Peterson, Daniel  

This is possibly the stupidest class I have ever taken at Poly. Don't buy the book, it's a waste of money, as the book actually talks about ANIMAL SCIENCE. His lecture is basically a biology class. His slides are pointless so don't study them. The entire test is on what he says and what he writes on the board. He has a piece of shit attitude, and is a complete asshole at office hours. DON'T TAKE THIS PROFESSOR! he's an arrogant douchbag.

Dr. Peterson is such a great professor. He makes lecture so fun and engaging, plus his tests are very fair. If you can take a class with him, do not hesitate.

Super nice teacher and makes it easy to get an A. He gives you 4 tests total and drops your lowest score. Lots of pop quizzes so its important to show up. Also, with no textbook or powerpoint its vital to take good notes!

Dr. Peterson put me off at first with his mildly cocky "I just got done with doctorate school" attitude but don't let it fool you. He taught the Animal Breeding class with the perfect mix of heavy information and practical examples and explanations. Having Joel Judge and Debbie Beckett guest lecture a few sessions was a great idea too. I really felt like I took a lot from the class and my interest in the subject has increased as a result. He is fairly new to teaching so he is still very open to suggestions and comments from the class about testing, lectures, etc. I loved that he used Blackboard and had downloadable PowerPoint presentations to help you study. Overall a great professor that is fresh out of the "real world" so use his experience to your advantage!

I wasn't to sure about Dr. Peterson at the beginning of the quarter, but by the end he had proven to me that he is a friendly, outgoing, kind and empathetic human being. As a professor, he is tough, but this just makes you learn his material!

Good Course, Dr. Peterson tries very hard to keep us interested. The tests were very concept based, no memorizing useless facts that we would forget the next day. I recommend this course. Joel Judge taught the middle 1/3 of the course.

Dan is a great teacher! I wish I could bottle up some of his energy and save it for other, less stimulating lectures. His fresh perspective really helps motivate students. I am so tired of some older, burnt-out professors in the Animal Science department, and Dan is a breath of fresh air. Always print the notes before class, and study them well for the tests. This will ensure your success in animal breeding.

He\'s definitely a fair teacher. His tests are all off lecture notes and he focuses mainly on concepts and examples. He will expect you to be able to apply concepts to real life situations on all midterms and rarely will ask you a memorization question. I also found he is a fairly easy grader if you mostly know the concept, but don\'t ramble on his tests. You are either right or wrong, even in you have a right answer with a little bit of wrong answer it\'ll be wrong. But I always stay awake in his class, which says a lot for me! A lot of people don\'t like his tests, but I would definitely take him if you want to learn something!

I think Dr. Peterson is an excellent teacher. Yes, he is difficult because you have to think more on his tests and actually figure things out instead of just rewriting a memorized paragraph. I think a lot of the arrogance comments on here were probably people that got poor grades and took his sarcasm as arrogance. His lectures are easy to follow and very interesting. He gives a number of tests (I think 4 including the final) and takes out the lowest grade, so you don\'t have to take the final if you are happy with your grade going into it.

dan peterson is the man. cocky...maybe, but he's a smart dude. he writes those long ass test questions because he wants us to learn how to problem solve. the real world isn't about regurgitating memorized material. it's important to know how to APPLY the knowledge he has made available to us to questions we've never seen before. go to class and you'll do fine on the tests. you may even learn how to think instead of memorize. don't badger him at office hours because its annoying.

Dr. Peterson is very knowledgable and his lectures are great but his tests suck! You don't know what he's asking on them because he rambles on forever, I learned nothing from this class which sucks because up until now I really enjoyed the study of genes but Peterson ruined that. He also makes you feel like a jackass if you go into his office hours and ask him a question, so don't! He gives 4 exams, dropping your lowest score and a short paper that's worth half an exam.

Peterson would probably be a good teacher if he didn't have such a huge stick up his ass. He is rude to students in lecture if they ask a question, and he can be quite dismissive. His type A anal personality makes him hyper critical about any free response answers submitted. Beware.

