COURSE EVALUATION REPORT

LAWRENCE WEINSTEIN

200810

1 STRONGLY DISAGREE

2 DISAGREE

3 NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE

4 AGREE

5 STRONGLY AGREE

n/a NOT APPLICABLE

NR NO RESPONSE

10161 PHYS 231N

	QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATION:	RESPONSE FREQUENCY
	QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATION:	RESPONSE FREQUENCY
		1	2	3	4	5	n/a	NR	n	MEAN	INSTR MEAN	STD. DEV.	DEPT MEAN	COLL MEAN
1	IN THE FIRST WEEK OF CLASS, THE INSTRUCTOR PROVIDED DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION THAT CLEARLY EXPLAINED THE COURSE CONTENT, ASSIGNMENTS, GRADING AND OTHER IMPORTANT POLICIES.	0	0	0	4	5	0	0	9	4.56	4.60	0.43	4.46	4.55
2	THE COURSE MATERIALS, EXAMS, PROJECTS AND/OR PAPERS IN THE CLASS REQUIRED ME TO THINK CRITICALLY.	0	0	1	1	7	0	0	9	4.67	4.53	0.29	4.47	4.48
3	THE INSTRUCTOR WELCOMED QUESTIONS AND OTHER CLASS PARTICIPATION.	0	0	1	1	7	0	0	9	4.67	4.67	0.44	4.36	4.40
4	THE INSTRUCTOR WAS ENTHUSIASTIC WITH RESPECT TO THE SUBJECT MATTER.	0	0	1	2	6	0	0	9	4.56	4.53	0.43	4.42	4.39
5	THE INSTRUCTOR WAS AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AND HELPFUL DURING OFFICE HOURS.	0	0	1	3	4	1	1	9	4.37	4.31	0.51	4.23	4.51
6	THE INSTRUCTOR ARRIVED ON TIME FOR CLASS AND USED THE FULL CLASS PERIOD ALLOTED.	0	0	0	1	8	0	0	9	4.89	4.93	0.28	4.56	4.59
7	IN ORDER TO GET GOOD GRADES ON TESTS AND ASSIGNMENTS, I HAD TO KNOW THE COURSE MATERIALS OUTLINED IN THE SYLLABUS AND DISCUSSED IN CLASS.	0	1	1	2	5	0	0	9	4.22	4.20	0.35	4.42	4.54
8	THE INSTRUCTOR'S PRESENTATIONS WERE INFORMATIVE.	0	1	2	3	3	0	0	9	3.89	4.00	0.57	4.11	4.25
9	OVERALL, I HAVE LEARNED OR BENEFITED FROM THIS CLASS.	0	1	2	0	6	0	0	9	4.22	4.27	0.56	4.14	4.16
10	OVERALL, THE INSTRUCTOR IS AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER.	0	1	1	0	7	0	0	9	4.44	4.47	0.60	4.15	4.17

GENERAL INFORMATION:
APPROXIMATE CLASS STANDING		PRESENT GPA		HRS PER WEEK SPENT PREPARING FOR CLASS
FRESHMAN	0	LESS THAN 2.00	0	0 TO 2	1
SOPHOMORE	5	2.00 TO 2.49	1	3 TO 5	4
JUNIOR	3	2.50 TO 2.99	2	6 TO 8	1
SENIOR	1	3.00 TO 3.49	3	9 TO 11	2
GRADUATE	0	3.50 +	3	12 OR MORE	1
OTHER	0	DO NOT KNOW	0

SEX		AGE		FULL OR PART TIME STUDENT
MALE	8	20 & UNDER	6	FULL-TIME	8
FEMALE	1	21 - 25	2	PART-TIME	0
		26 +	1

REASON FOR TAKING COURSE		EXPECTED COURSE GRADE		EMPLOYED WHILE TAKING COURSE
REQUIRED FOR MAJOR	8	A	2	NOT EMPLOYED	3
GEN. ED. REQUIREMENT	0	B	5	PART-TIME JOB	5
ELECTIVE	1	C	1	FULL-TIME JOB	1
OTHER	0	D	1
		F	0
		P	0
		Q	0

I ATTENDED ---- CLASS
ALL	5
MOST	4
FEW	0

NR :	No response. Student did not rate the instructor on this question.
*n :*	Number of responses for this question (does not include �no response�.)
Mean:	The mean for this call number/CRN. In the case of aggregate reports, the mean for all session cross-listed together for this course.
Instr Mean:	The mean for all courses taught by this instructor for a college. This number is the same on all reports for this instructor for a college.
Std. Deviation:	The standard deviation for instructors means in this department.
Dept Mean:	The mean for all courses taught by this department, including any course cross-listed to a course taught by this department. This number is the same on all reports for this department.
Coll Mean:	The mean for all courses taught by this college, including any course cross-listed to a course taught by this college. This number is the same on all reports for this college.
ENROLLMENT:	Total number of students enrolled for this call number/CRN. In the case of aggregate reports, the total number of students enrolled for all call numbers cross-listed together with at least one completed evaluation.

