Professor profile for Richard Richardson
Student reviews of Richard Richardson
Review from a student who took Bio 325-W
Course Workload - Not bad. Most of the workload comes from the papers you have to write. YOu need to do a lot of independent studying (reading text that might now be assigned, searching for pertinent articles in journals) - so the load is mostly up to you. Teaching/Lecture style - Unorthodox - not your typical genetics coiurse. We focused mainly not on genetics processes but on the limitations of old model systems and development of new model systems...etc. In Fall 04, lectures consisted of very vague slides and a lot of lecturing. You need to take notes or have excellent memory if you're going to remember what those slides are about for midterms and finals (unless you have prior background knowledge of the material). Richardson likes to talk from his head, and because he is very knowledgeable and open-minded, this makes his lectures interesting, but it also means that the lecture is hard to follow at first - it might be hard to see the main thread of the lesson. Testing style - Essay questions (midterm was open-book). It's not entirely about memorization of facts. He mostly wants you to know how to connect ideas and how to apply new conepts to old facts - be innovative. Fall 04 - the students marked each other's papers to get as close as possible to the peer review system in the scientific world - a great experience. Homework tips - Read your text. Read journal articles. Do a lot of on-the-side thinking of the message he's trying to get across. Overall course difficulty - The course is hard, mostly because this type of teaching/learning is new to most people. It gets better as you get more used to the course though - and you come out of it with a new view of science. It's very exciting.
Course Workload - Not bad. Most of the workload comes from the papers you have to write. YOu need to do a lot of independent studying (reading text that might now be assigned, searching for pertinent articles in journals) - so the load is mostly up to you. Teaching/Lecture style - Unorthodox - not your typical genetics coiurse. We focused mainly not on genetics processes but on the limitations of old model systems and development of new model systems...etc. In Fall 04, lectures consisted of very vague slides and a lot of lecturing. You need to take notes or have excellent memory if you're going to remember what those slides are about for midterms and finals (unless you have prior background knowledge of the material). Richardson likes to talk from his head, and because he is very knowledgeable and open-minded, this makes his lectures interesting, but it also means that the lecture is hard to follow at first - it might be hard to see the main thread of the lesson. Testing style - Essay questions (midterm was open-book). It's not entirely about memorization of facts. He mostly wants you to know how to connect ideas and how to apply new conepts to old facts - be innovative. Fall 04 - the students marked each other's papers to get as close as possible to the peer review system in the scientific world - a great experience. Homework tips - Read your text. Read journal articles. Do a lot of on-the-side thinking of the message he's trying to get across. Overall course difficulty - The course is hard, mostly because this type of teaching/learning is new to most people. It gets better as you get more used to the course though - and you come out of it with a new view of science. It's very exciting.
Review from a student who took BIO 325-W
I loved this class. I'm a premed student and recommend this to all premed students needing genetics. It's an easy class if you read the articles and have a good feel of the science. If you're a good writer and like current events, then this class is perfect. The workload is light, so you can def take it along with ochem. And as for personality, Dr. Richardson strives to do his best to get u that A. Email him, talk to him, and just get to know him and he'll help u out. TAKE THIS CLASS!
I loved this class. I'm a premed student and recommend this to all premed students needing genetics. It's an easy class if you read the articles and have a good feel of the science. If you're a good writer and like current events, then this class is perfect. The workload is light, so you can def take it along with ochem. And as for personality, Dr. Richardson strives to do his best to get u that A. Email him, talk to him, and just get to know him and he'll help u out. TAKE THIS CLASS!