OT: Your favorite classes while at Michigan
I think there have been a few threads or discussions along this line in the past, but since new classes are added every year, I thought it might be fun to revisit given the dearth of non-OT news.
Here are mine (which all have "are easy" as a pre-req):
1) Psychology and Spiritual Development - One word - self-graded. I gave myself an A since I was an awesome student. Also, Richard Mann was super cool and had some great stories about the 60's.
2) Greek Mythology - A surprisingly useful class for life, especially if you like to read. Professor Verhoogt is funny and the class was pretty easy.
3) The History of Witchcraft - Another gem in the Classic Civ department, which seems to have the highest ratio of easy classes of any department at the U. Don't remember the name of the professor, but he looks like Barack Obama (before he became President) and was a great lecturer. The material was fascinating.
What are yours?
with Ian Chang, I wrote a paper about "Baywatch" and he loved it, gave it an A+
Communications ? - can't remember the number. We made tv commercials. I portrayed an Austrailian Rugby player hawking Foster's Lager. I was the original "World's Most Interesting Man."
I earned a BBA but my two favorite classes comprised all 12 credits of sciences.
The practical botany course took place 20 years ago, winter term 1994. If you were in the midwest then you might remember it as the coldest winter until this year. Two hours of lecture a week and a four-hour lab in the Matthaei Botanical Gardens greenhouse every Tuesday, where it was usually sunny and 75-80 degrees. One of those Tuesdays it was -21 outside. I still have one plant from that class, a Tradescantia zebrina (politically incorrect name: Wandering Jew). Also notable: Professor George Estabrook was my only instructor at UM who broke into song during class, belting out a few lines of Tom Lehrer's song Pollution, and the only instructor who invited his class to his home to gain scientific knowledge of home brewing. I liked the story on MLive today about the flowering agave at MBG.
I took Geological Sciences 116: Geology of the Rocky Mountains later that year. We left from Ann Arbor on July 2 in a caravan of 15-passenger vans. Stayed in cabins at UM's Camp Davis near Jackson Hole for about six weeks, with a few side trips to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Idaho, NE Utah, etc. Absolutely glorious time, at cut rate tuition also...only 20% more than in-state rather than 150% more for all the classes this out-of-stater took in Ann Arbor. Eight credits of A. I contend I could pass the final exam tomorrow if I reviewed my notes tonight. I see they teach that class spring term now, must be cold as hell at night. Even in the summer session you could sense the arc of summer in the nighttime temps. It was getting noticeably colder at night by mid-August.
The subject matter was very interesting. 6 multiple choice tests (including the final) of 27 questions. Each was scored out of 25, but you could get 27/25. Final was optional. Discussion section was optional. Class was easy, but I still learned a ton, and prof was great.
Either Intro Biochem or Signal Transduction.
Ursula Jakob and Kenneth Cadigan are the chiefmost reasons I became a physician-scientist.
It's between Sidney Fine's American History (20th century) and Weather.
Fine was such a UofM treasure and I felt fortunate to have had him.
Weather - I'm not even sure what department it was in but it was great because I'm now an expert at the most talked about subject in the midwest.
Polisci 300 with Greg Markus.
Purely numbers based Polisci class on modern domestic politics. Dealt with the hot-button issues of the day on a purely statistical and economic basis. I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, but it was an incredible class. Always thought it should be mandatory for all UM undergrads, regardless of their major, just because it allowed us all to have informed conversations about current affairs. Loved it.
Also no exams...
Dear Mr. Metzler... Prof Seidel has the looks and comedic pause of Jack Benny (look him up). He would review many topics with a Dear Abby type actual note, usually with some funny twist. Students then proceeded to try and answer the question. If you were wrong he just stared at you and "well, that would be one answer", while your classmates just were busting out... Also had the honor to take Marketing with Tom Kinnear. If you didn't come prepared he would go Bobby Knight on you with high voltage barbs, sometimes climbing on top of rows of table to get to some knucklehead in the back row who gave some poorly thought out answer... passion of a good prof is worth its weight in gold.... I was also a Chem E and if anyone says any of those classes were their favorites, they are not right.
He passed away earlier this year.
of various numbers. can't tell you why, but i just seemed to 'get' it. took a boatload of tests for my teammates, too, or in the alternative, sat around writing big answers so that 2-4 other people near me who suspiciously looked like my hockey playing teammates could see my answers.....
i'm way too old for that to come bite me back. most of the tests were on stone tablets.
As a hockey fan and someone who works with statistics every day, I'm happily surprised to learn of a hockey player who 'gets' it. One of my housemates dated a UM hockey player, and he and his buddies who came over to visit weren't the sharpest blades on the ice.
Your story reminded me of an academic incident I was party to as a TA at UM. I had a student, a freshman, drop-dead gorgeous blonde who appeared in Playboy's "Girls of the Big Ten" calendar. She sat with her best friend during the lectures, but they were assigned to different TA sections. They sat together for the mid-term exam, but what they didn't realize was that the friend's TA was my housemate and best friend. We exchanged exams to check our grading and try to be fair to the students. They turned in identical, to the word exam books, and were busted.
After meeting with the professor and the students individually, it was decided that they would fail the exam but were allowed to avoid university discipline by making up the grades with the paper and the final. I was curious as to which one was the writer and which the copier, thinking it would come out in the end. My calendar girl did OK, the other one flunked.
closest we ever got to getting in trouble was one time i took a test for one of the guys and as i was handing it in i got asked for my i.d. - to which i replied, didn't bring it, not going to the bar but a test, and i walked out. the real trouble came when my buddy choked and not only handed a test in, but handed it with MY name, albeit spelled wrong. i get a call the next a.m. and have no idea what they're talking about and leave town - but not before administering an a*& whipping to my idiot teammate.