No idea why Peterson gets hated on! Lectures are straightforward. There are no readings or assignments outside of class. His tests are his notes. No trick questions. Entertaining. Favorite prof at poly.

Dr. Peterson is honestly such a nice and intelligent guy! His teaching style requires you to come to class (as he hand writes the notes along with you on the board) and has mini minimal point entry quizzes which are extremely straight forward. There are no outside books and his tests are really straight forward as long as you pay attention during lecture. He also has a policy where you only have to take 3 of 4 tests, which is super nice if you don’t do well on one of the exams. He’s also super helpful outside of class if you go in to talk to him!

Dr. Peterson is an amazing professor and I wish I could take every class with him! He breaks down complicated concepts in ways that are easy to understand. I highly recommend taking him whenever you can! His exams are straightforward and don't try to trick you; he tests on how well you understand the concepts. He also gives 4 exams, but drops the lowest one, so if you have a good grade before the final you don't have to take the final. He's a little scatterbrained, but he's super funny and wants his students to succeed!

Dr. Peterson is awesome. His lectures are always entertaining and a lot of fun to be in. It is not an easy A class however. You really need to be there everyday to take notes both on what he says and what he writes on the board. Peterson doesn't like powerpoints. I definitely could've gotten a MUCH better grade in this class if i had truly applied myself and studied properly, i was just super distracted the quarter that i took him. I really loved his class though despite struggling to get a C. He knows his stuff and really wants everyone to learn the material and do well. He will answer questions (as long as they're not too off topic or pointless) and wants to make sure that you get it. Definitely go to office hours, he isn't scary and is nice to you if you are nice in return and can joke around a bit.

Dr. Peterson is the most arrogant man I've ever had the unfortunate experience of dealing with. I dreaded going to this class! He team taught it with Dr. Humphrey. What an incompetent duo. The course jumped around and Dr. Peterson expected us to make illogical conclusions. Furthermore, he and Dr. Humphrey would switch off and constantly contradict each other. This became a huge problem for the midterms. The anwsers depended on who was grading that particular question as they had differing opinions. When asking for clarification, it seemed Dr. Peterson liked to go out of his way to humilate you with his, "I have a PhD and therefore am the smartest man alive" attitude. When the class average was failing on our second midterm, his reponse was, "I'm sorry we designed a test to make you think." Yea, our whole classes idea was to just see how low we could get our scores. He would not let you keep a copy of the tests, even when we all failed and wanted to learn from our mistakes for the final. Also, more times than not we were held over the hour. Lucky for me, my class right after that was okay with me constantly being a couple minutes late. Also, Dr. Peterson seems to have a huge problem with returning emails, EVEN WHEN HE ASKS YOU TO EMAIL HIM! My recommendation is to wait until someone else teaches this class or these two bozos get their act together.

Sure, at first he seems funny, nice, outgoing, smart, and tries to be your friend. But as time goes on, you realize what a terrible teacher and person he is. He makes you feel inferior to him and always reminds you of his Cornell degree insinuating how intelligent he is and how great he is. His tests are RIDICULOUS. You may think you know the material going into the exam, but the way he phrases his tests is not straight-forward or professional. An entire story the whole way through the test?? JUST BE UPFRONT AND ASK A DIRECT QUESTION! He will write the question as a paragraph with minor sentences that don't matter, trying to be funny, but then the one sentence you browse over will have crucial information you need. Or how about the fact that your answers are never good enough in comparison to his, especially if he doesn't like you; he will grade you a lot harder if he doesn't like you. I have never met more of a two-faced, pompous, unprofessional person in my life. Not to mention he is not helpful in office hours...if you ask a question about clarification about something he will roll his eyes and explain the same way he did in lecture...he doesn't adapt to people's various learning styles and expects everyone to think the way he does.

