Niku, Shoreh  

During this entire quarter all I could think about was how this professor reminded me of that small little dog that runs through the back of scene 23 in The Incredibles by Pixar. Seriously, if you look it up you will only be able to see it...

I took her Wine and Vit 202 class (F'15). I have not idea why she is teaching in this department as she clearly has a very basic understanding of the material. Her power points are poorly made, with little real information that is repetitive. She is difficult to understand at times and can make little sense during lecture or on the slides. Her tests were very difficult because she would ask about things that had not been covered in class or in the text. The text book has either been translated into english or was written by someone with a poor grasp on the language which is easy to tell by how much of it actually makes sense. The group project at the end is a pain but if you meet with your group early and divide everything up it should be fine. There is little homework assigned but you'll use that time studying, trust me.

I had Niku for FSN 204 and FSN 250. She is pretty adorable and super knowledgeable about food science, but at times it is a little hard to understand her as English is not her first language (it's her 3rd!). I'll admit, sometimes the lectures can get pretty boring because most of it was reading straight from a powerpoint, which she also puts on PolyLearn (like if you read the book and the powerpoint you probably wouldn't even need to go to class...except that she takes attendance). Also super accommodating, like canceling class the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and being very understanding about athletics, which was nice. Overall great lady, take FSN 250 if you want an easy elective.

Niku is an awesome professor. She looks intimidating, but she is actually a pretty laid back professor and is open to talk to you about anything.. even boyfriends and girlfriends (like she said on the first day of class). Her lectures follow along w/ the notes (aka powerpoint slides) from the bookstore so you don't have to take notes that much at all. Make sure to go to class though cuz she passes around an attendance sheet. One nice thing about her is that she gives out extra credit for pop quizzes in class and sometimes other lil' things. The midterms really aren't that bad, but just make sure that you stay on top of it, cuz the final's cummulative and there's tons of info you need to know for it.

I just have to say lab was cool. If you're a girl and you can do the filling of the jars for the production lab, do it. She says that girls can't do it, so of course I had to prove her wrong. The lab is fun, take it during fall so you can do the ice cream lab though, because you get to eat it! Remember that for titration the equation is only divided by ml not times (10) as she says. She subsitutes the 10 into the equation in parenthesis so if you're an engineering or math person, beware. (I think the equation is on page 12.) Other than that, she's a cool lady. Lab is cake, just do the lab study questions and you'll do awesome.

I was lucky enough to be in a lab class of only 8 students. It was great. Each lab is very straight forward and Professor Niku explains it well and helps you along the way. She's so nice to just chat with and is very passionate about her work. SHe gives quizzes once a week and they're a little hard, but just study the study questions from the week before and it's not too bad. In this lab you get to make the extrodinary Cal Poly Olaliberry Jam. It is so much fun to do this lab. Also you get to go on a field trip and we went to the Wild Horse Winery. It was amazing (though I am in the wine major). The lab was altogether amazing. I even didn't have a great lab partner, but the whole thing still was great. I can't wait to have her agian next quarter for a diff. class. Oh, one thing to know, she has a very thick Iranian accent. It's very nice, but sometimes hard to follow, but you get used to it after 1 or 2 meetings. She's very nice, ask her for help or to explain things more if you need to. Take Professor Niku for FSN 230 Lab

Professor Niku is very knowledgeable on the subject, but she basically just reads the Power Point slides to the class, which does get a little tiresome. She attempts to cover too much information during the quarter, and ends up speeding through a lot of important info. And watch out for her exams, they can be tricky.

I love Niku. She is a little intimidating at first, but really sweet. I love the class and love her passion for the subject. Study for the lab quizzes really well and complete the practice questions beforehand. She will give you a comprehensive study guide for each exam, so answer each question throughly. Pay attention to all of the diseases and microbes in the first half of the class.

Niku is byfar the worst teacher I've ever had at Cal Poly. I don't even know how she received any good reviews. For lecture all she does is read directly off the slides, and when students have a question she dances around it and provides a terrible, unrelated answer. She's extremely unapproachable and has a snooty attitude when you attempt to ask her something. During a lab, she laughed at me with her TA when I made a mistake--this was unacceptable. Her tests are entirely detail-based, and the questions are grammatically incorrect and often went against what we learned in lecture. She does provide a book of notes that you can purchase, but be aware that she flies through the slides with little to no explanation. DO NOT take this professor if you are not an FSN or Nutrition major. Take literally any other teacher besides her.

