Howes, Amy  

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.

it was her first time teaching 161 and she usually teaches upper division labs/lectures. Her tests were initially really hard, because she didnt know what type of level to make the tests on. Her lectures were useful ONLY if you read the chapters. she based the material on the exams and quizzes 90% from the text book and the rest from random facts in her slideshows

Dr. Howes is a really sweet lady, and really wants her students to succeed! Initially, her first midterm was very hard, but she was honest about the fact that she didn't know exactly how difficult to make the questions, and gave us a very generous curve and extra credit assignments. The second midterm was A LOT easier. If you do the objectives she gives you and pay attention in class, you will definitely succeed! The only thing that I didn't like was that our final was much more specific than the second midterm. A lot of things I would've known for the second midterm that we were told we didn't need to know, showed up on the final.

Dr. Howes is one of those professors who know a lot about what they are talking about, but can't present it clearly. There were 2 midterms and a final. She curved the midterms a lot and gave EC. She covers a lot of material quickly and uses her tablet for powerpoints and writes on them so you can't read it. Overall the EC and curving saved my grade (I failed the first midterm), but I wouldn't recommend her as a teacher

Dr. Howes is the best professor I have ever taken. She made the confusing material very understandable and at the same time was the nicest professor I've ever had. She even brought us food! She had a lot going on the quarter she taught this class and still managed to do everything possible to help us. She is also very helpful with grades and gave huge curves and points back on tests.A

Dr. Howes is extremely understanding and a gifted teacher. I had her class at 7:40 A.M. twice per week, and she always kept class interesting and engaging. Once, she even brought in mini-donuts and passed them out to demonstrate how the electron-transport chain works! Brilliant! She is always open to students asking questions, because she really wants you to understand the material and her love of biology is positively contagious. She clearly outlines her expectations and for the most part explains very clearly what material will be on the tests. Sometimes, there would be a strange emphasis on a very minute part of the information, but she gives curves on tests which is very helpful. I would say to take her if you can because she is an amazing professor. I am not a bio major, and molecular bio is definitely not my favorite subject, but Dr. Howes is such a fair and patient teacher that the class is still wonderful.

Very, very helpful and positive atmosphere. She is eager to help all students if they come to her. She gives objectives for each section that basically guarantee a good grade on her 2 midterms and final. Not a heavy amount of work at all. She also makes lecture an enjoyable activity (Even at 6PM). The way she presents the information is interesting and engaging. It isn't just droned on, possibly being retained by the few who can stay awake at this time. We had in-class activities and even little things like multiple choice questions throughout lecture to check our understanding of material that we answered with fun hand signals instead of electronic devices or plain old hand raising. Its really the little things she did that made the class enjoyable to me. I would definitely take her again in the future if I can!

I don't know who this cunt thinks she is, I took bio 111 before this class, which has a lot of the same material and I STILL almost failed this lady's class. She literally made me know less than I knew before coming in here

Dr. Howes is one of my favorite professors I've ever had. She clearly knows exactly how to answer your questions, even when you're not even sure what you're asking her. She rarely didn't know the answer to something and when she didn't, she directed you to a source that would know. Her office hours were extremely helpful and she is a very patient woman who can translate information into terms beginning BIO students understand. The exams are hard, but follow the objectives that she gives. She forewarns you that you should read before class and study the objectives. Follow that advice and come to lecture, and you should be well prepared! She is wonderful.

Dr. Howes made my bio class extremely enjoyable and convinced me that I am in the right major. She is very helpful and her bio objectives really targeted the questions that would be on the test.

I think that honestly Professor Howes really knows what she is talking about. She is extremely helpful and sweet if you meet with her for office hours. However, I really found that her tests were a lot harder than I expected. I made the mistake of getting a bad grade on the first midterm and then had to crawl out of a whole all quarter. DO NOT underestimate her tests. But the class overall is interesting and I really did enjoy the lectures.

Professor Howes is a sweet and cheerful lady. She is knowledgeable but lacks in teaching skills. She tends to gloss over material and never went into huge detail about major topics. Her tests are pretty rigorous and she doesn't give much outside work other than mastering bio and clicker points to boost up the grade.

