Needles, Lisa  

Well Lisa needles is my mom and she is the best mother I could ever have and she knows what she is talking about and you guys who insult her behind her back are all mean!!!

Prof. Needles knows what she's talking about, but doesn't clearly illustrate that knowledge to the class. In my lectures at least, she would read directly off the powerpoint, word-for-word, spending less that 2 minutes on a completely full slide. You never have enough time to write down what she's saying. Though, in her defense, she does post the powerpoints to PolyLearn a couple days later, so you can just go back and look at the slides on your own time. Her midterms are fairly easy. I got a B on my first one without really studying too hard. Know the material and you'll be fine. If you're a self-learner, then I would totally take Prof. Needles' class. If you need a professor to teach you the material, take a different professor.

She is a nice lady but she reads directly off her slides and can't answer any questions from students. It is completely unnecessary to go to lecture as long as you read the textbook on your own.

I'm sorry but Needles is a horrible instructor. She reads straight off of her powerpoint EVERY SINGLE CLASS. I was always hoping her computer would just die in class so I could witness her failure at even knowing what she was teaching. She is actually a really nice lady, but she acts as though she doesn't even care about the subject. I know she has to be intelligent...but she does not put any effort into preparing her lectures or actually understanding her course material!! Too bad you can't avoid taking her..I'd say just be prepared to read straight from your book, there's no hope learning anything else that isn't from your text.

This class was very difficult for me to get through. I am a first year Biology major and this was my very first college class. It was intimidating at first, walking into a theatre filled with 300 other students. The class seemed easy at first. We had to buy an iClicker, which was used for easy participation points during lecture. However, because Needles just went through the powerpoint (that was literally straight from the book and posted online) and the class was at 8:40 in the morning, it was very tempting to skip. Even though I went to class everyday, it was extremely hard to pay attention and focus because not only did Needles not know what she was talking about and could not answer many questions that students asked, it seemed like a review of my AP Bio class in high school. I did all of the homework (weekly online assignments; also must buy the program) and got almost 100% on all of them (you can find the answers online) and also had 100% for my participation grade and got 85% on the two midterms. All in all, I though I would end up with a low A or high B in the class. The final however, is cumulative, and was so detailed and destroyed my grade. I ended up with a C in the class. As a side note, to any Bio majors, just get through this class. Personally, this class has made me want to change my major, even though I'm not going to. The lab portion of this class is also very uninteresting and tedious, but you can get through it.

Seriously, who do you little weasels think the fuck you are? You never went to graduate school, where you learned the inside out of biology and ecology from the best instructors the nation has ever seen. You guys think, at Cal Poly, you're on a platform to discern what is good from bad teaching? You know absolutely nothing, especially if you disparage Lisa. You don't know anything. Despite what your piece of shit ultra loser dean Phil Bailey says, Cal Poly means nothing to the rest of the country and self-delusion, from the professors down to the students, will only make your road more difficult. So sorry.

Lisa is a nice person, I'll give her that.(She rounded my grade:)) She doesn't seem to be very knowledgable of the course material,but she definitely knows her own major very well. She always has to refer to her book in Office Hours. I pretty much slacked off on all of my classes this quarter and I still got a C-. I mostly went to class and studied progressively more towards the end of the quarter for the tests. There's just the midterms and the final to worry about really; Mastering Bio and iClicker questions are pretty easy. I recommend having huge Mastering Bio parties and taking turns clicking answers so all of you get good grades. Lisa's ppts are redundant but straight forward and she posts them online, so the only reason you should go to class is to take a nap and wake up for the iClickers. MEMORIZE ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EVERYTHING EVER. I would be quite happy in life if I never ever ever took her again.