Really disliked the class and the lectures were very bland. The lab was confusing we never knew what she wanted from us.

This class is extremely boring. Sitting through Niku read off the slides and give extra information that you don't need to know is miserable. You can know everything on the slides and listen to her in class but still do bad on the tests because she words her questions so weird. The lab is really easy but again very boring. I think Niku is knowledgable in food science but she really can't teach the material in an exciting way.

She's fine, the lecture was at times very boring, mostly because she simply read off of a powerpoint for the entire hour and a half. As a professor she's just okay, definitely not bad. The best thing about her is that she goes over exactly whats going to be on her tests the lecture before you take it, which is extremely nice when it comes to studying. She does take roll however there is no impact on ones grade.

She is very knowledgeable about the content, but in my opinion fails to present it in an interesting way. It was overall a very boring lecture that consisted of her just reading off slides

First of all, I absolutely love Professor Niku. Although she seems unapproachable and even a little scary at first, she is honestly one of the sweetest professors I've ever had. She definitely tells us what we need to know for the class and she is awesome at office hours! I can definitely understand why some people think the class is a little boring because the lecture is just her going over powerpoints, but I honestly found this class fascinating and she made me laugh so much. Just as an fyi, she passes around an attendance sheet so SHOW UP- especially near the end of the class! It doesn't count for points, but if you go a lot, she bumps up grades and gives out hella extra credit near the end. Also, don't get the book- she goes over material thoroughly. Loved this class and Niku!!! What a queen

Professor Niku is a funny, friendly woman but I was disappointed by her Food and Culture class because it was dreadfully easy, repetitive, and boring. Both midterms and the final were the exact same test and over half of the classes consisted of listening to boring student presentations. To be completely honest, I feel like it was just a waste of everyone\'s time. I think Niku would flourish and excel doing something different, because she truly is an awesome people-person. If you want an easy A for General Ed, then I guess the class would be worth looking into...

I took a food and culture class from Niku and it was extremely easy. Studying was basically just reading the chapters from the book and the lecture notes which were practically the same thing. The second half of the quarter from all the presentations is extremely boring and I skipped her class to study for my harder classes. Over-all its an easy A as long as you do all the assignments and study for the tests. Her grading is pretty straight forward but sometimes her communication with what she wants and what her grader wants are different.

Professor Niku is extremely loveable! She enjoys telling stories about her culture and her experiences with other cultures. I found those parts of the lectures the most entertaining. It really broke the ice because I have to admit I was intimidated by her going into the class. Everything was really straightforward in the class. You may feel inclined to skip a few lectures because they may be tedious but I recommend pushing through because she covers some interesting stuff that isn't in the books and will probably be on the exams. We frequently had take-home quizzes for each chapter and the questions weren't confusing at all. In the second half of the quarter, she had us get into groups and cover a culture. We had to give a 45-minute or so presentation, bring in food, and write a simple worksheet for other students to learn from. A lot of people go AWOL around this time. I admit, I skipped a couple classes because the presentations were rather boring. I did not study for any exams, which were cumulative and more or less used the same questions each time, and pulled out a B. I admit that I didn't put as much effort as I should have. Shoreh Niku will put in all that effort so I'd recommend you do too. She is really confusing in explaining what she wants and with due dates, but just approach her and she'll clarify. She's a great woman and really cares!

Professor Niku's class is an easy GE...if you understand her accent. Her broken English causes some confusion not only in e-mails, but in lectures, as well as when she explains assignments or tests. There are two midterms and a final, as well as three different assignments (which if you just complete them, you'll most likely get full credit), and a group culture project in which you'll have to give a 30 min presentation to teach the class about your culture. The lectures are based directly from reading so if you go to class don't waste money on the book. Her tests are fairly straight forward, you just need to remember details she emphasizes. Overall, I'd recommend taking if you have the option. Decent teacher, sweet, just hard to understand, fairly easy coursework, not a lot of time outside of class to do well.

Don't waste your money on the book! You will never need it!! She posts all her lectures on polylearn that outline the book. She does pass around a roll sheet where you check off your name so show up, sign in, and if you want stay or just leave. The assignments are all very easy. There is one group project but it was fairly easy if you are put into a good group. The midterms and final were super easy if you read over the lectures! Take this class!!