Bio 161 is not an easy class, but Howes is a decent professor to have. She is very intelligent, so she tends to fly through information, but all the bio 161 professors do that. She's not the best when it comes to answering questions in class because she treats you a bit like a child, but she's fine in office hours. I would recommend her over other teachers because her grading is fair, but never let your guard down. Definitely study a lot for the midterms- but if she's feeling nice, she'll bring candy!

Howes was a pretty good teacher. She talks to you like you're 5 years old, but her lectures are clear and she talks slow so you can write down all the material. Her tests are not too bad if you do the learning objectives and study. This class has a lot of material, so you can't get by just taking notes and not studying.

Imagine a kindergarten teacher trying to explain and present collegiate level material. That's what BIO161 was for me. She was terrible at explaining material effectively and if you had questions, her office hours weren't particularly helpful either. The material itself was not that bad, and I spent hours upon hours studying for her exams, but I didn't do very well on her exams because she really tries to trick you and then during the tests you end up confusing yourself and overthinking the questions. I knew the material front and back for sure, but I got straight B-s/C+s on all her exams. She's condescending and rude and her personality just rubbed me the wrong way. If you have the option, DEFINITELY take Keeling instead of Howes.

I think people are a little harsh on Howes. I think she did a good job teaching and made it easy to understand, giving us analogies and relatable information in order to make class more interesting. I do not think she purposely talks down on her classes, but is just used to talking a certain way because she has young kids at home. Personally, I would take this class with her again. With enough studying, I was able to pull off an A, which is all that matters.

Not helpful. Emailed her about the final to get some clarification since this course is so fucking broad and she said that it concerned her that I even had questions, let alone that I was emailing her about the questions. So that made my confidence level go down. Her midterms were extremely hard. News flash if the average is a C- in the class maybe you should curve it more. That isn't a victory. And also if a third of the class is failing you should probably change the way you are doing things. Also her voice is annoying.

Glosses over major concepts. She does give objectives that you should study and know but its almost as if you shouldn't even study them because no matter how hard you study or know the fucking material the questions on the exams are fucked up. The questions are mostly applying the concepts, which isn't hard, but the way she does them is so far fetched for people who have no background in biology whats so ever. I might as well had walked into that final not studying 3 days in advanced. Even if the final was open notes I still probably would have failed that test.

I was scared at first taking her for Bio 161 because of the reviews but I actually really enjoyed the class. Do not be afraid of her she is insanely sweet. Biology is just a difficult course and you have to keep up with the work. Do the readings. I mean actually read it and take notes from in before her lectures like she suggests. She gives you objective questions for each exam which help you prepare. The tests weren't super difficult but that's because I studied the material. If the first test was like wake up call and you did not do well she will help you! Go ask her questions and see if she can clarify and problems you're having or help you figure out how to study for the test. This isn't a class you can slack off it but I still enjoyed taking it.

Dr. Howes is one of the nicest professors at Cal Poly, but she is not one I would recommend to take for BIO 161. Her lectures are not clear, and questions on the exams were way harder than anything we covered in class. She speeds through major concepts we should know, but then expects us to be experts by the time of the exam. She gives a study guide, but about 40% of the material are things we should learn on our own. Her expectations to get an A are unreasonable for non-bio majors. She also never posts any grades on PolyLearn so you go into the final with a vague idea of how you're doing in the class. Final exam grades were never posted, nor were other assignments we did in class. Take another professor for this class if possible.

People are so quick to comment on the way she talks and what not, but Dr. Howes really knows her stuff. Go to her office hours, put in the effort to read the book, and you will do well in this class! Solid professor.