I'll start off by saying that Needles is a very nice person. But it is obvious that she is a new professor. Her lectures are taken directly from the book - word for word. It is unnecessary to attend them. She is very aware of the transition from high school to college so she gives out a ton of free points in the form of Mastering Biology and Iclicker participation points. Do not miss any of these. You can skip lecture by giving your Iclicker to a friend, but missing an Iclicker question is worth ~2 points so make sure they are awake. To study for the tests, I wrote thorough notes for each and every section of the book. This is particularly helpful in this class because she tests on all sections of the book - don't discount any of them. This contrasted with my chem 141 class in which I didn't even use the book (this varies heavily with different professors). The first test on evolution was very conceptual in my opinion. It is easy to miss points on: names of scientists who proposed different theories of life & the difference between ancestoral and derived traits on the phylogenetic tree. The 2nd midterm (plants) required a lot of memorization. Memorize the basic characteristics of all oh the examples at the back of the chapters for plants and protists. The final seemed like there were a lot of problems with multiple correct answers. I got a 92%, 88%, and 88% on the 1st midterm, 2nd midterm, and final, respectively. Lastly, really watch out for the lab - that is where I missed a majority of my points. Some of the quizes were very easy, others were fucking hard, but they really depend on your instructor. Good luck, you can miss 100 points in the class and still get an A.

It was a waste of time to go to her lectures, and most people didn't go. The only reason why I got an A was because I would skip some of her lectures to just read the book instead. She wasn't very knowledgeable about the material, and she always couldn't answer questions that student's had. I have to admit that she did become a bit better towards the end, but not much better. Tests were fairly mediocre. A bit like high school tests, but some questions didn't make any sense. I recommend not taking her.

Needles definitely needs to gain more experience or skills in teaching before becoming a college professor. Her lectures were basically a word-for-word copy of the book and rarely had an answer to student's questions. She improved the lectures only after a graduate student lectured for one day and copied his method. Other than her teaching method, the class was relatively straightforward with multiple choice tests and online homework assignments.

Avoid this Prof at all costs

This professor doesn't even know her own material. When asked a question that is on the study guide for the final, it took her 10 minutes to search for the answer then finally give up and say "i'll get back to you on that." Then after asking about a question that was on the previous exam, she did the same exact thing. This woman is the worst professor at Cal Poly. If she took her own exam she would probably fail her own class.

Dr. Needles knows a lot about wildlife biology. She is really passionate about the field, and that was really cool to see. Her lectures are a kind of dry, but you have to go because participation is part of your grade. The class breakdown: participation (5%), 3 quizzes (10%) 2 midterms (15 and 20%), a writing assignment (20%), and a final (30%). If you read the textbook and go to class, the class is a breeze. If you have a question or want to go over a quiz or test, she is very helpful during office hours. If you took AP Environmental Science, half of this class is a repeat of that. I strongly suggest taking this class, it was interesting and very relevant to environmental problems today.

Let's just say it took her 4 weeks to figure out how to set up the iClickers� She is definitely very smart and knows her wildlife (specifically owls, she talks about owls a lot) but she doesn't know how to engage students. I went to every lecture and was bored out of my mind, even when the information was interesting. Her lecture style is have a powerpoint and then talk at the class and click through the slides too fast to even copy things down. This class had the potential to be awesome, but instead was a burden and super dry. In terms of workload it's not too bad but the tests are quite hard if you don't read/take notes. My advice: attend every lecture in hopes of at least absorbing something because her tests have a lot of stuff she covers in lecture.

Long and boring, straight 2 hour lecture class. The hardest part was having her on Tuesday/Thursdays 6-8 pm. Don't recommend this class, and certainly not over dinner time. You'd rather go to Farmer's...trust me.

Prof. Needles is very passionate about Bio and loves what she does. This is evident in how she talks about some of her personal exploits in Marine Biology. This unfortunately doesn't translate as well into the classroom as it could. She knows the material well and can explain it, just not in front of 50+ people. Her slides, while conveying numerous examples and interesting case studies, fail to prepare you for the bulk of the material that will show up on Midterms and the Final. She also sometimes struggles with public speaking and improvising based on questions, though she does her best to answer them, not dismissing them entirely. All in all, a genuine professor, but not the best.

Needles is very passionate about what she teaches, however, it was a powerpoint class. I tried hard not to sleep but powerpoints for two hours is rough. Not that the information was not interesting, it was just the long powerpoints. The midterm was kind of everywhere, some questions were from the practice questions in the powerpoint while others were from outside reading texts. She did have great guest speakers and presentations though, and the examples of animals and the ways in which they became instinct was interesting. I would recommend her if you love animals and are generally interested in this topic, if not, you will fall asleep.

