Hilary Callahan

Professor Callahan is clearly super knowledgeable and enthusiastic about plants and definitely makes an effort to incorporate different teaching techniques through the semester (ie greenhouse trips etc.) However, she can also be a bit disorganized both in her lecture stye and in life. It can sometimes be challenging to follow her lectures and know what material you're responsible for and what is anecdote. This class (at least Fall 2022) was also a 3 hour lecture and by the end of it I could not pay attention. I definitely walked away understanding a lot more about plants and appreciating evolutionary biology but class could be a struggle. Take this if you want to learn more about plants, just bring a coffee beforehand.

Professor Callahan is enthusiastic about Biology and she honestly tries to be as clear as she possibly can. However, it is hard to disengage the subject matter from the personal anecdotes that she is used to making during lecture. I found some of them useless and annoying at times, but the other half of the time, I thought her stories were inspirational. As a person who loves Biology, it was refreshing to have a professor with the same level of interest. If you talk to her during office hours, she will be very helpful and welcoming. I believe people don't like her in class because its 9 am and they are usually too grumpy and sleepy to even give her a chance. At another time of day, I bet most people would find her funny and likable.

This woman is unbelievable. Really, it's remarkable how she can politicize an intro biology course. And you'll still walk away knowing nothing. She talks and talks and talks but I can't even explain what she's talking about. She strays from the subject matter very, very frequently. I really couldn't tell you what the objectives of this course really is. She finds ways to fill time with her words, but they don't ever apply to the subject matter. If you love Al Gore, this is the class for you.

Lectures themselves were boring. Didn't pay attention at all in class. Powerpoints are a bunch of images and super convoluted figures that are horrible to go back to when studying. Prof. Callahan is such a kind person though. Love the professor, disliked the content but I may just hate plant bio in general.

2 midterms and a final. appropriately curved. Weekly quizzes for extra credit!

Professor Calahan is probably the worst lecturer I've ever had. Sure, she makes the class amusing at times with her quirks, but after a while, her big "theatrical voice" gets really under your skin. Also, she uses the class like a pulpit, preaching how bitter she is about Al Gore "losing the election against Bush." It's a 50 minute lecture class three times a week, and she uses up I'd say about 40 minutes of each one talking about nonsense and her graduate work in Wisconsin. She tries to make the class funny, but it's a lame attempt. She also does not explain the material well at all, and she confuses the students even more when she tries to answer questions.

group paper presentation, short response posts for paper presentations (4/semester), 3 homework sets (took maybe 30-45 mins, very chill), midterm and final (her questions can get complex but she is a generous grader)

Very little workload prob 30mins per week tops. Exams are tough bc it's very confusing but you get a cheat sheet and Prof. Callahan curves.