Howes presented power points in which she labeled as she went along. This was not helpful in any sense of the matter as I went back online to look at the powerpoint, and all the main points she made were missing from that. The material that she wanted you to know was vague. "Read the book." "Go over objectives." I'm sorry, but this textbook is HUNDREDS of pages long. Filled with confusing sentences that you need to read several times over (unless you're a genius), complex pictures depicting processes, and experiments done that are very difficult to connect to the text. Her objectives were questions that would be answered in lengthy paragraphs.. So I'm supposed to memorize up to 50 free response questions? This is a lower-level biology course. If she were expecting us to know so much information, wouldn't it be beneficial to have us focus on specific aspects of the subject vs stressing students with a basic "just memorize everything?" I took a course my fall quarter that consisted of 80-90% of biology concepts. They were much simpler to study and understand because the professor (Huzzey) understood the difficulty of the subject, and gave us outlines/study guides to help us through it! This class could be accurately put into an analogy as you were thrown into a pit of lava and thrown a life ring. Because that's going to help you as the lava melts off your skin? Not to mention her condescending attitude. Any questions were immediately answered with "Well if you had just listened to anything I said..." Well, yes. But you spoke at 100 words a minute so some of the content got lost along the way there. "Just refer to the diagram in your textbook." Well, you see, if everything could just so easily be understood in textbooks, I wouldn't come to school with an actual human being to teach me! I would just read everything online! The beneficial outcomes you would expect to receive from her as a professor were not received whatsoever. Even in office hours I was left more confused than when I walked through the door. Yes, BIO 161 is difficult. Yes, everyone has their individual expectations. But after constant all nighters of re-doing the homework, working through study modules, watching videos, drawing diagrams, attending study seshes, studying with others, office hours, READING THE TEXTBOOK EVERY WHICH WAY, I cannot understand bio well enough. And I would hope a professor, a literal human being, could talk me through this difficult time! But no, I am only met with condescending responses and tones. To which I bring my point back to my analogy. I am in the pit of lava, Howes throws me a life ring, to which I scream "Please help me!!". To this she most likely responds, "Well if you just swam harder you would be fine!" I would expect that after paying for my tuition at a well respected university we would have professors (within the biology department, again a difficult subject for most) to be more effective at actively teaching their students. I attend all lectures and listen actively, after the first few weeks I learned to keep off my technology and bring coffee with me to take in as much information as possible. Very little improvement has resulted. Nothing is more discouraging than trying your hardest and not being able to succeed. Good luck to anyone taking this course.

It is definitely a difficult class regardless of the professor but from what I heard Howes is definitely the most difficult. Tests are extremely more difficult and PAINFUL than the textbook and lecture combined. Given this, however, I feel that I have learned a ton. Not going to lie though, it was a rough class. Go to office hours, basically memorize the textbook, and study for a week straight before each midterm. That should help. Howes was a nice/sweet lady though and made lecture interesting. I also liked lecture a lot more than my lab, so I enjoyed Howes' class (until the tests, that is).

One of the kindest teachers I have ever had. She gives great explanations for any questions and knows her stuff.

This professor sucks ass. She does not teach clearly and makes dumb jokes throughout the class. Half of the class failed the midterms and she tested us more on the book rather than the lecture. If there were one takeaway from this teacher, read the book and study everything. She puts random shit on the test that is not relevant. Try to avoid this teacher at all costs.

Howes is a very smart woman with her doctorate but stuck in the body of a first grade teacher. She really dumbs things down to explain them for bio 161 and then her tests seem way harder than how she explains things in lecture. Not a bad professor, but you really have to study for the 3 midterms if you want an A or a B.

This is an intro to biology class, and she made it SO much more difficult than it needed to be. I had friends take different BIO 161 professors and thought this class was super easy. I'm an engineering major and I had to put more work in for this class just to pass than I have had to do for any other class.

Howes is a nice lady... if she's your mom. She talks to the class in a clearly unnaturally high pitched voice as if you're her two yr old. Her lectures are straight ass and straight from the book. You're better off ditching class and watching bill fucking nye and going to himelblau's office hours. She spends more time relating the material to "real world" situations and occupations than actually covering the material. Her tests are ridiculous i think i got a 30 percent on the first midterm. She expects you to be a cell biology genius and clearly doesn't give two fucks about cell biology. Take anyone else, think of her as the Erker of the bio department.

For this class, my best advice is just learn material from the textbook. She covers material in lecture super broadly so if you actually want to know something for the exams, you have to read the textbook and learn material that way. She had mastering bio homework that we had to do which was hard because she required us to get a 95% or above in order to get out of doing the follow up, WHAT SUCKS ABOUT THE FOLLOW UP is that it is like 3x longer than the actual homework so it's nearly impossible to get out of the follow up because getting a 95% and above is very hard. The exams are very fair, she does not try to trick you, so don't overthink, try to learn the material rather than merely memorize it, and you'll be fine. JUST MAKE SURE TO READ THE TEXTBOOK, IT IS LOVE, IT IS LIFE.

