Reviews for BSCI370

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Carlos Machado BSCI370 Expecting a B- Anonymous 02/01/2024	Dr. Machado is very passionate about this subject and sometimes makes lectures interesting to listen to. I definitely learned a lot about evolution and there were certain topics I enjoyed like human evolution. In my semester (fall 2023) he included fun videos about predators/prey/parasites and other related concepts that made the class more engaging. The concepts in the class are difficult, and require time to study them. There are also a lot of readings (maybe like 20-30 pages a week) and 2 quizzes every week based on the readings. Class averages for exams were low, exam 1 (61%), exam 2 (61%), exam 3 (79%-- he made exam 3 easier), final (49%). You can drop your lowest out of 4 exams or choose not to take the final if you did fine on exams 1-3. Attendance is also mandatory since there are clicker questions in each class. It helped me a lot to go to TAs for help understanding material and studying the exams. I would go back and study exams 1-3 if you plan to take the final since he takes questions from there. Overall, if you don't need to take this class, don't. But if you have no choice like I did for my bio major then go to as many TA office hours as you can, review lecture slides (a lot of exam questions come from slides as well), review old exams for the final and you can pass.
Nicholas Fletcher BSCI370 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/29/2023	There's not much more to be said about Dr. Fletcher that other reviews have not covered. He is literally the nicest professor I have ever had. Lectures were dense but concise, and as long as you took notes and paid attention, exams were not difficult. All lectures are also recorded so you can always go back and review concepts you did not understand. In office hours, Dr. Fletcher always answered all questions thoroughly and was really direct in telling us what was and was not important. If you have the opportunity to take him, definitely do!!
Nicholas Fletcher BSCI370 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2023	Easy money per usual. I tip my hat to this good man.
Nicholas Fletcher BSCI370 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/10/2023	Literally the best professor at UMD. I had Dr. Fletcher for BSCI207 and BSCI370. Extremely personable, understanding, and down-to-earth. Simply a fantastic professor and person. He creates such a welcoming environment. He also records his lectures, so if you ever miss a day, you can keep up with the notes. Despite the recordings, I still found myself showing up to class every single day because of how amazing Dr. Fletcher's teaching style is. His powerpoints are so clear. His concept checks really keep you up to speed with the current topics. He gives amazing feedback too. I find his exams to be extremely in-line with what we learned and there is never anything unfair or surprising on them. I wish he taught more biology classes because I would take any class he teaches. Even if you don't like the class, Dr. Fletcher makes it as easy to understand as possible.
Carlos Machado BSCI370 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/11/2018	This class is difficult. There is a lot of reading and explaining the concepts can be tedious and boring. He goes out of his way to teach these concepts in multiple ways so that it makes sense to different types of learners, and is very open during office hours. He is a really nice guy, and he clearly means well during class. Out of the three exams before the final, only one was difficult. The material is confusing and you will need to study for this course. Machado responds to emails quickly and genuinely wants everyone to do well. His exams are directly off of lecture slides with maybe 1-2 things taken directly from lecture. He always provides a study guide that is 100% everything on the exam and nothing more, which is taken from the lecture slides. He has never been condescending or short with me when I have asked really low-level questions (What actually is a chromosome?). Additionally, while the book is important, he doesn't really cover most of what the book discusses. Some of that material can only be found within the lecture slides. However, even if you miss lecture, he will kindly re-explain anything if you need it. I don't find the other reviews to be an accurate reflection of this course. Perhaps he has improved a lot since 2016?
Carlos Machado BSCI370 Anonymous 12/18/2016	honestly, I was not expecting the class to be too hard. I love biology and have been good at i. This class would tell other people that I was not good at biology. His exams end up confusing people since his wording is confusing. I would study as he said :look at powerpoints and the book but still no luck. It was a tough class. Do I regret it? YES. I would rather suffer in a high level chemistry class or physics class than take this class.
Carlos Machado BSCI370 Anonymous 11/17/2016	Machado is the ABSOLUTE WORST professor I have ever had. He does not know how to teach the material and is a very rude professor. He aims to make the material harder than it is and answers questions by throwing questions back at you. I have taken many biology classes at Maryland and this one was my least favorite all because of him. He emphasizes the book a lot and expects you to know every graph and figure in the book for an exam. His questions on his exams are misleading and are not clear. I cannot wait for the course evaluations to come out but just a warning to many. DON’T TAKE HIM! AVOID HIM AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
Sara Via BSCI370 Expecting a B sjemt 05/01/2016	Dr. Via may be a good researcher, but she is not a good professor nor does she appear to be knowledgable about the course material she is supposed to be teaching. Via was simply not effective in communicating course material, and often seemed to become lost in thought trying to process the information on her slides. On many occasions, the professor would stare blankly at the powerpoint while she tried to figure out what the information that most likely she herself had put together, stating (verbatim), "I'm not really sure what this slide is saying, but you guys should understand it for the test." I have taken numerous ecology, genetics, animal behavior, and even philosophy of evolution courses prior to taking BSCI370, so I came into this class with considerable knowledge of the subject. I was very excited to take this course because evolution is my major and my passion, and I can honestly say I was very disappointed. The questions on the homework assignments were often incoherent, making it impossible to determine the true intention of the question and ultimately resulting in an incorrect answer because the student simply had to guess. When student concerns were brought to Via regarding these incoherent homework questions, she simply stated that she does not do regrades for homework assignments. Even when she had her TA grade the assignments, leaving room for error, Via refused to investigate student concerns about misgrading. The TA was instructed to grade assignments, yet did not seem to be able to apply a greater understanding of the subject matter when student answers strayed slightly from exactly what the rubric said. On one occasion, in regards to hominid evolution and migration to the Americas, Via asked a T/F question on a homework assignment stating "Early humans migrated from Asia on boats to colonize America". While this statement has never been in any textbook or published scientific literature upon a detailed search on online search engines, Via had included it in her powerpoint for class, leading the student to believe this answer was correct. In class the day the assignment was due, Dr. Via said that in her "opinion", the Bering Strait and Siberia is not a part of Asia, and that was her reasoning for marking that question "false". When a student brought her concern to Dr. Via that the Bering Strait and Russia are considered to be part of the Asian continent by the majority of geographical textbooks and societies, she simply stated she didn't agree, so she would keep it marked incorrect on the assignment. Overall, this course was extremely disappointing. Dr. Via did not effectively communicate course material, nor demonstrate any understanding of the information she was supposed to be presenting. When a science professor states, "I'm not sure how people figure out the biomechanics of how fossils lived", it does not create much confidence in the professor for the student. I am thoroughly disappointed that the course was not informative whatsoever, and the professor was unable to communicate anything outside of the information in the textbook.
