BURKEPILE D E
He's great! Lectures are very content heavy, but the exams were fair. 3 exams, each not cumulative, and he drops the lowest test score. Exams are only half of your grade, so it's easy to get an A. Lectures and interesting, and he tries to make it fun and engaging.
I took Coral Reef Biology as a class to fill my schedule and to get UD credit. It doesn't hurt that the class is on coral reefs. Burkepile is truly inspiring and passionate about what he does. Whether you want to or not, you'll fall in love with the class. Show up, pay attention, put in the work and you'll get an A- easy as that.
Dr. Burkepile was an amazing professor. His lectures are extremely long but he's so passionate about the subject! My only gripe with this class was that the exams were graded really harshly on the free response, points were just randomly taken off of questions that should have just gotten full credit.
The class is okay - 2 midterms and a non-cumulative final. They graded harshly on the midterms, with some of the questions being vague. Instead of having discussions, they split us into groups and had us answer questions on readings weekly. Coordinating the group work every week was annoying.
I have no idea what these other people are on who are giving him bad or mediocre reviews. Deron was a fantastic professor who made lectures really interesting and the class was really chill/fun. Pretty straightforward and easy, literally the only reason I didn't get an A is because I straight up didn't study at all for the midterms, lol.
The class is tough in that it's a lot of memorization. some tests questions are tricky and test you on minimal details. 2 midterms and a final which is partially cumulative. discussion sections compose of reading scientific papers on your own with your group and answering a few questions. i didn't like that we had to zoom all on our own though
The class covers A LOT of information, and you have to memorize pretty much all the details/graphs/explanations (that you prob will forget after the quarter) to do well. But, it's relatively interesting and Burkepile is a solid lecturer. The exams are straightforward, but you have to know your material. Textbook recommended, but I didn't use it.