Everyone says that bio 161 is the hardest biology in the series, which I only think is true because I had Dr. Howes. She's so sweet and for the first week we all thought it was going to be a breeze because her lectures were so brief. However, we quickly realized how screwed we were because Howes only covered material in lecture that was easy for her to cover and left the really hard stuff to self teaching out of the book. The chapters in the book were really long and complicated and the processes were definitely things that would have been so much easier to understand had I been put in a class with a professor that didn't treat the students like a bunch of kindergarteners and compare complex processes like transcription and translation to making a pie. Her examples were very elementary and she would throw out a lot of really small seemingly minor details that would then show up on the short answer part of an exam. It was extremely frustrating studying for her exams because it was SO MUCH material, but she literally gave no help. She gave us objectives that she told us would get us a D at best if we only studied from those. Half of the time I felt like I was drowning in this class. Again, I was able to teach myself from the book and previous information I had learned from three years of intensive high school biology, but if you're looking for a professor to help you understand complex processes of cell biology, I would not recommend Howes.

Dr. Howes was a nice woman but not my favorite professor. She did not input grades into PolyLearn and went very fast in lecture. In lecture, she based her discussions around powerpoint slides. This would have been great, except for the fact that the slides were challenging to find and sometimes out of order. She has several different exam versions, but instead of re-arranging the questions, they are different questions all together, which can be frustrating if one student gets an "easier" version based on wording, etc. When I went into office hours, she told me that she did not know how to help me because "every student is different", and when my friend went in to discuss her poor grades on the midterms, she stated that she "saw great potential for her on the next one" without offering any more words of advice or help. She seems kind and eager to help, but upon approaching her I found her hard to communicate with because I was unsure how to approach my questions. I was already nervous to go into office hours, and her not offering more pointers or advice was not helpful.

probably the worst professor I've had at cal poly. she makes you feel so dumb and she is very condescending. memorize the book. the tests are unreasonably hard and there are 3 midterms.

Amy Howes... Amy ****ing Howes... My final is tomorrow and I don't know where to even start with this. I struggle with social anxiety, to the point where it keeps me from doing a lot of social activities, and when half her god damn lecture is her staring at you, doing the "had to do it to them" meme hands while you're supposed to be "explaining to your neighbor," it's hard to get myself to attend class on days where I'm having other mental health stuff. She doesn't treat any of her students like adults, she teaches us like we're 5 year olds, and I'd rather her spend the literal half of the class where she stands and stares at us in silence actually lecturing. Taking her class was a mistake, but taking Jean Davidson for lab was the best thing I've ever done, so if you're looking for a good professor for this class, absolutely go with her, she'll be teaching lecture soon (summer 2019 at least). Next, her god damn tests. Holy shit. The best example I can give of how absolutely bullshit hard her tests is the Monday before her second exam, she reviewed all of photosynthesis, barely, to the point where I only had a page of notes despite being an overly thorough note taker. Then, that Wednesday, guess what basically the entire damn exam was on? If you guessed photosynthesis, you're god damn right. Her lectures are so basic and so simple, and I find myself teaching myself out of the textbook. I don't pay an insane tuition to teach myself. I pay to be taught by professionals who know how to teach, not professionals who make everyone hold hands or tell us to compare complex transcription and translation to a god damn pie recipe, then make us waste 20 minutes "making our own version of it" like fuck woman just teach the damn class. She should be in a lab somewhere, because she obviously knows her stuff, she just doesn't know how to teach it. She's so vague, and teaches at such a surface level that you're completely screwed over by her exams. Maybe she pretends to be a sweet lady but is actually a sadistic psycho who gets off on failing most of her students. If I ever hear the phrase "now turn and explain to your neighbor" more than once ever again in college from a professional, I'll be shocked, let alone at least 5x every single god damn lecture. Sorry for all the explatives, but I'm so fed up. I tried to sandwich them in with relevant information, because if I had read ratings like these before taking this course, I would have chosen a different professor. If you're a person who struggles to learn from the textbook or teach yourself, DO NOT TAKE HER. If you have Social Anxiety Disorder than prevents you from attending a lot of social situations, DO NOT TAKE HER, because on your off days, you'll probably end up missing class cause it's too fucking much to introduce yourself to a stranger every day. I'm genuinely so excited to take another professor for Bio 162, and again, if you can, take Jean Davidson because she's actually a genuinely nice woman who actually cares about her students and actually knows how to convey complex information without needing to rely on candy or props or food-related crap.