Dr. Peterson is my favorite professor in the animal science department, hands down. Going to his lectures, even if they were early in the morning, was always fun and interesting.I had him for ASCI 320 and ASCI 304 and loved both of the classes. He challenges you to move beyond strictly memorizing and spitting facts back out for an exam. He challenges you to think. I'm guessing this is the problem previous negative reviewers had with him. And for those people I say good luck once you graduate. Dr. Peterson is wonderful. Take him before you graduate!

I really don't know what everyone's deal with Dr. Peterson's questions are! I attended every class, took good notes, studied for maybe an hour or two before each test and had no problem understanding his test questions and getting As on the tests. Yes, the questions are sometimes long and give lots of information, but if you have a good understanding of the material, it really should be no problem at all to decipher which material is necessary to finding the answer to the question. I personally believe that his tests are more than fair (the average was always around a high C or low B). Plus, Dr Peterson is super funny and easy to follow in class. His notes are very clear and he makes sure to engage the class so people don't get sidetracked. Dr. Peterson is awesome--I don't know why people have so many issues with him!!

4 midterm (final counts as a midterm) and he drops the lowest score. His test is unbelievable. Kind of hard to study for the midterm because he could answer anything. He writes his notes on the board and its more of a guidling for studying. He makes funny jokes and time. He scares me sometimes.

He's a funny professor but his tests are hard. He present materials in class by writing stuff on the board, with no textbooks or anything else. The tests are focus on critical thinking from what you studied. This class is required for major so my advice is to be sure you have plenty of room in your schedule to study hard for this class!

Dr. Peterson is a two-faced disappointment. I thought he was going to be an engaging and fun professor. He turned out to be an arrogant a-hole. Unfortunately, two classes that I had to take for my major were only taught by him. (I completed them both.) I have a mental illness: 296.33 Major Depression, Severe, Recurrent. Most professors whom I have spoken with are understanding, or can even relate to how I feel. I had a meeting with Peterson that had to do with completing a specific course. I recorded our conversation because I figured he would be rude and arrogant and interruptive; he certainly proved himself to be. There are three horrible, two-faced men whom I have dealt with in my life. Peterson is one of them.

So I had Peterson for 304, 320 (which all ASCI majors have to take him for) and 479. Forget about the comments about him being arrogant, a douche, etc…. Here’s the truth about Peterson: He is very perceptive and no patience for bullshit, so there is no way you can talk your way out of anything, hence the high standards he hold himself and his students. He is also very well spoken, and well prepared for his lectures. I think Peterson has been teaching for long enough at Cal Poly now, almost 10 years, so obviously he isn’t fresh out of his doctorate program anymore. He really puts a lot of thought into teaching his students and, I believe, truly wants to bring out the best in us. (this is from the speech he gave during the first meeting of 479) In terms of his harsh grading: again, he wants to push his students to do the best job that they can. He has high standards for his students, which I honestly see that he also sets for himself as well. I think that his grading standards are also supposed to mirror the standards of the scientific community, which he is a member of, and as many students will be in their chosen career field. His tolerance for students that are unable to meet this standard that he perceives to be due to laziness, lack of trying/studying, etc. is ZERO. No wiggle room. Which makes sense. However, I think he has to be more understanding and have more patience for students who are under extenuating circumstances (language barrier, medical conditions) that might cause them not to fully meet this standard. I’m not sure that Peterson has much experience in terms of the diversity of the backgrounds of his students (seeing as Cal Poly itself is not particularly diverse nor does ASCI attract a super diverse crowd), which a professor obviously has to consider when trying to help students. This is definitely his weak point as a professor, and I hope he improves on this as he continues to teach new students from different backgrounds every year.