Professor Niku was a very good teacher. She has an accent but is very easy to understand. I am an engineer and I don't really care much about food science or nutrition but the class was very interesting. The lectures can get a little dry and sometimes she is unclear about the objectives of assignments but midterms were over the notes from her lecture (which she puts online) and the finals are over the notes and over the culture presentations. The presentations are not too difficult. Overall a very interesting class with a good teacher.

Where to begin. Shoreh. Shoreh, Shoreh. What one thought would be an easy GE, turned out to be a pain. The class itself is boring. Its a 2 hour lecture two times a week. I had it from 6-8pm and it was really long. She talks for the longest time. She has a thick accent and its hard to understand her. She literally just goes over her poorly organized powerpoint that she has posted on polylearn making it pointless to even show up to class. Her midterms are really easy, but the assignments really screw you up. If you mess up on one little assignment, forget about getting an A. One day I went to talk to her about the reason why I got such a bad grade on one of her assignments and she began yelling at me. BTW, dont bother her during office hours when she's talking to her son Alan on the phone. She gets mad... "and so on, and so on." Good luck!!!! and please forget about getting an A.

Ok to start off, DO NOT BUY THE TEXTBOOK!!!!! I never used it at all because she posts the PowerPoints online. Besides that, her grading policy is VERY unclear. For every assignment ask her for what she wants because I guarantee you she will ask you to do something different then what is on the assignment. Overall, the class is pretty dry... She reads off the PowerPoint for the first few weeks and the rest of the class consists of cultural presentations. Just know that cultural project is worth a fuck ton of your grade and actually work your ass off on it. I never paid attention in lecture and I found myself watching shows and doing other hw in class. The only reason why I got an A is because I studied 4 days straight for the final and I got an A on my cultural project. I started off not enjoying her class but professor Niku is the nicest professor I ever had... She's so damn nice that I can't say anything bad... That's saying something right there considering I've been screwed over so much by her. tl;dr I would take this class for shits and giggles

Some parts of this class were interesting, but it got repetitive very quickly. Professor Niku is very nice, but her assignments are very unclear and she doesn't answer questions very clearly. It was also obvious that she just didn't know some of the content of the course. The tests (2 midterms and a final) were very easy and most people finished them in less than 30 minutes. She went over some assignments on the first day and then never spoke about them again so it was difficult to understand what she wanted and when things were due.

I was disappointing in this class. It had it's moments of being interesting, but Niku's assignment instructions, expectations, and grading were all so unclear. Her tests were written really poorly, down the simple formatting. The questions were worded very confusingly, and sometimes the options included multiple correct answers so I literally guessed. I would not recommend this teacher for this class, I found it very frustrating and did not look forward to going to class at all.

Terrible teacher, she doesn't really explain anything and you can probably get away with not going to her lectures. However she knocks off points for the stupidest stuff and she makes it way too complicated for a GE. She doesn't really teach too, her TA grades everything there is to grade and she just drones on at you for hours at a time. Would not recommend.

Niku just reads off the lecture slides. The class if pretty straight forward, 2 midterms and final, a group project about cultures, and 4 assignments throughout the quarter. Boring lectures, but half way through the quarter groups start presenting their projects and you get out an hour early. Not a bad class at all to fulfill your GE E and USCP

I absolutely loved this class. The 8 a.m. lecture was hard to wake up for, but once I got there Dr. Niku had no trouble keeping my attention. Lecture consists of two 30 question midterms. If you go to class and study for maybe a half hour, you will have no trouble getting an A. Lab is probably the best lab you can find on campus. Our only labs were: 1. tasting sweeteners (sweet & low, Brown sugar, etc.), 2. Listening to presentations where we got to eat whatever the presenters were talking about (ex: cookies, chips and dip, soda, chocolate), and 3. make chocolate chip cookies. The presentation was a piece of cake and so much fun. It maybe took an hour to prepare for. Dr. Niku was really fun to listen to. The stories she tells are hilarious and you can tell she is just a fiesty lady. I would take a class with her again in a heartbeat. Do the lab worksheets, study a little and have fun. This is an easy, fun "A."

i LOVED professor niku. This was the only class that I enjoyed going to and I learned more from her class than any other that quarter. I highly recommend her

The class is extremely boring to attend because she gives you a lecture note packet at the beginning of the quarter and basically reads out of it every day in class. You do a presentation in the lab but it is really easy. The lab is not hard, you just have to make sure you don't miss any classes. There are 2 midterms and a final, which are all multiple choice.