My engineering favorites were anything by Bruce Karnopp or Noel Perkins. They were excellent teachers.
AMCULT/HIST - History of the 1960's.
FILM/ENGLISH - Film Study of Alfred Hitchcock.
Some classes it seemed downright impossible to ever register for, even as a senior.
Space Instrumentation. We were told to build a small pseudo-satellite with a list of required capabilities, then after three weeks of lectures on the background of high-altitude balloons and common solutions from past classes, we were merely unleashed upon the lab with a $1000 budget per team.
I had never seen an Arduino before, and I ended up with a MacGyver-esque GPS transmitter by the end of the semester. I learned more about data packets, RF transmission, and analog and digital circuits than I ever could in six normal classes.
was really interesting and a great spread of newer physics concepts.
Physics of music was fantastic and anyone needing a reasonable science will love it.
Russian literature I enjoyed being able to read a 1000 page novel in the middle of a semester and liked having someone analyze it and explain pieces a couple times a week. Probably my favorite book I've ever read (The Brother's Karamazov).
don't recall the course #
There are a lot of great classes that I barely remember since it was 20 years ago, but one I do recall fondly is PolSci 160 with Kenneth Lieberthal. Something about the way he explained things that just clicked with me. I took a number of classes with him and always enjoyed them.
I was waiting for someone to mention Ken Lieberthal, he was always extremely popular with undergraduates and his courses were packed and rated highly. Which always struck most grad students as odd because most of us didn't like him at all, but it's two different worlds, really.
A lof of Grad students didn't like him? Why was that?
By the way, a friend of mine also took a lot of classes with Lieberthal as an undergad and in grad school. He seemed to like Lieberthal, but I think he preferred Michel Oksenberg.
For me, there was really only one UM professor I didn't like: Raymond Tanter. I took several classes with him because he was pretty much the main Middle East political science prof at the time. He always struck me as being too certain his opinions were correct and too quick to dismiss contrary views.
Yes. Sounds like we were at Michigan around the same time. My friend was there from around 1986-1992. I was there from 1990-1993.
I didn't hear about Oksenberg's death until a few years ago when I got the urge to google some of my old college professors. Very sad.
Oksenberg was my professor for PolSci 140. I still remember the final exam: Just one question: "What was the theme of this class?" or something similar. Tough one to answer since we studied a series of countries as individual cases. Never discussed a theme. After writing my answer, I went on to explain why I disagreed with what I found to be the underlying theme. It was a bit bold, so I was surprised that I still got an "A". That exam is part of how Michigan taught me to think for myself.
In hindsight, the theme was probably correct, but it's debatable.
Oksenberg gave me a small grant to help him develop the syllabus for that class, which was tough because I had to try to figure out exactly what he was trying to do with it. You probably hate me now.
That's the same thing I had to figure out on the final exam. I enjoyed the class and it's the only blue book exam I remember so it certainly made an impression. I've told the story many times over the years as an example of how students learn to think at Michigan (and other good schools) versus how students are taught facts and opinions elsewhere.
Now, if I'd failed that exam, it might be a different story. Hehe.
psych 101. Sat in class with a whole heap of hot chicks and the instructor basically turned it into the study of sex. I didn't learn a damn thing, but it definitely raised my blood pressure for an hour twice a week.
Just curious though, what were GenChem and P. Chem like for you? I found them wayyyyy harder than Orgo which probably seems really strange to some. So I wonder if you were the same way.
I actually ended up teaching a few Orgo study groups and what I realized is that doing well really has little to do with how "smart" someone is. The primary factor is whether or not the thought process necessary to solve the problems comes naturally to the student or not. Some are lucky enough where it just clicks for them. Those that struggle just aren't wired to think with the same, effective approach whereas they might get nothing but A's in biochem, genetics, calc, physics, etc.
This is actually very unfortunate because so many students get weeded out of the pre-med track because of Orgo. And I highly doubt the class is a great predictor of success in med school.
...I don't know why I just went on this tangent.
I did relatively piss-poor in Inorganic/general chem: B- and B; I think I have this strange ability to think 3-dimensionally or something, but for some reason with organic I just "got it." On the Organic 1 class (I took it in 1980, I don't even remember the actual class number- 201?) I scored a 96 on the midterm, and the mean was 54. Before the final the prof told me that if I didn't show up for the exam I would still get a B+ in the class. I also ended up with an A+ in the second course (202?) and an A in the lab course. P-chem class was a specialized course for "pre-meds," not the official P-Chem class; I think I got an A- in it, but so did everyone else.
That said, Organic Chemistry is/was a complete waste of time for someone planning a future in medicine; I don't remember any of it, and never came close to ever having to apply it again. Biochem was certainly more relevant, rememorizing the Krebs Cycle ad nausem nonwithstanding. The biggest benefit of Organic for me personally is that after pretty much fucking up my freshman year, it gave me a huge confidence (not to mention GPA) boost that helped me get into med school.
Yeah I'm a masochist
As for Econ 401, that class just. plain. sucked, IMO.
Pass/Fail. I was the envy of all my peers.
Modern Wars with David Fitzpatrick
Shakespeare with Ralph Williams
Medieval Literature with Ralph Williams
Science Fiction with Eric Rabkin
The Daily Circle Jerk Thread.
Five fakes out of Five, by the way.
Space Mission Analysis and Design
Space, bitches. Space.