Noel, Eric  

I took Noel during his first quarter of ever teaching BIO 111 and he is AWESOME. Super cool guy, super funny, and makes things SO EASY to understand. I thought I was failing his class because I tanked the first 2 midterms, and then when I went in to office hours to figure out what was happening he gave me great study tips and ensured me that the final exam would go much easier. I was due for an F but somehow came out with a C. He requires an iClicker of which he uses for participation points/attendance by asking review questions before lecture. He gave us 14 short answer questions for the final and said he would be picking 5 of them so we were able to study up early, he also made the last lecture optional review which was super helpful. HIGHLY RECOMMEND TAKING HIM EVEN THOUGH MY GRADE ISN'T AN A!!! Noel is great, don't get stuck with Gaschke!

His high polyrating is definitely well deserved. He has incredible passion and wit. TAKE HIM IF YOU CAN!

Prof. Noel rocks. Lectures were super easy to follow and the exams are only based on the lectures. I didn't need the book for the entire course. He's very cool and is very helpful when it comes to asking questions regarding the material.

A fantastically funny and passionate professor. His lectures cover MOST of the material, in that you won't need a textbook, but he does mention some facts in class that are not in the slides, so attendance is mandatory. The material is heavy for those unfamiliar, but isn't overwhelming if you're good at memorization of definitions and processes. Lecture is short, but almost always entertaining. My only gripe is that the tests, which are the only grade you get for the lecture section, are difficult, even with studying, and sometimes have questions about stuff that was not in the slides, and was only mentioned in passing during lectures.

Noel is an awesome professor!! His lectures are dynamic, and he inserts his own fun stories to relate the subject matter to real life and keep his class entertaining. He is exceptionally knowledgable about the subject material, and if you go to his office hours, he will help you out a lot. Your entire grade is best on 2 midterms and a final, but he uses iClicker for participation points/attendance (which I guess could be looked at as a good thing or a bad thing). Make sure you study for the tests because they are literally almost your entire grade.

Professor Noel was a great professor. He presents the information clearly and is a pretty funny guy as well. I recommend you study for the midterms though because it is pretty much the bulk of the class, there are also iclicker questions every lecture. I know some people who are taking the other Bio 111 class with Goschke, and they feel as if the class is much more difficult than what it needs to be.

Eric Noel was a great professor! I took his BIO 111 lecture my first quarter at Cal Poly. He mentioned that we don't actually need a textbook but I still bought one. However I felt that a textbook was super helpful when studying a midterm or the final. He went through his lecture PowerPoints with passions; he also really understood the course material. If you need help, go to his office hours OR study your textbook. Students often ask him questions during the class, so don't be shy asking questions in front of class. You will have 2 midterms + 1 final. Each midterm contains 50 multiple-choice questions and worth 100 points. The final is 150 points (50 multiple-choice questions + 5 paragraph answers). Eric Noel does check attendance, so make sure you really go to his lectures and do not miss a class.

Noel is really cool, and he really is a super chill guy. His class is 1.5 hours of straight lecture, and it's off the slides he posts on Poly Learn. He's probably the best option for 111, and he uses clicker questions that you just have to answer to get participation points. It's a good class, especially if you just need the GE.

MOST AMAZING PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD. I always thought that I was completely incapable of biology, but I got an A in this course! He teaches the material so clearly and lays everything out so that if you work hard enough you can achieve an A. Yes, I worked ridiculously hard to get an A in this course, but all I ask of a professor is that they make it possible, and Noel did. He was so helpful in office hours and was always willing to clarify any concepts I didn’t understand or to go over previous tests with me. I would highly recommend making a quizlet after every lecture from the notes, because your quizlets or flashcard decks or what have you will be HUGE and you can study so much more effectively if you have them done ahead of time.

Eric is an amazing professor he made mcro lab really easy compared to other lab instructors. You could tell that he really wanted all of us do well in lab. His exams were super easy straight of his power points and he always let us know when we were having a "pop" quiz. He's just great!

Very fair midterms and quizzes. Provides helpful powerpoints which he posts online so you can use them to study. Overall a great teacher, makes micro lab enjoyable, I definitely recommend him!

