Diana Heller

I took this class several semesters ago and had a very different experience than some of the previous reviews would indicate. In my experience, Prof Heller was very knowledgeable about the content and more than willing to explain difficult concepts multiple times to make sure that her students understood. I have no background in science but this course was a fascinating and reasonable introduction to biology.

Th workload is like any other lab class, but you need to put in 3.5x the effort for her than other instructors. 1 midterm 1 final (cumulative) 2 lab reports Quiz before every lab

Textbook readings for every class but you totally don't have to do them to do well. Two easy multiple choice tests and one final.

This class was a lot including the lab. 5 exams in total - (3 in lecture, 2 in lab), project, two lab reports, 2 short papers. It's a lot.

I don’t even know where to begin. Sure, Professor Heller could occasionally be nice in class, but not one smile can outweigh or begin to make up for her many shortcomings just a few of which include: 1. Poor teaching 2. Lack of knowledge about the material 3. A really weird insecure attitude regarding her students. Let’s break this down. Points 1 and 2 go hand in hand. Professor Heller never knew the lab procedure and would review it (essentially reciting every detail in the manual) before every class as if she were trying to teach herself what to do, not for our sake. She would also constantly mess up calculations and steps for labs. Now this leads me to her 3rd most notable shortcoming… Everytime I would ask her to clarify a concept or why we did a certain calculation (since the majority of the time she herself got them wrong so of course everyone in class was confused), she would mumble something incorrect, get even more confused herself, and finally would then just get mad at me and my lab partner, dismissing our question and going so far as to tell the TA not to help us understand the fundamental concepts of our experiments. This meant she rarely ever explained topics to us, so most labs I just blindly followed the lab manual. Because of this, our section midterm grades were honestly so low I couldn’t believe it (for context I am an experienced and strong lab student rece…

The class was fairly boring, though the professor is pretty sweet most of the time. You do have to go to the class because she does a fill in of the slides during class, and she gives more information than the readings. If you need to fill a requirement this course is super easy. If you're actually trying to learn biology just bump up to 1500

Professor Heller is a really nice person and very kind. But she honestly does not know much about Global Health & Ecology. Not to mention the course itself is actually biology, microbiology, and global health & ecology. Professor Heller does not know much about the topics, most of what we learned was very surface level. I learned stuff I've learned in other classes but worse. This class wasn't particularly difficult and the lab was pretty fun. Take it if you want, but be warned!

It's not bad, but her exams are impossible.

There are textbook reading assignments for each class, a weekly lab section, and three exams (+ 2 exams in lab). Lab is worth ⅓ of the overall grade and is broken down into many different assignments -- exams, lab participation, lab reports, worksheets, and quizzes. The lecture grade is broken down into 10% for a project, and 90% for exams.

Do not take this class. My other classmates and I find Heller ridiculously unhelpful and she has no idea how to answer questions asked in class. Her lectures are completely different from the reading, but of course her shitty lectures are what she tests on. She cannot explain basic concepts in biology well, and it's rather sad. Her exams are nearly impossible to study for because of the random questions she asks. I really regret taking this class and feel like I would've been way better off taking a 1500 bio class with a better prof.