Charles Delwiche

This professor has taught: BISI678D, BISI712, BSCI238B, BSCI464, CBMG688B, CBMG688O, CBMG688U, CBMG699A, HONR278K

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Charles Delwiche Expecting an A Anonymous 10/28/2019	A nice guy and very smart guy. He really cares about the subject. The exams are kind of hard to predict.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting an A+ umdcattree 08/16/2012	I took this class in fall 2011 with Delwiche AND Schultz, so I am reviewing both of them together (and cross-posting this to Schultz's page). I have to disagree with most of the other reviews on this page. I think people here are just bitter that the class was difficult and covered a large volume of information. I think it acts as a weed-out course for a lot of prospective bio majors. Grades also tended to be low percentage-wise, which can be discouraging, but letter grades are assigned according to class rank and people in my class only needed about a 76 to get an A. There is also a drop-one policy for midterm exams and quizzes, which can help quite a bit Delwiche and Schultz are both knowledgeable and enthusiastic professors (Schultz especially is a funny dude). Contrary to what they say, however, you DO need to memorize some specific information and diagrams (evolutionary processes of certain body parts and organisms, phylogenetic tree, etc.) in addition to understanding overarching concepts. I highly recommend reading the textbook chapters before each lecture and attending every class, but that's the exact same advice I give for most courses. Make sure to pay attention and write down any diagrams or explanations that aren't on the slides. Also be sure to review BSCI105 and 106 information on their review guide at the beginning of the semester since there is a full-length preliminary exam very early in the semester. It's scaled to be worth only 10 points, but it helps to start the semester with a good grade and a solid foundation in gen bio. Bottom line: it is possible to do well in this class if you're willing to put the time and work in.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting an A traintu 01/07/2012	i don't even know where to begin with this! there were just so many things that bothered me about bsci207 with delwiche and shultz. definitely not the best introduction to college classes, that's for sure. As you will find out, bsci207 is the bane of an intro bio majors existence, especially with delwiche and shultz who teach off of a whim. they essentially tailor their class to whatever they want to teach, so it ends up sbeing a disorganized mess of random, miniscule facts and large concepts. This semester with 207, delwiche and shultz decided to hand out eleven pop quizzes, and while only five points each, proved to be major stressors. Delwiche is big on thinking about a concept and making inferences based on the information given (mixed in with a few completely random facts here and there of course). Shultz is very big on memorize these random details here, some equations there. this made it difficult to figure out what would be on quizzes and exams, which by the way were very stressful. typically i did not work in this class, at all, except for the week before exams. there were only two exams and the final, and thank goodness one midterm is dropped. I would cram a bunch of information in my head the week before a midterm with the full intention of forgetting it right after, because of how useless it was. to do well without cramming would mean paying attention to delwiche and shultz's monotonous voices for an hour and fifteen minutes. i went to lecture for the quizzes but never, ever paid attention, which isn't really their fault as much as my sheer inability to pay attention to people talking about algae and biomechanics for so long. while i'm sure they are cool people to talk to out of class, I just had a bad experience with this class. I think I got an A because of the humongous curve (75 and up was an A). The TA's weren't much help either, although they were very nice. Avoid taking delwiche and shultz if you have trouble paying attention in lecture, or never learned how to think about biology. at least it's a good way to bond with friends, bsci207 has become a running join between my friends and me.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Anonymous 01/03/2012	This was my first bio class coming into college. I initially thought that bio would be my easiest class, since it was purely memorization. I was so wrong though. BSCI207 with Delwiche and Schultz turned out to be my most difficult class. They emphasized so much in the beginning of the semester that "memorizing everything will not help you" and that instead you must "focus on the broad concepts." I took their words too literally, and didn't review much of the material for the first midterm. After taking that exam, I realized they expect you to memorize EVERYTHING they say in LECTURE. Basically, Delwiche and Schultz orient the class on their own interests, with Delwiche lecturing on plants and botany, while Schultz takes over every few weeks lecturing on a totally unrelated topic of biomechanics. To me, these topics ambiguously fell under the class topic of "organismal biology" and it was very frustrating that they did very little to show the relationship of the topics we learned (we started with plants, jumped to viruses, then random bio-astronomy, back to plants, then metazoa [took students forever to realize metazoans are organisms--Shultz should have just straight up told us], to plants againnnn, then the biomechanics of an muscle, finishing with numerous other random topics I cannot remember). To do well in this course, pay attention in lecture. If you can't focus for the full hour 15 minutes, record the lecture and review it with the powerpoints they post on BB. If you don't have lecture recordings to go with it, the powerpoints are rather useless. Also, do all the past exams they post. And most importantly, memorize everything.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 erika_14 12/26/2011	This class sucked. Its a combo of 105 and 106 but more in depth and viewing information a different way and if you're really not interested in evolution and phylogenies then get ready to be pissed after every exam! Delwiche was an okay lecturer but he kinda acts like a jerk.. and Schultz is a worse lecturer but really nice (at times). The exams are ridiculously hard with MC choices like (2 of the above) and (none of the above) so that sucked. And the pop quizzes... what college course has pop quizzes?! Lol anyway avoid these 2 professors if you can...
