Thompson, Richard  

Dr. Thompson is good guy, and reasonable and fair. The thing is that while he does know his stuff, he doesn't really teach it very well. He gets all mixed up with his examples and says things all backwards, then corrects himself and runs through it again, only to realize he was right the first time (or was he?) Students questions fluster him on the spot, and activity sections are pretty much laughable at how pointless and confusing they are. There is no textbook, which is a drawback if you don't understand the lecture, since the lecture notes are written by him. I would recommend using the internet and books in the library to get through this course. And doing the homework will get you a passing grade even if you fail the tests.

Thompson is one of, if not the best professors in the Forestry department. He actually cares about the students and his actions show it unlike all the other professors who say their students are number 1. He has a vast amount of knowledge on the subject of economics and if you take the time to learn and show him that you try his is more than willing to help. Enjoy the classes you have with thompson becuase the rest of forestry isnt as pleasant.

Dr. Thompson uses lecture notes instead of an expensive textbook, which is nice. Sometimes the slides didn't always match up to the notebook though and the class got lost. I can honestly say I didn't follow what was going on in class the majority of the time. Dr. Thompson knows the material really well but he is not very effective at presenting it in an understandable manner. The activities are worth 50% of the grade, the midterm is 25% and the final is 25%. Attendance is suggested for the activity because he basically walks you through the sheets, all you have to do is show up and pay attention. Lecture attendance isn't mandatory but he does little geography tests every now and then that can help for a booster in the end. Overall Thompson is a great man, just not so great of a professor at times, but definitely doable!

Thompson is ok, he is friendly, funny and goes on tons of tangents if you like that kind of thing. He is also very helpful in lab. The problem I had was that it wasn't always clear what was going to be tested, or how we would be tested, and this class covers a TON of material. If you don't have a solid grounding in Econ 101 be ready to be VERY confused for the first few weeks of class.

Dr. Thompson is super knowledgeable, entertaining, has a bunch of amusing anecdotes, and does his best to help you out. That said, the way he presents the information in his slides (which he lectures from) is pretty goddamn confusing, so unless you take GREAT notes and study up, prepare to have no idea what the hell he's talking about a lot of the time. The lab is also frequently difficult to comprehend. The good news is, you get walked through the lab and he gives some additional opportunities to pad your grade.

Dr. Thompson is a very friendly guy with a lot of experience in the field of environmental economics. His resume is not hard to find online, and it is almost absurd how much experience he has with forestry, natural resources valuation, and general economics, having managed many projects with $100k+ grants for the federal government among others. He is very intelligent and knows the material exceedingly well. That said, he is less effective as a teacher than as a researcher/professional. The subject matter is quite complex; get ready to study a lot if you didn't really understand ECON 201. There is also a lot of overlap with concepts from NR 335 and NR 404 (Conflict Management and Environmental Law), so try to enroll in those concurrently or before 326 if possible. He lets you use a notecard on the midterm, and I kid you not, at least 90% of the questions used formulas or other info directly off the card. He tells you multiple questions in advance, and there are past midterms floating around which he changes very little. The activity/lab section consists almost entirely of simple excel worksheets that he mostly walks you through. If you go to every class and actually pay attention and take notes, you should have no problem getting at least a B. In general he's pretty likable and the classes aren't excruciating to sit through since the material is somewhat interesting and he's a funny guy. Be sure to get to lecture on time, he gives extra credit geography quizzes and doesn't care if you use your phone to look up the answers. 'It's high-lit, as the kids might say' - direct quote from him yesterday

For those of you who like a socialist roasting, liberal tear drinking, ultra-capitalist professor, Thompson is absolutely amazing. For me, I couldn't have agreed with him more on certain topics. HOWEVER. Thompson is an awful professor and has no idea how to teach college students. His lectures are horribly boring and quite easy to fall asleep in, mostly due to the fact that over half the class doesn't even know what the fuck he's talking about. Thompson uses extremely complex "Harvard-esque" vocabulary - which if you aren't an English/language pro like me, understanding the concepts and topics is very difficult in this class. This is made even worse by the fact that he seems to believe everyone in the class also has 30+ years of experience in the natural resources econ field like he does, therefore when you ask a question about something his explanation will leave you hanging with even more unanswered questions. For example, if you have a question about a certain graph or formula, his answer will either be A) a one or two word vague ass answer, or B) a rabbit hole full of references to other graphs we haven't learned (that we apparently are supposed to know?) and leave you lost and even more confused than before. With a lack of clarity in his explanations, Power Point slides containing graphs he doesn't explain and complicated language, as well as an overall lack of assistance and inapproachability for help, it is no wonder the class average for the midterm was a 62%. (And when we got the midterms back, he ranted on how disappointed he was and that we should really have understood the material better ... like bro, ever stop to think that you aren't teaching us right??) If you are an econ nerd, you'll likely be able to get by in the class. But if you aren't, you're probably better off taking 326 with a different professor.

The more time I spend in the FNR department the more I grow to like Dr. Thompson. He's one of the few, if not only, professors who 1) both cares about his students and 2) can actually teach the material. I didn't realize the two didn't have to be mutually exclusive. Good sense of humor and one of the best professors within the NRM department. I highly recommend taking him whenever it's possible.

Before going to class on the first day, I recommend you rent the movie Spaceballs and tell me that this guy is not Mel Brooks. I laugh everyday at his anecdotes, stories and random sense of humor. One time he talked for about two minutes about how his wife let him leave the house without a belt on (Not exaggerating). One of the few professors who will take time to help students; he's very intelligent and is able to convey the material for class. Take him whenever possible.....I'm not kidding about Spaceballs. He really is Mel Brooks.