To start I would like to say that Dr. Peterson is very smart, and has the capacity to do so much with his skills as both a lecturer and a professor. I had him for genomics as well as 320, and knew full well that he would only lecture for the duration of the course from previously taking genomics with him. However, this knowledge of his teaching style gave me no advantage whatsoever as I realized the entire class was struggling the entire quarter. By struggling I mean that no matter how many times you listened to the recording of his lectures or researched the topic to gain a better understanding of the material, the way he words his exams are nearly impossible. He says that in order to really learn, a student needs to look at the big picture, except he never focuses on the big picture in lecture, he talks about minuscule details and discourages asking what it is he is getting at. I also know that students writing in polyratings are typically, or generally thought to be the people who didn't try as hard, or had an extreme hatred for a professor which led them to post a public review. This is not one of those. I am simply trying to get across how few of his students are actually benefiting from his teaching style, which is clearly ineffective. I say this not based on assumption but based on fact. This past quarter in 320 the midterm scores, out of 100 students enrolled, had 27 F's, 22 D's, 24 C's, 9 B's and 10 A's. If that doesn't explain it then I don't know what does. Dr. Peterson, if you are reading this please reevaluate your teaching style! Be innovative and try something new for the sake of learning and the sake of your students as well. It's not about the grade, it is about the way you present the material that is obviously not working for the majority of students.

Dr.Peterson has high expectations for students to know the material, but his tests are reasonable as long as you study the lecture notes. He writes notes on the board of exactly what he wants you to know, and he doesn't require a textbook.

I used to really like Dr. P. I had him for genomics and thought he was a decent dude. But let me tell you, once you get on a side other than his good one he will screw your midterm grades. I got an 86 on the first midterm, and studied my ass off for both of the other two with other classmates and they got at least 10 points higher on them than I did. We talked about both midterms afterwards and thought that we had both put the same answers, but my friend ended up with an A in the class and I ended up with a C+. He absolutely plays favorites, or will be nit-picky with answers to the point of skewing grades. I'm a graduating senior that was hoping to be able to apply to grad programs but I guess we'll have to see how that plays out now. Overall, Dr. P if you're reading this I hope you realize that students can pick up on your negative energies a lot more than you think we do. It sucks. To those taking this class--it will envelop your whole life so please do yourself a favor and literally review for an hour every day after lecture.

Dr. Peterson is an easy going guy. He enjoys what he teaches, and he is very smart. This class is small and personal. Get to know the guy and you will like the class a lot more. The class teaches a lot of new techniques and experiments. The lab equipment is some of the best on campus. His tests are more thought provoking, he gives you a problem and you decide what to do. There is a mid term lab report and final lab report which make up a large portion of the class grade, so put forth the time and effort.

Peterson is by far my favorite animal science professor. He holds your hand throughout the class and makes sure not to let anyone in the class fall behind. I really enjoyed this class. The structure is nice with 3 hours of lecture/note taking a week and then 6 hours of lab a week (typically lets out early). There were quizzes occasionally but only worth a few points. The midterm was fairly simple and he let us re-answer questions we did not feel sure of during our lab period. Your major grade comes from a quarter long paper. Overall I would definitely recommend this class to anyone interested in biotech.

This is by far the favorite class I have taken at Cal Poly this far. I learned so much, and thoroughly enjoyed the quarter-long research project that we did. This class made me realize a potential career path that I would like to follow. On top of that, Dr. Peterson is extremely enthusiastic and fun. This class was very difficult and a lot of work. However, it made it so that only people that are genuinely interested in the subject matter took the class. This made for a wonderful learning environment and I could not have asked for a better quarter.

WORST professor I have had at Poly. Royal arrogant douchebag. The kind of professor that will throw a condescending comment at you with a smile.

Dr. Peterson is really funny in class and really open to questions while in class. However, for some reason when visiting his office hours he turns into a douche. You can go in with simple questions and he makes you feel like a complete retard. Also a very harsh grader..

Honestly, he seemed like a very nice person who is highly intelligent, and he is. That said, he is not above dating his students (he had a relationship with a friend and I accompanied them), and is incredibly arrogant. I wish he was the altruistic instructor I thought he was; but he's not. My friend isn't the only one he's dated... as they say in agriculture; "Once a chicken killing dog, always a chicken killing dog." My question? Just how many students has he courted? Disgusting.