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Anonymous 12/10/2011	This is more of a review for the entire course of BSCI207 with Delwiche AND Shultz... So...snidely insulting a student's intelligence after he asked a question during lecture in front of the whole class made me lose a ton of respect for professor Shultz, though he is the more effective lecturer. I admit, it was kinda funny, but totally inappropriate and unprofessional in that setting. It made him seem a lot less approachable, at least to me. Delwiche seems like the more approachable professor for students who have questions or concerns. Shultz's lecture slides conveyed the course material better than Delwiche's lecture slides. And at times, I did not entirely understand the main points of Delwiche's lectures because it was not that explicit (though the plant unit slides were fine). The tests were okay, and showed that one must know a lot more than just rote memorization of facts in order to be successful. You must be able to logically synthesize the information presented to you, and this is indeed an important skill that they emphasized during the course. I honestly didn't open the print textbook that much for this course, though I used the online textbook, and did the chapter outline quizzes, etc but that's just my style. For the "pop" quizzes, you must know the little details covered in the recent lecture. Even if you wrote it down, always review your notes after lecture or right before lecture, because you probably forgot what you wrote down! Happened to me a lot, frustrating. This was my 1st biology course taken at UMD, so I don't know who/what to compare this to in terms of biology professors/lecturers/courses. They seemed just alright, and the tests seemed fairly difficult I guess. I think an average student (who goes to all the lectures and takes some notes) can pass with a mid to low B.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/28/2011	I read most of the reviews on here and I just think most of it is really biased. So I will be as unbiased as possible when I am rating Dr.Delwiche and Dr.Shultz. BSCI207 is a really tough class. The entire class is about the evolutionary past, so you can't really apply the knowledge you learned until you get the present organisms (which also explains why it's 3 credits because you can't really have a lab about evolution). Dr.Delwiche and Dr.Shultz taught this class. Dr.Delwiche taught plants and microorganisms while Dr.Shultz taught metazoans. They are mediocre instructors. They aren't the greatest, but they aren't bad so you can't really complain that they are bad teachers. The reason why I think the ratings on this page are biased is because of the difficulty of the class. It doesn't matter what professor you take BSCI207 with because either way it will be very difficult. I don't know how other professors does it but Delwiche and Shultz base your grade on a class ranking system. The top of the class gets A's while the bottom part of the class fails. There are pros and cons behind this. Pros are that students are able to get good grades. The exams are very difficult...so it will almost be impossible to get an A by total percentage wise (assuming 90% is an A). The exams are so difficult that 76%+ = A, 70% - 76% = B, 62-70% = C, etc. The cons are that some students are bound to fail. If you are good at biology and have a lot of confidence that you can do well in this course, then Delwiche/Shultz is for you because of the class ranking system. If you are not confident, I would recommend taking with a professor that uses the percent-grading system. I really believe that the bad ratings on this page are because of the ranking system. I can see why the ranking system can frustrate a lot of people. However, if this class used the percentage system, no one would get A's. In conclusion: -Delwiche and Shultz are decent instructors -This class is really really hard -The grade you get is based on your rank # in the class -The textbook doesn't really help, but you might as well get it because it's $5-$10 online -DON'T purchase MasteringBiology with the textbook because it's useless (it's a complete waste of money) -Delwiche and Shultz are good people, personality wise -Exams are really really difficult, you need to study a lot for it, probably more than any of your other classes -The exams require you to think and apply everything you learned about biology -BSCI207 doesn't ask you "what" questions, they only ask you "why" and "how" questions so you REALLY have to know the concepts by heart -This class is PURE concept, not memorization -Biology application is this entire course
