Physics · Columbia University
I knew this class was going to be difficult going in, but I did not expect this. Prof HH, while welcoming, is VERY confusing. He responds to all our emails but does not properly answer the question, oftentimes confusing us more. He stays for office hours after but continues to talk about what he wants rather than what we have questions over. His lectures are very confusing with writing all over the board. It's nearly impossible to decipher them after lecture so make sure to pay attention in class. A lot of the time he will have you do derivations outside of class... DO THEM. THEY WILL BE ON THE EXAM. Unfortunately, Prof HH did not adequately prepare us for the final exam, and we all walked in expecting to fail :(. He expects physics to be your number one priority throughout the year. The content itself is also very difficult to understand and the professor does not do a good job at explaining his thought process. A lot of the time it feels like an info dump and we're just expected to know what he's talking about. He provides a lot of readings which is nice but also very unrealistic to expect us to spend our heart and soul into doing one class our entire semester.
Weekly lab reports, one lab lecture per week. Grading is done exclusively by TAs so beware. Lab lecture was honestly a waste of time. The professor wouldn't really explain anything new but attendance is mandatory.
You'll probably hear bad things about him, and he does expect a lot with labs and homework sets. However, at least in my experience, lab has pretty fun experiments and the TA (Becky Grossman, if she's still doing it) is great. Sometimes the lectures and hw problems seemed unconnected, but if you thought about it you could see the relations. You'll probably be bored to tears by this class if you don't like physics, but if you do it's worthwhile and ends up being useful, even if you're not a physics major. I like it, overall.
Avoid his class if possible. He might be a nice, intelligent man, but he has no conception of how to teach. He spends the class writing out complete sentences on the board and drawing pretty pictures with lots of colored chalk. Art school drop-out? There is no recitation but he expects you to go to office hours at least once a week. If you get the chance, take the Columbia physics sequence and spare yourself the pain.
I think Prof. Halpin-Healy only teaches this course during the summer and that's a good thing. The class really sucks. His lectures frequently run over and he expects immediate comprehension of ideas within the class period. Much of what is covered in class is irrelevant for the exams. Material on the exams is difficult and usually unlike that from the text problems. The upside is that most people can pull a B without really learning too much (except perhaps that physics is a horrible, stressful thing).
At first his organization and teaching is very confusing and it takes a lot of adjusted, like weeks. But once you get past that his class is quite enjoyable. He's very passionate about what he's teaching and even with my limited knowledge of ODE's I was still able to follow along most of the time. He held office hours right after class which allowed time to ask more clarifying questions. He's a very sweet man who cares a lot about his students and it shows.
Don't take this class if it doesn't fulfill a requirement. Lab sessions are long and writing the reports is such a chore. The physics itself is not very difficult (you can honestly get away without knowing it all if you just reference the lab manual) but it is just a lot of work to write 4-6 page reports every single week. You submit your last report and you have to immediately start writing your next one. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2022 Course: PHYSUN1494_001_2022_1-INTROTOEXPERIMENTALPHYS-LAB : PHYSUN1494_001_2022_1 - INTRO TO EXPERIMENTAL PHYS-LAB Instructor: Giuseppina Cambareri
If there is one fault with this man, it is that he cares too much. He is one of the most dedicated teachers I have ever met. I like his colored chalk because it is nice to have topics color-coaded, I think it is easier to understand an already difficult subject, He is fair and always there if you need help. The man actually gave me his home phone number during fall break so that I could contact him if I had questions about a take home midterm that he had assigned (the class scheduled the exam for fall break by the way). He loves physics and he loves to teach so I think he is great and if you work hard you can do very well. He does not care what the scores are you get, what he really cares about is if you understand the material
lengthy problem sets every week or two, 2 exams and a final. weekly labs take a lot of time as well
There is very little structure to this class. HH is confusing and most of the material only makes sense with a background in ODEs and sometimes PDEs. However, this really prepares you for the rest of the physics major. If you can get through this class, all the upper level physics class feel much more doable. With all that being said, HH really cares about his students and his passion for physics makes the class exciting when it makes sense.