Easy GE course. She realizes its a GE course and treats it as so. The midterms are not hard at all study the power points and you'll be fine. Going to class is NOT necessary BUT there was times where she mentioned something in class that was not on the slide so pick and choose your battles. It is in a big lecture hall in Fisher Science so it is pretty easy to fall asleep. There's a few guest speakers and one day where a bunch of wildlife comes in, those days are pretty cool. She was sick for most of Winter Quarter so she was kinda out of it sometimes but overall she knows what she's talking about sometimes just cant articulate it well. If you need a life science without a lab I would recommend it.

Needles was great. She was very passionate about the subject, and you can tell she cares a lot about her students. My main advice for the class is to take detailed notes during lecture because the exams are mainly based on lecture. I made the mistake of studying mostly from the book for the first midterm and bombed it. But exams weren't bad once I studied the right material. Honestly, you don't even need to read the book as long as you know the details of the case studies discussed in lecture and understand how they relate to the concepts. The blog assignment is pretty straightforward too — she doesn't grade hard on that at all. Overall a great, eye-opening class with a pretty good professor. Just go to class and pay attention and you're good.

I hear a lot of people saying that this class is hard/boring, but I absolutely loved it. Yes, Lisa's lectures can be a bit dry, but I learned a lot and I was very interested in the subject. I don't believe her tests are really hard, just pay attention in lectures and you will do fine! As someone who loves wildlife and animals, I found this class very eye-opening and exciting. Her guest speakers are so inspiring and at the end of the quarter a company comes and brings in a bunch of wild animals that we'd talked about throughout the quarter. Her assignments are easy and we aren't tested on the reading.

Prof Needles is the worst professor that I have had at Cal Poly so far. She clearly does not understand the own material that she is presenting, and every lecture is taken straight off of the powerpoints. To top this off, the midterms (2) and final are so meticulous and nitpicky that you have to read the book and powerpoint with a magnifying glass if you want any chance of passing this class. And given that this is a GE class, this seems like such an unfair standard to hold your students to. I honestly believe that she would fail her own class if she took it. Needless to say, I do not recommend taking her as a professor. Avoid this class at all costs.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

BIO 227 with Dr Needles is really not as bad as a lot of people are saying. Dr Needles at times can be pretty dry because she will sometimes get into zones where she will just read you her powerpoint. However, I do not think that her current poly rating are fair. She is an above average teacher that can explain topics on Wildlife Conservation because she is very knowledgeable on the topic. Also the topic of wildlife conservation itself is very interesting itself and this can out weigh her boring lectures at times. At the end of the day this is that easy GE that everyone is looking for.

Lecture is dryly presented but interesting stuff. Pretty easy GE with a few homeworks and tests. She brings in animals on the last day which is super dope!! Solid class if you're down for a high school style PowerPoint presentation.

Dr. Needles was a great professor. Her class was often dull but also had lots of lively moments. Between some of the boring lectures about conservation, there were lively class debates about ethics of conservation and one day she even brought in Zoo to You, a organization that brought in real life animals and we got to have the story of why they were endangered. There were two exams that were manageable if you studying actively and went to class and paid attention. The final (100 ? MC) was questions from the previous exams plus about 20 more from the recent lectures, so go to office hours before and look at your old exams. 35% of your grade is a set of HW assignments which were graded easy if you but some effort in. My advice would be go to class, listen, and take good notes. She also brought her dog, Poppy, in who was adorable. She is a very kind professor and would admit when she didn't know an answer to a question, would research, and come back with an answer which was extremely professional. I enjoyed her class for a GE and actually learned a lot about a topic I was already passionate about. I am thankful for Dr. Needles and she inspired me to be passionate about environmentalism.

Honestly if you have to take her for a GE I would recommend it. I went to maybe half of the lectures. The lectures are dry but she puts everything online so just study those for the final. She’s so sweet and really passionate about what she does. Even if you only listen to half the lecture every class you could still get an A if you put in the work on studying the slides and quiz let’s before the exams. Overall easy GE and such light work it was great.