This professor seems all sweet and happy but she's very demeaning and is very rude to slower students. I did pretty well in this class and never had to ask her for help, but watching how she treated my peers bothered me. On a different note I had to religiously read this textbook because she definitely did not cover neeeeeaaaaarly enough in lecture. She's very broad in lecture and very specific on tests so reading is imperative. However, if you keep up on the reading and get a great workshop leader, you can do just fine in this class :) I really liked how her tests were only like 20-25 questions and a page of short answer questions. I'm a slow test taker and get easily flustered in time crunches but I had no problem taking her exams comfortably. Apparently Howes is the harder 161 professor but overall I didn't experience that too much. Except on the second midterm lol I got a D+ on it and over half the class failed (but she realized how bad it was and made the following exams a lot easier). all in all, I recommend her :)

I've had Howes twice as an instructor. The 1st was voluntary the second not so much. Unfortunately, she is one of the most condescending teachers I've had at Cal Poly. I'm unsure why but as her student for the second time, I really felt the white privilege getting to her. She seemed hesitant is wanting to help her students. I mean I guess she makes it better with her sweet child-like voice.

She gives you a 4 unit work load for a 2 unit class. Her expectations were not clear. She marks you off then tells you what you were missing even though it clearly was not asked for. She's very condescending which makes it hard to ask for help. This was by far the worst class I've ever taken. Do not take her.

I don’t understand why the other evals for this class were so negative. This class was an easy A with minimal outside work. If you attend each class (which isn’t difficult because it’s once a week) and actually listen to her during it, you’ll do just fine. The activities were fun and the material was interesting and relevant. She was very pleasant and so kind. I’ve never met a professor who cared about her students, especially those who show they are trying. She only wants the best for her students and it’s obvious why she dove into a teaching profession. She is made for this.

Dr. Howes is a fantastic professor. Genuinely cares for her students and works with them to help them understand the material. Micro 224 is full of terms and memorization, but she helped make it easier. Plus, she brought us scones before our midterm! Doesn't get better than that.

Amy is by far the best professor I have EVER had for a lab, or even for a lecture (although she did not teach lecture). She creates a wonderful environment for students and is the sweetest, funniest and most helpful professor I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Lab would have been such a stressful time if it wasn't for her. She's just the best. And brought us brownies before a midterm!!!

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU STRUGGLE WITH SCIENCE/BIOLOGY!!!! I originally planned to drop this class, but on the first day of class Dr. Howes gave a speech about how the class would be "perfectly reasonable even if you weren't that good at science" and so I stayed-HUGE mistake!! There are three midterms for the course, final, and a few papers in between. During lecture she makes it sound reasonable, but then her exams bite you in the ass! I would not recommend this class to anyone unless you are a bio major or have a bio minor. If you're forced to take this course, be forewarned that it is exceptionally difficult!!

I think the person who evaluated below me is a little too harsh. This was not only the first quarter that Dr. Howes had taught this class, but it was also the very first time this class had even been offered at cal poly. She had to figure it out as she went. Biology of cancer is a challenging subject so I never expected it to be a breeze. The textbook she selected was really helpful, so if you read the book it was pretty easy to follow her lectures. Her exams were challenging but at one point she just threw an entire exam away because everyone expressed how unfair it was and she empathized with us. Strengths: student understanding, really nice, helpful in office hours. Weaknesses: I wish she would have put more words on her lecture slides. They are mostly just images so you really have to take good notes during class.

lecture material and expectations are not clear.

Dr. Howes is one of the worst professors I have had at poly. Her lecture material is very unorganized: she gives her students access to her slides but its irrelevant because they are out of order and she adds and deletes slides in her presentation. She also talks to fast that you have no time to process what she is saying and explains things very poorly! She then calls on everyone at random and expects them to know the answer when no one can even process her material. If you take Howes, prepare to only learn from the book and be stressed out in class. Her lab is wayyyyyy too hard! her pre-lab quizzes have questions that are not even on the lab. She also grades very hard! The quarter is almost over and she has only retuned one lab report: how are we supposed to improve on any subsequent lab report if she wont hand them back and give advice. Overall, I would not recommend this professor to anyone, but if you do take her, prepare to work as hard as you possibly can and still get poor results. I know cell bio is an upperdivision bio class, but she makes it way too hard! She also adjusted her grading rubric so that the only part people were doing well on (online assignments) became a lower percentage of our grade and lab (which everyone is failing) became a larger portion of our grade!

