Theodore L Einstein

This professor has taught: CHPH718F, PHYS106, PHYS115, PHYS174, PHYS260, PHYS404, PHYS420, PHYS603

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Theodore L Einstein PHYS174 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/16/2019	Nice guy but a one credit lab shouldn't take so go damn long because you're waiting for him to walk around and check stuff off while his useless TA is equally as bad
Theodore L Einstein PHYS174 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2018	He always gives lectures in a lab class that nobody pays attention to because out of the 10 minutes he spends talking, about 1.5 are actually relevant to that day's exercise, and then he gets annoyed when we don't know how to do something he never explained to us. He's also very condescending and not helpful at all when talked to in a one-on-one sense. The TA helped me in this class more than anything or anyone else.
Theodore L Einstein PHYS260 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/07/2015	I don't pay attention in class much and I generally get by with discussion and with the textbook. I also had friends in the class to study with. I had to go to his lectures because he does clicker-like attendance. I'm mostly giving him a bad review because I didn't like that policy.
Theodore L Einstein PHYS260 Anonymous 05/19/2015	He's nice and tells bad jokes but even our TA admitted he was a horrible lecturer. He mumbles and his handwriting is illegible so he's definitely not ideal for a lecture class with 200+ people.
Theodore L Einstein PHYS404 Anonymous 12/04/2012	Prof. Einstein is incredibly nice, with a good sense of humor (dry, but he is funny). He compiles an excellent website chock-full of supplementary material. However, his lectures run very slowly and are quite dry. Much of the time, I am lost, and just mindlessly copying notes to hopefully understand later. His personal research focus is solid-state physics, and he states that he would do x "but this is not a solid-state physics course," yet often it seems as though there is a higher emphasis on solid-state things than there need be. In short: great for supplementary material, horrible for primary lecturing.
Theodore L Einstein PHYS603 Expecting a B dbargteil 04/23/2012	I posted the following critique to a tool we used to allow classmates to communicate with each other and Dr. Einstein about homework: "I have not been satisfied by the lectures thus far for the class. I thought it may be productive if there was some open conversation between the students that Dr. Einstein could see that might provide some constructive critiques about the lectures and suggestions for what changes we may like to see. Here are some notes I thought of today. -I would appreciate it if more attention was given to notation. Today you wrote on the board a function W without (as far as I could tell) saying what W was. Another example from today was <mathematical formula not shown here>, which to me was very confusing because I'm not sure what was meant by the bar, which did not seem like standard use of notation to me. -I would appreciate it if the goals of the analysis were more explicit. I have heard "the game you play" or "what you have to do" followed by a short explanation of the next step in the analysis, but the reasoning behind that step or what it will get us on the way is often not explicit. -I have some difficulty understanding the motivation behind some of the goals of the analysis. Sometimes we will calculate the entropy or some other thermodynamic quantity of something, but the treatment is very abstract. While this affords a nice degree of generality, it is difficult to keep in mind what the quantities actually say about such an abstract system. It may be helpful to make references during calculations to a real physical system, even if it is just an ideal gas in a box or something of that nature. -There has not seemed to have been thus far much explicit coherence among the topics we have discussed, no obvious thread of commonality or narrative to the content. Right now as I feel as though my notes are a laundry list of facts that apply to particular systems under particular conditions. I can follow the calculations that lead to the results, but have little appreciation of the fundamental underpinnings. I hope that my classmates have additional comments to add that may be able to bring improvements to the lecture, and that Dr. Einstein will find these critiques helpful." There was no response to the critique and no attempt to reform the lecture by Dr. Einstein. Attendance in the class was extremely poor, perhaps a quarter or third of students actually attended, and in class there was an atmosphere of tension and discomfort between the students and Dr. Einstein. The class in no way helped me understand any physics, just learn a bit about symbolic mathematical manipulation.
Theodore L Einstein Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/07/2010	This class had some cool demostrations and was not too much work. We had weekly reaction papers, readings, 2 powerpoints and a final paper. We didn't have any test or quizes. He respects students opinions and wants to make the class enjoyable for us. I would recommend taking HONR228k.
Theodore L Einstein Expecting an A- a778999 05/18/2010	Biweekly papers, and a huge paper and presentation. The class was overall boring but there were some pretty cool demonstrations. The entire last two months of class we spent listening to each other's presentations.
Theodore L Einstein PHYS404 Anonymous 04/27/2009	Take a different class. He is absolutely incompetent at explaining things. Great guy, makes a lot of corny jokes, but cannot explain a thing.