone was the chance to turn in our
THExp. and mini experiments and correct them if something was wrong.
I know I learned a lot from that process. You were also very helpful
with any questions that we had. Thank you!
45. Need to liven it up a bit. Drag
it out too much. You take too long presenting one area and are very
theoretical. Try to get to the point. Shorten it up a bit.
46. Prof. Pickett you are a great instructor. The course was
valuable, however, the THExper. were not very well
explained.
47. Sell the experiments separate from the
book so if students want they can sell the books back.
48. I really thought the notes posted on the web was really useful.
However, the allotted time for exam #1, #2 was not
enough time to really think out all of the questions. In other words,
the test was too long for the amount of time given.
49. I liked the notes on the internet, but
maybe it would be better to sell them beforehand because its a lot of paper
and ink Also watch the HW being turned in because people steal them.
50. The notes on the web are a plus. The due date flexiblity
is awesome. Overall, the class was good.
51. Because the tests are so hard,
I think curving the grades would help a lot especially on the final.
52. I felt that I would have been able to
do a better job in the class if the lecture and lab were more closely related.
It was very rare that what we did in lab matched with what we learning
in the lecture. I really liked the flexible THExp due dates
and the fact that the notes were online.
53. I learned a lot and enjoyed the class.
I wish the labs could have helped me more in class though. I
liked the flexibility of the assignment dates. Good class - I'd reccomend
it :).
54. Good job.
55. The class was structured very well, the
only flaw was the gap between labs and lecture, if they were associated
more tightly it would give us a better understanding of the course material.
56. Notes online were very helpful. Thankyou for being so
helpful after class with questions. Extending due dates was great
but kind of made me lazy. Overall, the class was a great experience.
Thank you! :)
57. I don't have any complaints but just wanted to say how
nice it was to be able to get notes off the internet, and have flexible
due dates for the experiments!
58. The class presented difficult material at a level that could
be understood by everyone. The assignments were easily followed and
the instruction was easy to follow.
59. It was beneficial for the flexible due dates dealing w/ THExp's.
The notes on the internet definitely made class much easier to follow.
Prof. Pickett was always easy to access with any questions and the exams
followed the course material well.
60. You did a great job! Thanks for being so willing to answer
our ques! Thanks for posting info on-line.
61. I thought he did a really good job teaching a subject that is
complicated. I appreciate the E. C. opportunities as well.
last updated: June 22, 2005