Dr. Howes is not physically capable of teaching a subject as complex as cell biology. Yes, she may know her material, but the way she presents it is not helpful to her students in any way. You cannot demonstrate how proteins transport throughout the cell using red vines rather than explaining the processes. Her lectures do not make sense because she talks way too fast, does not give all the lecture slides (or puts them out of order), and she switches important words without even realizing it.. Also, she talks to her students like they are 5 year olds and then grades them like they are in graduate school, especially in lab. You will probably fail lab if you take her. I would highly recommend not taking Amy Howes because she does not know how to teach a class this difficult or how to teach people who are over the age of 7. Basically, Dr. Howes will make you feel like you are doing a great job in the class and then fail you behind your back. She will pretend like she cares about you and your grade, giving you false confidence, and then fails you on literally everything (literally). Do not take her.

Let me start off by saying... THIS WAS THE HARDEST I'VE EVER WORKED FOR A D. LOL. No really though I'm not just writing this because I received a basically failing grade. I'm making a point. I was a graduating senior taking this class in Fall 2014. I actually studied A LOT. But fact is, her lectures are so poor, she goes so fast, her lab is insanely hard and she graded it insanely hard...basically everyone was failing every lab report (what?!). She implemented this online homework which didn't work half the time, and it was the most retarded thing, it didn't help whatsoever, she would randomly assign homework on it and not even tell you, and then next thing you know, woops, it was due TOMORROW and you didn't do it. Then at the end of the quarter she changed her rubric to make it a large part of your grade.....WTF. Her final WAS INSANE...I Studied the entire week of dead week for it....FAILED IT. Clearly she is incapable of teaching this class... she is a lot better for MCRO 224...she needs to stick to that class. And yeah she talks to you like your a moron if you don't know an answer to something, VERY DEMEANING. Then grades you like your in Med School. No one could pay me enough to re-take this class after what she put me through. This is my ONE and only D on my entire transcript, but I will accept it with dignity, because this class was TORTURE thanks to her. And I was super fascinated with Cell Bio prior to taking this class. I really have nothing good to say about her...STEER CLEAR...unless your prepared to teach yourself the entire textbook and still possibly not do well.

This class was arguably the most challenging biology class I've taken during my past four years as a Biology major. There is a lot of information, most notably specific details, that you are expected to understand. The class is formatted such that it includes two midterms and a final. START STUDYING EARLY; there is WAY too much information to possibly try to cram it. The midterms had some multiple choice problems, but the majority was free response. The common consensus in my class was that the multiple choice was considerably more difficult, but both midterms were curved by a few percent. Our final ended up being mostly multiple choice and it was extremely difficult. I don't know how I performed on the final because that was never posted, much like a lot of the scores in this class. I am indifferent towards Howes as a professor, but I disliked how she rarely posts grades, making it difficult to determine how you're performing in the class. The other major critique I have about Howes is that she recommends printing out the lecture slides to take notes, but the slides are in a different order that the order you can print them in. In terms of lab, expect to stay in lab for the majority of the three hour block (if not the entire thing) and you will have questions on quizzes that come from the textbook readings on the lab handouts. The quizzes are very specific! You will have one more formal lab report (mine ended up being 20 pages with attached documents) and a lot of reports that simply consist of results and discussions. DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU; she still expects you to be very thorough in your answers! The final was also challenging and it does include a practical component. Truthfully, I'm still not sure how I pulled a B in this class unless either divine intervention occurred or the class was curved a considerable amount. Overall, I do not recommend taking this class with other time-demanding courses; you will eat, sleep, and breathe cell bio for the whole quarter. Good luck, my friend.

Dr. Howes was a really great professor for this class. She definitely has high expectations but she tries to make everything really clear. The class is inherently hard regardless of who you take it with, but she does care about her student's success.