Zoology 250: Survey of the Invertebrates
What students said in 2005


About the course in general . . .

  • This class was one of the best classes I have taken, I wouldn't change anything!

  • Dr. Palmer is - without a doubt - one of the finest instructors in the Department of Biological Sciences. It wouldn't surprise me if he had previously received training in some kind of top secret CIA mind-control techniques as I can think of no other explanation for his supernatural ability to command the attention of students so effectively.

  • Overall, this course was my favourite this semester. Even though it didn't inspire me to switch from vertebrate to invertebrates, it definitely has been fun.

  • I'd like to be learning the most up-to-date systematics rather than "what's in your text" - if that means extra work please bring it on. It's worth it.

  • I found this class fascinating because I knew NOTHING about it before! I'm sure my family is sick of invertebrates!

  • This is the best course I've taken. If all profs could be like Rich, university would encourage more people to want to learn and be better people.


About the lectures . . .

  • Lectures in general were great. I especially liked doing all the drawings/diagrams. It really supplemented the notes well! The slideshows were also really good as you were able to see movie clips and the vast differences that occur in the invertebrates.

  • Richard is a great prof. The hands-on drawings were much appreciated as a learning tool.

  • I despised all of those wretched drawings, if I wanted an arts class, I would take one.

  • Drawing pictures was the best thing in lectures.

  • The instructor's enthusiasm - if we looked like we weren't quite getting a concept, he would explain it in another way!!

  • I liked the slide shows. They kind of tied all the material we were learning together with a visual and gave us the opportunity to see what we were learning about in action. Also, we got to see a lot of cool invertebrates and what they could do.


About the labs . . .

  • I loved the touch tank. That was cool. It was fun to be able to see all the inverts alive and to be able to handle them. I also really, really liked the dissections because they helped me learn much better. Also, I really liked how lab applied to lecture.

  • Labs were hands-on, which was good and also fantastic that they followed lecture so closely.

  • The live specimens and how we were able to play with them was truly amazing.

  • What I needed to know was very clear, I enjoyed how well written the lab guide was.

  • The dissections were the best part of the lab, along with the live demo material.

  • Did not explain function of many parts of the organisms, just said they had them. This was very frustrating in lab, cause sometimes you couldn't look up the answer.
    [NOTE- many of these were made optional for 2006; good suggestion!]

  • I liked eating mollosks in lab, that was awesome! Should be done for crustacean lab as well. Lab was good overall!

About the WWW material . . .

  • Web material was fantastic.

  • WWW was useful but an easier way to print the pictures for the lab would be nice like 4 or 5 on a page.
    [NOTE- these were added for 2006; good suggestion!]

  • The web material was helpful. I used the study guide material a lot.

  • The www material was extremely helpful. I liked the Clade Test and the little quizzes and study images on the site.

  • The website was very useful. I especially liked the pictures and the animations.


About the text . . .
    [NOTE: as you can see, opinions about the textbook are strong and divided]

  • I loved everything about the text!! - I'm keeping it.

  • I absolutely hated the textbook and thought it was a waste of money. It was difficult to find information in the main text body and some important information was only found in the sidebars. Also, there was no glossary and terms and definitions are very important in this class.

  • I liked the text because it was interesting.

  • The textbook has got to be the only one I read because I wanted to. And the information I learned gave me some facts to amuse (annoy) people at work with.

  • Hated the textbook. It's like a storybook. Not very good on concepts.

  • Text was great. Fantastic pictures and very easy to read and understand.


About the Annotated Bibliography assignment . . .

  • Annotated bibliography is a good project. Thanks for doing something like that in a 2nd year class.


About the optional Bamfield Field Trip . . .

  • Bamfield trip was amazing!


Back to Zool 250 Home Page
(revised Jan. 12, 2006)