ENROLLMENT:	37
TOTAL RESPONSES:	9

GENERAL WRITTEN COMMENTS:

WHAT FACTORS ABOUT THIS CLASS CONTRIBUTED THE MOST TO YOUR LEARNING? WHAT ASPECTS OF THIS CLASS HELPED YOU TO LEARN THINK CRITICALLY?

the class structure was a great way to learn and understand physics. the only problem that i had with the class was the book. it did not present the information needed in a good way so the class dicussions were confusing which made it hard to learn from thec class.
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The way that the class was run. Solving problems most of the class time helps to learn the material better. The homework was also a lot harder than the class problems so they forced you to think critically.
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the scale-up class
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WHAT DID YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT THE CLASS AND YOUR INSTRUCTOR?

The Instructor was always there to assist me whenever I had difficulties. He tried very hard to help us all to succeed. I will be taking Physics 232 with him again because I think that he is a very good teacher. I also would like to thank both of the assistant teachers for there help. On multiple occasions I had trouble understanding the information in the text book. Both assistant teachers were always willing to help me learn the information. I feel that both of them will be successful teachers if that is the path that they decide to take.
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I like how the class wasn't a lecture and I like how Dr. Weinstein let us figure out the answers ourselves without walking us through the whole thing. No offense to Dr. Sukenik, but when he was substituting for our class, he seemed to talk too much and tried to explain too much. I think he's not used to not lecturing, maybe. But Dr. Weinstein had a good balance between talking a little and letting us figure out most of the main ideas.
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he had good class plans
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WHAT CHANGES IF ANY, COULD BE MADE TO THE CLASS THAT WOULD HAVE HELPED YOU TO LEARN MORE? WHAT COULD THE INSTRUCTOR HAVE DONE TO MAKE THE COURSE AN EVEN BETTER LEARNING EXPERIENCE?

I would suggest that more time is put into learning the information. For instance, I feel that sometimes we kind of jump into a section without enough review of the reading. I learn best when I go over the material myself and then during class we review the sections that were assigned. I feel that Dr. Sukenik did a great job of doing this. He taught us the material and then we branched of into our groups and worked on Physics problems. Honestly that is my only real concern. I feel that if we just spent a little more time(possibly on Mondays) going over the concepts I could be very succesful in Physics 232.
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the only problem that i had with the class was the book. it did not present the information needed in a good way so the class dicussions were confusing which made it hard to learn from thec class.
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The only suggestion I have is that the test day be moved to either Monday or Wednesday, when we meet for one hour and fifty minutes, as opposed to Friday, when we only have fifty minutes.
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The whiteboards that we're supposed to use in our groups are too big and annoying. It would be nice if they were smaller. With the homework - I don't understand why we can only have 5 tries to solve the problem... once our tries are up, there is no reason to continue trying to solve the problem, even if we have another idea. In a lot of the problems there is more than one way of figuring it out, so between searching for the right approach, making small errors, and dealing with WebAssign, 5 tries seems too restrictive and very discouraging. I would think that a teacher would want their students to keep trying to solve a problem and eventually get the right answer, rather than be forced to give up because we can't check if we're doing it right. Also, another reason we should have more tries is because the homework is extremely challenging considering the lack of helpful information that is in the textbook. The textbook seems to give the very bare bones basics of what we need to know and has very few useful examples of worked out problems. I'm all for challenging homework, but then give us a better textbook or give us more wiggle room to try to figure out the answers. Also, the VPython programming part of class was useless and a waste of class time. We didn't learn anything from it so I'm glad we didn't spend that much time on it.
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practice tests
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WHAT FACTORS ABOUT YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE HELPED YOU LEARN THE MOST? WHAT DID YOU DO TO FACILITATE YOUR LEARNING?

the fact that i took a high school physcis class allowed me to understand the concepts better.
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not doing any homework hurt me
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WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE TO MAKE THE COURSE AN EVEN BETTER LEARNING EXPERIENCE?

I should have given more effort into trying to learn the material for myself. I just felt overwhelmed sometimes by just jumping into the physics probems, instead of going over the material first. I feel that this style format for physics has great potential however. I feel very fortunate to be in the class because I am able to interact with other students and hear what they have to say. Thank you for providing this class and I will see you next semester!
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done the hw
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