Richards, Thomas  

Richards is FUNNY AS HELL. Sometimes his jokes are directed at students and hopefully they don't take offense. If you ever have questions he does a good job during his office hours. He expects a lot.

oh...my...gosh. the only people that i think should even touch his class are the people who love biology and study for it 5 hours a night, and those that dont care about their grades and just want an entertaining hour three times a week. i would much rather not have taken bio; as you can see i took it as an elective because i needed it for my major then, but now that i am no longer in that major. this class was useless. richards told more stories than any teacher i have met, which may not seem bad, but when it prevents him from lecturing, it sucks. (the stories and jokes were funny though). when asked a question he is pretty vague in his response, sometimes avioding the whole question. the tests were pretty difficult and usually confusing too. you have to know the smallest details of everything. lab tests are even worse. the lab teachers dont know what the heck to teach and the tests require you to know everything, for ex. what the whiskers on rats are called, or the third eyelid of the frog. when are we ever going to have to know that? maybe i am just bitter that i earned a poor grade, i dunno. i feel for those of you who have yet to take this class.

This is the class that made me decide to change majors. There is way too much information to take in. Some of it is very obscure too. I put in a huge amount of time and effort in this class, and I barely got a C-. This class is really hard core. The other two classes in the series, Bio 151 and 152, were difficult but didn't come near this one. The lecture was very difficult, but at least the tests were multiple choice. The labs (which were ultimately directed by him) were especially brutal. There are two three hour labs per week. We spent the full three hours there every time. The answers were write in. Often we were shown a specimen and we were supposed to be able to identify its name. We saw hundreds of animals throughout the course. We dissected a shark, frog and rat. We had to know everything about them. We memorized their circulatory systems, muscles, organs, bones, reproductive systems and everything else. Dr. Richards is a pretty nice guy and is often interesting, but in this class it is just over shadowed by the work. If you are really, really into the biology of animals and have a huge amount of time to spend, this is the perfect class for you.

First off, Bio 153 is an EXTREMELY time consuming course. If you go into it thinking otherwise you will do very poorly. That said, Dr. Richards does a pretty good job presenting the information. He's got a very dry sense of humor which puts off a lot of people, but I thought he was hilarious. He's always willing to help and has a story for everything. I definitely suggest reading the lab manual before class and making colored flashcards for each chapter. If possible, take an SI! Good luck in 153! I would definitely recommend Richards.

first of all, for everyone who complained about biology being hard, shut the hell up. if you want to know hard, take computer science. csc will send you crying like a little bitch. second of all, Dr. Richards is one of the best teachers i've ever had. this guy is SO SMART. he just knows so much. he made bio153 incredibly interesting, and thank god for that, because Gambs almost sucked the life out of bio for me. anyway, Dr. Richards is great because he actually makes you interested in learning. his labs were NEVER boring and i hear that he'll be lecturing for 153 next quarter. this is your opportunity to get a great teacher! TAKE HIM! want more convincing? this is how cool Dr. Richards is: 1) he's been all over the world. ask him anything about anywhere and he can tell you about it. 2) he's been in like TWO MOVIES. how cool is that 3) he's just an overall great guy. i'm telling you, volunteer work left and right. (which shows just how compassionate this guy is, even tho he makes harsh jokes =D)SO TAKE RICHARDS. and one more thing, don't get offended by what he says, because he is hilarious and if you let little ass things offend you then you need to stop being so anal.

BIO 153 is notorious. Regardless of whos teaching it theres a buttload of information they are requird to cram into 10 weeks. Dr Richards wants his students to do well in the class and he knows that its very difficult material for lots of them. He is there for those who genuinely seek his help. HE LOVES TELLING STORIES and most of them had our class laughing out loud-even though he makes fun of just about every race and region on earth- its all harmless and it makes the class a whole lot more enjoyable. My suggestion is to either take SI with it or get a study group quickly and meet every week because if you fall behind youre screwed. If you stay current with the material its not as overwhelming as people think. I enjoyed Dr Richards and from all ive heard hes a hell of a lot better than Gambs so if this is a class you HAVE to take, take it with Dr Richards.

Doc Richards is the best. Yeah, his tests are kinda tough (but they're all M/C...even the lab exams). If we don't do well, he gives the entire class extra points to raise the average, which is cool. But this quarter (W01) we've had all of the applicants for a Invert Zoo position teach us, so it's just screwed us up on the second and third exams.

Congrats Dr. Richards, You have won the prize for the worst instrutor that I have ever had. That involved a HUGE sample size. Your class was completely easy. I smoked it with an A. That is not the problem. The problem is in your inability to teach. You pawn things off onto the students all the time to take up your slack. This guy actually told a friend of mine that she "would never amt. to much". Funny, she is doing just fine teaching marine sciences. He put absolutely no time into his class. He just wants to sit around and tell stories about when he was a student etc.... Take his class if you have absolutley no desire to learn anything but want an easy grade.