Eric is a GREAT lab professor! This lab is 6 hours per week and i never really dreaded going. I never thought i would like a micro lab but eric made it really enjoyable. Its a pretty heavy workload but he makes it easier than a lot of the other 224 lab instructors. The class is composed of pop quizzes (we only had 2, which were in the first week), 2 midterms, a final lab practical, 6 lab reports, and an unknown w/ a lab report. Most classes had to turn in a lab notebook for grading and slides with stains for grading but eric does not make you do either of these. The tests require you to know everything in the lab manual. Its a lot of material and a lot of memorization but if you want to do well, study a week in advance and know everything. I thought the first test was super easy because i studied hard, the second one a little more challenging just because the lab concepts get harder as your progress through the course. The final was very challenging. There is two parts: a written portion where you look at a bunch of plates/microscopes/tubes and answer questions about them, and a staining portion where you get an unknown and preform 3 stains and answer questions on that as well. Know the entire lab manual for this test. On the other hand, the labs are pretty easy. as long as you write a good amount for the discussion section eric will give you full points. The unknown project spans from week 5-week 10. You go through a series of tests to try to determine the genus and species of your unknown. this is both frustrating and fun and many people guess correctly. the lab report is time consuming. Anyways, eric is a really good professor. he knows microbiology well and is a very fair instructor. On top of that, eric is a really cool guy to just talk to and get to know. he's very friendly and likes to get to know his students!

Eric Noel is awesome! He's super approachable, super fair, and I learned way more in his lab lectures than I learned in the micro "lecture" with a different teacher. He made having 6 hours a week of lab actually enjoyable, and made me enjoy learning a subject that I otherwise hated. Take him, don't question it, and you'll be SO happy you did.

First lab exam was pretty straightforward and easier than the 2nd. You must study all the terms in bold in the lab manual and be ready for any trick questions he might throw at you. The final lab practical was very stressful as he only allows 2 hours to take the exam while the other lab instructor Yep allowed her students to take the same lab practical but gave them 3 hours on it. Noel does not like to waste time, his theory is "if you know it, you don't need more time on an exam" which can be stressful at times when you know the material but need to think through the different reactions. He does not collect notebooks like the other lab instructors do, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you see it cause it would be easy points but instead of giving us points for doing slides like gram stains or structural stains and the notebook like other instructors do, our grade is based only on the exams, 5 lab reports and the unknown report. Overall a nice guy, and a fun class.

i was really worried about taking genetics because all of my friends had moaned about how hard it was, but Noel made it really easy to digest. If you took BIO 111 or have a good knowledge of general bio, you will be totally fine. 2 midterms and one project where you have to make your own species but its an easy 80 points. take it with noel if you can!

This is not an easy subject but Professor Noel does his best to make sure it is understandable and that you get a good grade. That being said DO THE STUDY GUIDES!! It will literally save your grade. He is funny and likes to play funny videos at the break and super chill and fun to have as a teacher. He is a very fair grader and gives you lots of opportunities to raise your grade. I got a 68 on the first midterm and managed to pull a B in the end. Highly recommend him.

2 midterms, 1 project, and a final. Nothing is cumulative, and the project was really fun to do--you had to design your own species. No homework besides that. Gives really good study guides and is clear about what will be on the exams. The class wasn't as hard as I was expecting. I didn't buy the textbook and was just fine. He's super nice and helpful in office hours too. I would definitely recommend him.

BOYCOTT!!!

[overall: rough start with simultaneous labs going on during the first few weeks which can be easily confusing, yet it has a smooth finish assuming you stayed on top of your A game] Lab portion of this class is 20% of your overall grade. Preparing for lab is extremely time consuming and needs a lot of looking into prior to even starting lab. Lab write ups take up pages of your notebook even though there is only 5 experiments the entire quarter. If you do not pre-read, expect to stay way over time and have the teacher upset with you as well as your lab group falling behind and picking up your slack. First day of lab, make sure to sit with people who are very much focused and ARE able to meet up or at least communicate effectively because you will rely on them during lab. I suggest your group gets together and makes a very well CALCULATED flow chart ( as he recommends) and do a assembly line procedure during lab. It has always worked well for my group which I am beyond proud of. Take good notes "ON YOUR LAB NOTEBOOK" during his lab discussion because there is soo much material covered. He is a great and detailed professor who expects the best from everyone which is 100% accomplishable. Also, ALWAYS WRITE RESULTS DOWN AND UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DID WRONG/WHAT WAS EXPECTED. DO NOT THROW ANYTHING AWAY IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE NEXT EXPERIMENT. You will learn a lot and have fun if you have a awesome group and hit the ground running on the first day and on.

Microbial Biotechnology with Noel was a great class. There were five quizzes, a 10-minute case study presentation, a research proposal, and poster presentation. That's it - no homework, no written midterm or final. It was an intense class but Noel kept us all on top of it and is a really understanding guy as well. Absolutely recommend taking a class with Noel, if you get a chance take 433!