Silva, Andrew  

Silva is the man. He makes this required swim class pretty fun. Taking it winter quarter might not have been the best idea because it gets pretty cold in those speedos when hes talking for a long time. He lets you goof around a little, just don't get him too angry. Sweet teacher. Knows his stuff.

Good prof. If you show up to class and pay attention to the lecture, the midterm and final won't be a problem. If students complain that a question is unclear, then he will drop the question and give you points to make up for the unfair question. Quizzes are online (and open book). Only thing that you need to really study for is 1 midterm and 1 final.

Professor Silva is a really great teacher. He tries to get the class to participate as much as possible, and explains the material in his powerpoints very well. If the class shows up most days he'll post the powerpoints online for later revision and he will email you back very quickly. His Behavior Change Project is a great way of fulfilling the required 1500 words for a General Ed class. Also its pretty fun to look back on all the progress you've made. I changed my sleeping pattern and was all the better for it. Professor Silva tries to help out his students to the best of his ability, he understands that things come up sometimes and will be lenient on homework if the problem was reasonable. Download the notes, go to class, and you should be fine.

Professor Silva is a really great guy. His teaching ability is adequate, but if you're a Kinesiology major I can definitely see you being bored and annoyed by his slightly-limited knowledge. He definitely knows what he teaches very well, but he gives off the vibe of a coach more than a higher education instructor. The book is as expensive as it is unnecessary. I would advise just purchasing the code for the learning lab at the online website. There is one mid-term which is actually fairly easy if you review the study guide extensively. The final is basically the same thing, if not easier than the midterm (because half of it is repeated mid-term questions. The homework isn't very tedious I probably spent about 45 minutes every other week to complete it. Classes aren't really necessary to go to either unless there is a movie or a presentation from an organization on campus (which, believe me, there are a lot of). Lastly, the Behavior Change Project is really easy. If you put in the slightest effort you can complete it in a few hours on a Sunday. I did half of the project before it was slated to begin and then I did the follow up half right before it was due. No problems. This was a pretty interesting class, but you will be bored if you know the slightest bit about anatomy and nutrition. Silva is truly a good guy and teaches an incredibly easy freshman GE course. However, if you're looking to be challenged and enlightened during your first Quarter at Cal Poly, then this is not the course for you.

Awesome teacher. Online homework can be a little unfair and the online quizzes are annoying. But awesome guy and great teacher, would highly recommend him.

Really nice, cool, young guy. Recognizes that we're busy college students and doesn't want to make whats a GE for most of us some ridiculous course load. You learn a lot of information that's applicable to yourself and your life, and come out with some valuable information. I read the book cover to cover. He doesn't go over a lot of material in class because he's more concerned with good class discussions, which is nice, but when it came to mid terms and especially the final, I had to do an insane amount of studying to cover everything he didn't get to in class. Weekly homeworks are pretty tedious and can be kind of unfair since they're graded on accuracy and sometimes discuss material not even in the book. There are online weekly quizzes that you can use whatever resources you have to complete so those are easy. Overall good class, looked forward to it, always let out early.

I really hate this class. To start of the professor isnt the best. He is VERY cocky, full of himself, and inconsiderate. He says things that are just plain rude and makes it seem like some topics in this class are pointless. When talking about mental health he put down people who may suffer from them by saying that it is an easy change. The class itself is straight BS. The homework are insistently dumb and the online assignments are just plain stupid. The test was ridiculous. He also cancels class almost once every two weeks which is ridiculous. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Class is a joke. BS material, BS class. The guy has canceled class 4 times. Classes are 2 days a week so this correlates to 2 WEEKS OF MATERIAL. absolutely ridiculous. I dont understand how Cal Poly keeps this guy. "Im traveling with the national team". I could care less what you do. I am here to learn and have learned absolutely nothing from this class.

