Caleb Scharf

i gotta agree with the reviews below. caleb scharf is the goat. he lets you turn in assignments late, grades everything based on completion, and recaps everything you need to know for each week's hw and the exams during his seminars. in exchange for how nice he is, he does require you to do an extra credit portfolio as part of your grade, but minimal effort on that pretty much guarantees you an A. if you get this guy, don't switch out of his class. if you're reading this to see whose fro sci seminar to switch to, begs on your hands and knees that Caleb has an open spot in his seminar.

Caleb is fantastic. Honestly, he is one of the best instructors that I have had. He really cares about the class and the material and incorporates recent developments in the field into his lectures. I definitely recommend this class. I definitely have a very different perspective about astrobiology and exoplanets than I had going into the course, and the science behind detecting these planets is really quite cool. You don't really need an astronomy background to take the class--everything is built from first principles. You pretty much just need calculus and freshman physics.

Prof. Scharf is a very nice and understanding young Brit who didn't bore us to tears. He knew his stuff and kept lecture moving along. He paces non-stop but as long as you can tolerate that, the class is no problem. We did talk about some interesting problems and theories in astrophysics and he did his best to make sure that everyone in the class understood.

As a social science major, I learned a ton about Astrophysics. This class made a lot of dense material accessible to me and I enjoyed going to class friday mornings.

I learned elementary stellar astrophysics and the physics of planetary formation. We then discussed the history and methods of detection and investigation of extrasolar planets. We also surveyed the current theories and understandings of astrobiology including the investigation of an alive planet, the investigations of extremophiles, and even evolution on Earth.

Caleb Scharf is a GODSEND for Frosci and if you get him do NOT let him go. Even before the pandemic he was incredibly kind and made everything completion grade. He really doesn’t have a problem with turning stuff in late as long as you are not abusing it. His lectures can be a little boring, but he recaps everything you need to know to do the homework and the topics you need for the exam. The midterm was not that easy, but keep in mind that we were all just forced to leave campus so many of us were struggling. The final seemed to be a lot easier. During the pandemic he was super understanding and as long as you tried to get work done you couldn’t fail. He also is a really knowledgeable astrobiologist and was always willing to answer questions about his research and the department. The homeworks can be a little long and the course material a bit dense, so try to start early. He also has you do a portfolio where you have to accumulate a certain amount of points by doing stuff like writing about spotlight guest lectures, making how-to YouTube videos, writing discussion questions, and a whole bunch of other options

Best. Class. Ever. This is one of the best classes I have ever taken. Not only is the subject material absolutely engaging, but Professor Scharf is a brilliant and inspired astronomer, whom other instructors should look to as an example to be followed. The course material, which is basically astrophysics applied to the rising field of astrobiology and both new and ancient questions of Life in the Universe, is incredibly unique. Only a handful of universities in the nation have classes that teach the new subject, and as far as I know, none of them teach the material with as quantitative and scientific a viewpoint as Professor Scharf. Every class usually begins with some announcements about discoveries or events from the past few days or week that dramatically shape the course material, which is changing nearly every day. It was really quite amazing to study and to examine the material that appears in the news every day. Go to CNN.com and check their "Science and Space" news - much of that relates to the current quest to find ExtraSolar Planets, and that's what you'll be studying in class! I would absolutely recommend this class to anyone even remotely interested in astronomy, biology, or modern science in general. The pre-requisite of calculus-based physics is definitely very helpful, but not essential, as Scharf tends to explain everything very extensively along the way. He is…

Bi-weekly homeworks, midterm, final. None were too difficult and the tests were generously curved.

I learned a variety about astrophysics: exoplanets, search for life, galaxies, dark matter, spectroscopy, GAIA data, etc

The first half of the course was dedicated to learning about physics behind planet and stellar formation while the second half was dedicated to biology segment of astrobiology.