Carlos Machado BSCI370 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/18/2015	Machado is not an inherently mean person. In general, I think he tries to be nice. HOWEVER, he is the worst professor I have ever had at UMD. When he uploads his powerpoint slides to ELMS, he purposefully removes key information and leaves blanks on the slides. I suppose this is an attempt to force you to take notes in class, but it is impossible to pay attention to him for an hour and 15 minutes because he reads directly off of his slides in a boring, thickly accented, monotone. It a huge pain to study for his (in my opinion unfairly) hard exams, because the slides leave out important information, and his lectures do not correlate with the textbook. To give credit where credit is due, at the end of the year he gave some extra credit assignments (~3% of the final grade worth), curved the class grades, and was receptive during office hours. As someone who has already taken all of the traditionally "difficult" science exams like orgo, gen chem, physics, and calc, I still got a C in this class because Machado's exams were very hard and poorly worded (TA grading could be at some fault). WORKLOAD: - 1 online homework quiz each week (about 10 questions) that correlate with the lectures from that week. - About 7 in class, group work assignments that he gives randomly throughout the semester to test who is coming to class. - 2 midterms and a final Avoid Machado if you can. If not, find any edition Evolution textbook and teach yourself.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/25/2014	Unfortunately you have a choice between him and Machado. I took Machado in the spring and fell asleep in his lectures because he was monotone so I withdrew, and then fell even more asleep in Fenster's class in the fall. Fenster= sad pretentious egoist he does not care about his students, he would much rather go back to his research then be in a room with us for an hour every other day. I think he was going through a mid-life crisis at the time considering that he flipped out on us and told this one kid to get out of the class for coming in late. He is also rude and told this girl one time that funding her sport takes away from funding his research, and that he didnt expect her to get a good grade because she was a woman sports player... all together an awkward situation to be part of. If you want to learn an awesome subject, take animal behavior with wilkinson. If you want an easy A, take this course but dont go to lecture, its not worth it.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting an F Anonymous 09/23/2014	Worst professor ever. So boring that half the class is unable to stay awake and he gets mad when this happens. Definitely dislikes masturbation during his lectures, which I have never understood.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/19/2012	Sort of blown away by these reviews. Fenster is great. I had him for Evolution and he was a little boring, but the class was very easy. Follow his strange formatting guidelines for papers, sack up, and do the work. Gloss over the readings before exams and use the terms from the textbook as much as possible. Very straightforward if you put in even middling effort.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Anonymous 12/14/2012	I was expecting to get an A in the class since I got an A the tests, and 40% of the class gets As according to our UMD. But I got a C+ on the final. I was a couple points away from an A and he didn't bump it. He said he only gave out A's to 15 students which is less than 15% of the class. He is fairly nice but REALLY BORING. DON't take this if you want an easy A, because he has made it hard to get an A recently.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/14/2012	Fenster is, by far, the most boring professor I have ever had. He literally lectures in monotone. His powerpoints are derived COMPLETELY from the book. His explanations are actually worse than the book. I went home and read the chapters and everything made so much more sense. The dryness of the course material doesn't help Fenster's lectures. If you think this class is going to be a fun study of simple Darwinian principles, you're wrong. A majority of the course is mathematical formulas and analysis of specific experiments by evolutionary scientists. Avoid this course (and this professor) if you can!
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/17/2011	It is impossible to pay attention, because (1) he adds nothing to the content in the book, (2) He is the driest old jewish guy in the world. I went to 2 lectures and skimmed the chapters in the book, ended with an 85.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/04/2011	This man is amazing- he is quirky and bizarre. Sometimes he goes on tangents speaking about other doctors in the field but this is the best class i've ever taken. yes, he's monotone, but judging from the weird stuff that comes out of his mouth, i'm sure its because he's bored of us!
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Anonymous 12/15/2010	One of the most boring classes ever. The professor spoke in a very monotonous tone, and I could not get through a single lecture without falling asleep. Tests get progressively harder, especially the final, which was worth 40%. Class and lecture slides are completely worthless, gets material directly from text. NOT a recommended class to take.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2009	Fenster speaks in a monotonic voice during lectures, and you will definitely fall asleep if you don't drink any energy drinks. You will learn mostly nothing from his lectures, and if you just read the book prior to all the exams you will get an A. He grades easy on all the essays and he gives extra credits.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 purplemonkey 12/10/2009	Was pretty engaging during lectures, grades fairly. Be sure to study all of the material for exams, including calculations. Exams are fair but do cover specifics as well as main points. Teaches directly from the book, and often the book is more clear. Still worth going to lectures.
Charles Fenster BSCI370 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/27/2008	The first test is easy, the others are somewhat difficult. He gives easy A's on essays and extra credit. Reading the book will give more information than lecture, he mostly teaches from the book.