Silva has a terrible class format and didn't teach me anything. During class he talks about how badass he is because he is from SLO and eats at firestone. He tries so hard to be your friend and make you believe that he is still a young hip guy that he forgets to teach. Then he assigns long dense homework assignments that cover stuff that wasn't in lecture. Plus his exams are automatically curved to give everyone a B. A majority of the questions are straight forward but then some will be ultra specific questions that nobody understands. On top of that he cancels tons of classes because he is traveling. Lecture was a joke, online homework is the only thing with real information.

THIS PROFESSOR IS NOT EVEN WORTH ONE SECOND IN YOUR LIFE. HE IS A STUCK UP PRICK WHO PRAISES LIVING IN CAYUKOS, BUT CANCELS CLASS ABOUT 5 TIMES THIS QUARTER. That is just simply ridiculous when you only have a class two days a week. WE ARE HERE TO LEARN! WHY ARE YOU STILL TEACHING HERE? Secondly, he says to not worry about your grade and that he will help us out as much as possible when it comes to grading. I got a 100% in all homework categories but struggled on his tests and when it came to the end of the quarter, he didn't even fucking make the effort to bump me a quarter of a percent so that instead of a C+ I would get a B-. BIGGEST DIPSHIT!

A lot of the most recent evaluations on Professor Silva are negative, and it's because this past winter quarter he canceled class often. For me I didn't mind since I took this class as an easy GE, but to others that really care about kinesiology I could see how this could be frustrating. Personally, I had a great experience with this class. Professor Silva is super chill and lets you out of class early every single day; he only held class from 8-9:30 instead of 8-10. A lot of your grade is based on the online homework and quizzes. I suggest setting alarms on your phone calendar for when they're due because I missed a few and it hurt my grade. For the midterm and final he gives you an in depth study guide on what you need to know so there are no surprises. I got a B on the midterm and an A on the final. There were FIVE days that he listed on the syllabus where he wouldn't have class... in addition to the other classes that he canceled. I felt like I rarely even went to this class. So my suggestion is: If you are looking to get a GE out of the way and want an easy course, take this.

Silva is a great professor. The only thing I didn't like were the exams. Very difficult (in my opinion). Online homeworks and quizzes are an easy A, but exams brought my grade way down because of how much they are weighted.

Silva is a great guy. His class is interesting and the work load is minimal. If you actually study for the midterm and final it's not a hard class at all. He is entertaining and sincerely cares about his students. He is a busy guy, but will make time for you if you email him in advance. He's very laid back and does cancel class for traveling for his other jobs, but honestly I didn't mind that at all, who doesn't like to have class canceled? He let's you know this at the beginning of the quarter. He still presents all the materials or tells you were to go look at them if he doesn't have time. I would recommend taking this class with him.

Silva means well but if you're looking for an easy A, this is not your class. Easy B, ooooh yeah, but getting above a B is more difficult than it should be for this GE. So, I guess it depends what you're looking for. Silva cancelled half of our classes and still expected us to know everything from all the chapters. I felt like the tests had some general questions but also some extremely detailed questions I definitely don't remember ever learning. He gives out a study guide, but even though I made a 22 page outline going over everything on it, I still got a B on the midterm. His SG is a good place to start but it doesn't cover everything on the test and it has many bullet points not even covered on the test (so you end up doing extra studying). This class is okay. I didn't learn much and as someone who wanted an A (and did put in a LOT of work) and was genuinely interested in the topic, I'd probably choose a different professor if I had the chance to go back. The online homework is super easy, online quizzes can be slightly difficult (HW and quiz due weekly), midterm, final. Very few grade inputs so if you screw up on a test, you're done.

Not a bad class to take because it does not require a lot of effort. He had scheduled canceled classes, which was nice but also took away from learning opportunities a handful of times. Make sure to still put in effort though because he will not round your grade (I got an A-).

This guy is so great. He's very easy to understand and lectures are easy to follow. I had a MW 8-10pm class and he usually let us out around 9:30 because he would notice us drifting. The material is really easy, basic health concepts, but the tests were decently hard. Overall, I loved him as a professor.

Cool, young professor. Easy to talk to and always willing to help a student with questions. Encourages class discussion. Easy A.