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/29/2011	Took BSCI207 with Dr. Delwiche in Fall 2010 - it was my second time taking it. I'm a senior with a 3.6 GPA so I'm telling you honestly that this is a difficult course. Don't blame the professors. I took it the first time with Dr. Cooke and Dr. Jensen because I've heard so many good things about Dr. Jensen, but the material was exactly the same and presented in exactly the same way (hell, some of the lecture slides were even identical!). Dr. Delwiche is a great guy, always fun to talk to and willing to help you. He's really intelligent, also. One of the more interesting "plant" guys that I've met.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/12/2011	Delwiche is the devil. He comes in a pleasant disguise, but don't be fooled by his excitement about algae. He will try to fail you just as well. Delwiche and Schultz co-taught this class and neither one of them knew what they were talking about. Both Delwiche and Schultz are obsessed with their research and they don't know how to explain anything other than that. Schultz introduced himself by talking about spider penises and how they give "nuptial gifts" to the females. This was the only lecture that I ever understood from the class. Seriously, if you need to take this class don't EVER try taking it with either Delwiche or Schultz. They ended up using a bell curve, so in order to get a B in the class you needed higher than an 80%. They were not sympathetic at all. They would give no points back on tests, even if you provided a perfect explanation on essay questions. They were the worst!!!
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Anonymous 12/18/2010	ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS CLASS! You will learn almost nothing that you will ever use again, while sitting through the most uninteresting lectures of your entire life. Professors are indifferent towards students and are very self absorbed into their research and weird stuff that they are interested in (Shultz was also the teacher for this class). Put random side notes on exams - speaking of their exams they are ridiculous. You will study for days and still fail. Don't waste your time, and if this class is required for your major TAKE IT WITH A DIFFERENT PROFESSOR or you will regret it.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2010	Dr. Delwiche is honestly one of the most caring and dedicated people (not just professors) that I have ever met. Take heed, this is not an easy course, but in terms making himself available to students and doing everything he can to help them, he is unmatched. If you introduce yourself to him, at all, he WILL remember you, not only by face but by name. If you ever wander up to his office looking for help, as I did on only a few occasions, he'll set aside whatever he is working on and meet with you, and answer any questions you may have. He is passionate about his research, and his lectures are engaging. I can't stress enough, if you are having trouble in the class: -A) download the lecture slides, and read the corresponding sections of the book as you go through them. They will provide a much more detailed description than one can reasonably fit on a lecture slide. -B) If you're having problems in the class, talk to Delwiche. He is more than reasonable and will do everything in his power to help you. In conclusion: hard class? yes. Great professor? that too
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Anonymous 11/10/2010	I just took the second exam for this god forsaking class. Have not studied like this for so long only to get an exam with questions that weren't remotely close to the study guide. Please please please do your self a favor and DO NOT take this class with them!
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a I Anonymous 10/29/2010	I hate 207. It isn't nothing like my advanced plasemint biology at High School or at the community colleges I been too. It seem like you have to take notes and read the book and even that won't mean you will do good on the exam. The lectures are so boring I would fall asleep, but I like talking to the guy next to me who feels the same way and we get through it somehow. The lectures don't entertain me enough; I need lots of sounds, colors, motion and stuff to keep my interest. All these guys do is like stand and talk and talk and show slides of stuff that nobody care about. What's so great about plants and bugs and stuff anyway? What a waste of my time. If you like me, don't take this course!