Trump 2016 -> Kanye 2020 -> Vermen Supreme 2024 -> ??? -> Profit

Dr. Needles is the worst professor I’ve had in all four years of college. I considered dropping this class every single lecture we had. Dr. Needles has absolutely no clue as to what she is talking about. I honestly think she must have had a traumatic brain injury or some condition that made her unable to recall past events or communicate effectively. She expected respect from her students but became increasingly disrespectful and unprofessional over the course of the quarter. I supplemented my lecture notes with readings from the textbook, only to find that four of her lectures were essentially stolen from Wikipedia. I’d say there was 80% syntax similarity. The first midterm was 9 pages long and was expected to be completed in 50 minutes. It contained multiple spelling errors and a student had to point out a question that did not have an answer for it. The answer was the definition for a similar term, but Dr. Needles did not understand this until the student pointed it out during the test, losing 5 minutes of precious time. She then supplied her grader with an incorrect key, resulting in the majority of the class getting a different answer marked wrong, so she had to regrade every single test for her mistake. This midterm had around a 70% average. She attempted to quell our fears by giving us an extra-credit assignment, which was very thoughtful. However, upon us turning in the assignment, she informed us that she retroactively increased the number of points our midterm was worth, bringing it from 125 points to 150 points in the grade book, thus making our low scores worth less of our overall grade. She did not understand how this negatively-impacted our final grade. Then on the second midterm she asked us, in a 20 point question, to explain a topic that she explained in lecture by saying “functional redundancy”, then flipping the slide. The slide explaining this topic was one sentence long and said “functional redundancy leads to ecological residency”. The question on the midterm asked us to explain this. In. A. 20. Point. Question. When asked why she had taken points off of answers on particular problems, Dr. Needles failed to form coherent thoughts. She would mumble “not as good as other students”. When asked if we could see her grading key, she could not supply it. She claimed that she wrote “perfect answers” that she would have liked to compare student answers to, but instead, gave us the courtesy of grading our answers against one another. This means that only one student out of 20 got a perfect score on any given free-response. So you could get a minimum of 2 points off of your response, even if it was 100% correct, because it was not formatted as well as someone else’s answer. This was on a 7-page test taken in 50 minutes. Essentially, the grade you got was arbitrary. Dr. Needles attempted to reassure us that our grades would be good due to the amount of points we get in lab. Upon week 8 of the quarter, we had completed 1 lab report. Students were given “free points” for showing up to lab, which was very generous. However, one student missed a lab due to attending a NATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE and let Dr. Needles know about her missing this lab 4+ weeks in advance. Dr. Needles said this was fine, but still gave the student 0/35 for this assignment, immediately condemning her grade. If you ask anyone from our class what the worst part of this class was, I think we would unanimously say it was The Plankton Tow Problem. You may ask, "Why was this so tragic?” Well, to start, we were assigned this problem during the first lab period on Friday. Dr. Needles explained it incorrectly, resulting in everyone getting the answer wrong. Two students explained how to do it “correctly”. We were then told to include this problem in the lab report that was due Monday. Upon turning this report in, Dr. Needles informed us that the problem was again explained wrong and we would be going over the proper ay to do it during class. She worked for the entirety of the 50-minute lecture to explain this problem, without success. We were told that she would provide us with a breakdown of how to do this during the next class. The next lecture, we spent an additional 20-minutes explaining how to do this problem, without success. This problem was the bane of my existence. Overall, this course’s only saving grace was the field trips. I would not take any course with Dr. Needles again.

I had her for marine botany. I thought that an entire course on seaweed would be awfully boring; however, this was probably y favorite course I ever took at Cal Poly. I learned and still remember more from this course than any other course. Every week in lab was spent at the beach collecting and memorizing seaweed. I was amazed at how much variety exists within seaweed, and found the class absolutely fascinating! It was also fairly easy to get an A as long as you took the time to memorize the species of seaweed. The marine biology that accompanied the lab portion of the class was really easy for a marine biology major as well. Overall, a non-stressful, exciting, and educational course!