Niku was a great teacher...All the notes are given to you and the midterms are not hard. Easy A or B and shes a cool. Highly recommend her

Excellent Teacher!! Her class is soooooooo easy that a Jr High School student can take it and pass with an A. Shes takes all questions from the Lecture notes and the class has some very interesting topics so its easy to remember. Take this class not only for an easy A, but to learn interesting stuff about the food industry.

Professor Niku is excellent at presenting the material and making the class super easy. She is one of the few professors that has the ability to teach you a lot of information and make the class EASY. It is very hard to fail her class. We had 2 midterms, a group paper/presentation, and a final. She will tell you exactly what to expect on everything. Take her if you can. Not just for an easy A, but to actually learn and have fun. Trust me you will not be disappointed.

First of all, such a fun class, go in ask questions about food, nutrition and all. No work other than the midterms and the project. Perfect for a graduating senior. As for it being an "Easy class" mentioned below, either she saw all the posts about how easy her class was and stepped it up (the class averaged a C something on the 2nd midterm) or that was a bunch of nutrition, ag or other related majors who are already familiar with half the material and had it easy, but I think she stepped it up.

Niku is difficult to understand and goes through the material in a non-specific way. It's difficult to figure out what to study out of all the information she gives you. Here tests are tricky and she doesn't know how to help you study when you go into office hours. If your worried about your GPA I would suggest taking it credit/no credit. I've never gotten below a B in a class since college, and I struggled to pull a C in this class. Avoid the trouble, and take a different class!

Food law and regulations is just how it sounds. She did her best to keep the class interesting. Most of the material can be looked up on the internet. There are small assignments and a presentation, weekly quizzes, and a final. The last couple of lectures are presentations and can be tiring hearing everyones product.

This was the second quarter I got to have Professor Niku as my teacher. She's awsome! I went into this class thinking I'd never get through it with anything better than a C, but boy was I wrong. It's not easy, I won't say that, but if you keep up on the material and really try to understand it you'll do fine. There's plenty of extra credit, but only if you attend class, so do that, it'll help you in the long run. There's one project, it's a little overwhelming at first, but really it's not bad at all, it was even kinda fun, you'll enjoy it, just don't get scared when she first introduces it and tells you all that you need. By the time you have to present, you know most of the stuff anyways. I definetly recommend Niku and FSN 374, I had a great time and learned a heck of a lot of stuff. You can't go wrong with this professor. Good luck.

Very nice and can be understanding, but does not present clearly or explain assignments clearly. The entire class is out of sync with her and what she expects. Everyone would be sitting behind their computers doing things that were better with their time or other homework. Assignments were not presented clearly, and did not really match the objective of the course. Could possibly be interesting but does not need to be an entire course when there is so much science (chemistry and engineering) to learn about food.

Really terrible professor. She can't convey ANY material to students. She simply reads slides and adds no helpful insight. Also, her quizzes and tests hardly make sense because she barely speaks English. I have no idea why or how she was hired. The FSN department really needs to find a replacement which wouldn't be hard with this one....I could teach the course more effective and efficiently. She's boring, incompetent, and lame. Seriously, get rid of her Poly.

Niku is an interesting kind. To be honest, she was one of the worst professors I have ever had. Her teaching style is very dry. She literally reads off the slides. What makes it worse that it is difficult to understand what she is saying most of the time. Also, it is difficult to grasp the answer she is looking for due to her poor wording of questions. Niku is terrible at conveying the true meaning of what she is thinking. Hell, I'm not even sure if she knows what she's trying to say sometimes. You can imagine the confusion that it caused within the class. Sometimes, she would mumble a sentence that made no sense and you would see the puzzled faces on all the students. The most frustrating part of the class was the grading. She is very unclear of what is expected. She gives low scores on excellent work and does not seem to have an objective grading scale. It felt as if the more you knew/appealed to her, the better the grade you would get. This sort of grading method was unfair and pissed me off very much. She does not seem to care about student very much. We are just another number to her. She does not understand how serious our grades can affect our future career-wise. I would highly recommend NEVER taking her, but if you're a Food Science major, then that is impossible. I wish goodluck to the future FSN generations because as long as Niku's teaching, you're all going to need it.