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Anonymous 07/02/2010	One of the most ridiculous classes I’ve ever taken. Be prepared to take extremely detailed notes (and that’s not going to be enough- put in A LOT of extra study time). I would suggest probably recording the lectures (I didn’t do this but thinking back, it may have helped). This class was co-taught (partly by Prof. Delwiche and Prof. Jeffrey Shultz). Their teaching styles are different- Prof. Shultz’s lectures come straight out of the book, are monotonous, and boring. You will be tempted to fall asleep (during either one’s lectures). At times, the material we learned didn’t seem to connect (it seemed like we were jumping around). Exams are random, ridiculous, and (most often) unfair. There are 4 undergrad TAs and 1 grad school TA. This time around, they were absolutely no help and tended to contradict each other. They’ve either forgotten the material or just don’t know it. There is no discussion section for this class; the TAs hold review sessions throughout the week. Random topics that were never fully discussed in class ALWAYS come up on the exams and are worth a lot of points. Reading the textbook thoroughly will help but does not guarantee in any way that you will do well on the exams. This class will be horrible no matter who you take it with, but please, take another professor. Occasionally these two have condescending attitudes when you ask them questions. At times, you wonder whether they really want their students to do well.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Sir 04/28/2010	Well. You won't expect a good review from me. Dr. Delwiche starts off in the beginning of the semester taking pictures of his class. He is more of a photographer than a professor. His powerpoints are absolutely trash. They are just pictures with little or no text. You literally have to record his lectures because there is no way in hell that you write that fast. His exams are irrelevant. It is like a giant tank water with thousand of balls with words on it, and he has manatees swimming around in it and push the balls into an opening. In that opening, the balls falls in a lottery type machine and the words form a sentence. That's what a typical Delwiche exam question looks like.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/08/2010	This class was just crazy. Everything that one would expect to be on the exam, the kind of stuff that you should come away with from a class like this was not there. Instead, look forward to memorizing every random fact that comes up in lecture. As tempted as you may be DO NOT FALL ASLEEP! Whatever little fact you may miss in that 5 minute nap may very well make a free response worth hefty points on the exam. Also, work on writing a lot in only a few minutes. Most of the exam is free response, and sometimes even what seems like the most comprehensive explanation to you may not get you full points on the question. The only other graded work beyond the exam was a museum assignment, which was actually graded pretty harshly, so do it well. Take very copious notes during class, or record lectures, since the PowerPoints, tho available, are not ever good enough to study from as they are simply pictures. Wikipedia becomes a good friend to look up stuff like formulas that are not fully explained in class, but that WILL COME UP IN THE EXAM, you can count on it. Nothing against the professors personally, since they both seemed very knowledgeable, but class was pretty boring, and the exam was ridiculous.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/03/2010	First off let me say TAKE ANOTHER PROFESSOR!!! Delwiche is very very interesting and he clearly knows his stuff. He is excited about plant biology and he makes it interesting to learn about. However, the tests are impossible, and he picks random nonsense that he's interested in for the essay questions and the fill in the blank (no word bank). You better be prepared to read the book if you really want to fully understand whats going on. As for Schultz (the guy that he tag teams with) he is TERRIBLE. His lectures are the most boring ever and i definitely fell asleep multiple times. His lectures jump around and are NOT sequential at all. You learn random crap about muscles and then half way through the lecture we're learning about water and electrolyte balance. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND TAKE ANOTHER PROFESSOR UNLESS YOU WANT A TON OF READING TO DO IN ORDER TO SCRAPE BY WITH A "B".
