Michael Harris

Professor Harris was not a helpful professor at all. Although he sometimes had interesting anecdotes to share in class, overall he was not receptive to questions and seemed annoyed if you asked him to clarify material he had already covered. In office hours he was equally unhelpful and couldn't explain topics in a straightforward manner. He seems to have a good knowledge of the material but cannot communicate these ideas in a meaningful way. He also frequently ended class late and made a significant amount of mistakes during class that were caught by students. Overall, I was deeply unsatisfied with Professor Harris' teaching style and his unwillingness to go over simpler topics in class even during allotted review sessions.

Michael was a very nice person. He was more than happy to help and even reminded us repeatedly about his office hours. Even if you had the most basic question, he'd be glad to take an hour explaining it to you. I think I learned more from him than from the lecture.

That was a horrible review! Michael is a great TA! If he doesn't know something it's because it's first level chem and he's doing in-depth lab research already. He was very accessable and always willing to answer questions. If he was uncertain of something, he would take his time to find the answer for you before the next class. If he's your TA, then you're in good hands. His classes aren't difficult, but they're not a joke or waste of time either.

- broadly, finite group theory, elementary number theory, proof-writing

Very helpful, was willing to chat after class and beyond his appointed office hour. Extremely dedicated, was willing to get back to us if he wasn't sure on an answer. Accessible via email, rather prompt (never longer than 24 hours). Extremely smart, tried to make somewhat bland course material with extra trivia. Kind of cute in an unshaven genius way to boot.

more specifically and in order, set theory and number theory review, group axioms, cyclic groups, dihedral groups, non-abelian groups (quaternions, etc...), Cartesian products of groups, permutation and symmetric groups, lagrange's theorem, normal subgroups, conjugacy classes, alternating groups, isomorphism theorems, finite abelian group classification, group actions, the class equation, solvable and nilpotent groups, sylow theorems, and the simplicity of alternating groups.

Michael Harris is a disaster of a man. Not once was he able to adequately answer my questions about the course material. Maybe deep inside his big balding head he knew chemsitry, but he could never express this knowledge in a helpful manner. I left every recitation more confused than when I entered, and stopped attending them after I had taken the five required quizzes.

Modern Algebra I deals mostly with number theory, so we learned topics like Sylow Theorems and the isomorphism theorems

Basic concepts of abstract algebra: basic definitions of groups all the way to complex types of groups and related theorems.

I learned way more than I have learned in any other class I have taken in the past 3 years I have been at this school. I learned how to think logically and apply myself.