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a D Anonymous 01/30/2010	PROF IS THE WORST PROFESSOR AT UMD. avoid him at all costs. honestly, i have never done so badly in a class that i study so much for. his exams are a joke, pulling questions out of the blue, testing you on a senseless amount of material. he is obnoxious and arrogant, and his lectures are pointless. this class ruined my GPA.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2009	Dr. Delwiche is an amazing professor. His class is hard, but as long as you pay attention in class and take good notes you should be fine. It also helps to have a vast knowledge of introductory biology. Dr. Delwiche is really friendly and willing to help his students. His expertise of microogranisms is evident during he lectures. I would highly recommend him to anyone.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Anonymous 05/27/2009	He is an awful awful professor. I regret taking his class more than anything I've done all of college. He is arrogant, his exams are ridiculous and have no focus and it is impossible to study for them. He doesn't teach, and his slides are just dozens of pictures that have no relevance to the subject matter. If you have to take him, the only thing I can recommend is to make sure you read the book. It's not a guarantee for a good grade, mainly because his exams are ridiculous and don't make sense. But it is the only concrete way to study. Since the lecture slides have virtually no information on them, taking notes while he speaks is very important, something I didn't realize until it was too late. However, regardless, it is impossible to write down everything he says because he speaks faster than you can write, and the topics he goes over are so random that it's hard to know what's important and what's not. As an example of how ridiculous the exams are, we had an essay question asking us to describe how a bird's digestive system works in detail, when nothing like that was ever mentioned in the book or in lecture. We learned about bird RESPIRATORY systems, but not digestive systems. The first thing that occurred to me when I read that question was that he got mixed up and in his infinite wisdom mixed up digestive and respiratory systems. I still don't know what the answer to that question was...
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/08/2009	This is a review from someone who had this professor this past semester. I must say, he is a smart, approachable, and kwirky person, but, he is very intense at the same time. What do I mean by that? His lectures are very intense, his tests are even more intense and his powers of observation even more so. Let me tell you something: Be prepared to work hard. There are no freebies in this class; even a museum assignment that would seem simple required a lot of work to be done. He keeps track of who actually comes to lecture and whatnot, so keep that in mind if you want a good grade in this class. Although our test averages were horrifying at times, there was a curve in this class, and he drops one test- take note however, this doesnt mean that you should flunk any one test. Somehow even after dropping a test and curving, MANY people got Cs and even Ds. That might have somethign to do with one of the final questions, which was worth close to 15% of the entire exam: Describe the origin of life, draw the phylogenetic tree and explain how life evolved. Basically, it asked you to summarize the whole course in one question-in 8 minutes. I was happy to get the grade I got. One more thing: Avoid this class if you can, especially if you arent too fond of plants and/or fossils. And, please show up to class.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/19/2009	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH DELWICHE. This was the worst class I have taken in my college career. He is a very arrogant, obnoxious professor. His tests are just ridiculous (who else would make you memorize the ENTIRE tree of life and when everything evolved?). Most of all, you never know what is going to be on the tests. If you have to take it with him, attend all lectures (although you learn nothing from them). MEMORIZE EVERYTHING. including chapter and lecture notes. Not only do the exams have extremely unclear and confusing questions and you have to write paragraphs for each question, the TAs are also strange graders. I still have not figured out what happened in that class. LEARNED NOTHING. RUINED MY GPA. POINTLESS CLASS. WORST TEACHER EVER.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2008	Good lectures, friendly and easy to talk to. Exams were the worst i've encountered in the department thus far. The exams were typically unclear, confusing and irrelevant. The final focused a great deal on material that was not stressed during the semester. Extremely inconsistent assessments, avoid this professor if possible.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a C moonbeem7d 12/17/2008	Honestly, I've never gotten a C in a biology class before. This class is pointless. I really don't feel that this has improved my understanding of biology whatsoever. I think that he makes the tests impossible and he doesn't talk about enough during his lectures.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/09/2008	Lectures were interesting but it was difficult to tell what we were supposed to be learning. Exams did not make any sense. He is approachable and I would consider doing research with him. The most I can say about this class was that I've never had such an interesting class that I had no idea what we were learning.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/08/2008	Helpful hint to doing well in this class: MEMORIZE EVERYTHING. Every chapter assigned and all of the lectures. Make sure you understand it all too, because the tests actually make you think. Lectures were interesting, but don't fall behind because it's all fast-paced. Interacts with students, and really helpful when it comes to questions.
Charles Delwiche BSCI207 Expecting a D Anonymous 11/10/2008	Only care for the students is reminding them to drop before the fail with an F. His exams are ridiculous. His lectures need to be reviewed to help the student more than trying to confuse them for the exam.