Niebuhr, David  

This guy is a joke. He cancels class more than he has it.

Niebuhr is okay. He works another job on top of being a professor, and you can tell he cares more about the working world than college. He races through explanations and quizzes you beyond what you\'ve discussed in class, but he is willing to help you out if you have questions during lab. Not a bad guy, just not a mind-blowing professor.

I did not like Niebuhr's Chemistry 110 lecture at all. He makes it clear that he will not collect any homework and will not warn the class when quizzes are going to be. He thinks that this method means that he is "taking it easy on us," but I believe it's just leaving students in the dark. It is nice that no homework is due, but it caused me to just cut corners and not spend any time working on the class. I truly crammed all of the information in my brain as late as humanly possible and felt like I learned nothing. I just did not like his way of teaching at all.

DO NOT TAKE HIM. You will end up teaching everything to yourself. Horrible Teacher.

I'm sorry to say that this class was just a waste of everyone's time. Do not take him.

Where to start. Thought that this class was ok. Boy was I wrong. I got an A on almost every quiz, got an A in lab yet still got a C in the class. If you want an easy chem class, take someone else because niebuhr will not put any info that you cover in lecture or the book on your test. He said he didn't want us to regurgitate info like other classes so instead he has us answer questions that we have never covered before and there are questions that forensic scientists would have to study. I put in alot of effort and came out with a poor grade. Its a shame and would reccomend anyone to take fantin over niebuhr because he just rushes through explanations without much clarity leaving the class confused. Thinks he is being nice but looks for opportunities to hose students all the time. Mans messed up

Professor Niebuhr is a horrible teacher. He doesn't teach you chemistry at all. He just talks about his jobs and what he does, which is irrevelevant to the class and a waste of our money and time. I studied a lot for the midterms and final and still wound up with a C like most of the other students I've talked to in the class. His tests have nothing to do with what we read in the book, and if you don't fully understand chemistry before you start the class, you're screwed. Do yourself a favor and TAKE SOMEONE ELSE.

Wow, some real hate, sticks and stones..., but who gets the last laugh bitch?

Tests will shit on you. If you have any good grade going, good luck because your lab grade and quiz grades will not save you.

HAHA you must have a low self esteem if you need to respond to your poly ratings. You shouldn't care what students are saying if you're doing a good, or think you are. By responding to this you will be looked at way worse by not only students from previous classes but also the new ones that are reading this. You dug a HUGE hole here buddy. Good luck with that.

He is probably the most AWFUL professor I've had at Poly so far. I ended up with a B in the course, but only because I taught myself the subject and spent HOURS UPON HOURS studying, reading, homework problems, etc. Not only did I not learn a single thing from him, but his attitude and the way he approached everything was unprofessional. He is snarky in the "cross the line" way. He knows that his class doesn't understand the material and what does he do? Make more snarky, belittling, condescending comments towards students. He's sent threatening emails. I should have taken this to the department head, but by then it was too late and nothing I could do. I had Kerry Friend for lab and I went to her to explain concepts I didn't know. She taught them to me in 5-10 minutes. I don't know why she gets shit from the school.. she's the one that actually knows her stuff and can TEACH. Anyways, don't take him - avoid him at all cost.

If chem is NOT your thing, don't take him. For me, things were NEVER explained clearly in his class. The lab required with his class wasn't in sync with his material so it was just messy. A lot of the times, the majority of the class wouldn't do too well on the midterms so we'd always have curves. That was nice. However, again, if chem is NOT your thing, don't take him.

A very nice and caring teacher, take him if you can, but be prepared to work hard

Tests are hard

Niebuhr is not the best teacher to take if you have had no previous physics class. He moves through material extremely quickly without very much explanation. Tests were very difficult because they were not reflective of lecture material or homework problems. My biggest problem with him was he let us out 20-30 minutes early from lecture at least one lecture a week, sometimes both (this might be good for you if you already understand physics). It seems that a teacher with such low test averages should use that time to teach students who are paying to be there. I would not recommend Niebuhr if you are not already good a physics.

This "person" is a kill-joy and is the antithesis of what a good teacher should be. How many students have been turned off from having a love for this subject by this so-called teacher who gives a 3 hour exam in a 50 minute period. The students taking the 121 series are not engineering students. Cal Poly should be ashamed to have him "teaching" introductory physics. Fortunately, my love of physics that I developed from my earlier physics teachers is still strong despite David Neibhur's poor approach. I love physics and I hate to see bad teachers disrespect the students who are sincerely trying to understand it.

I hope Niebuhr reads this...Quoted directly from the home page: \"Faculty and staff of Cal Poly, SLO are hereby denied access to post material to Polyratings.com; such actions are in violation of California Penal Code 502 and, by extension, the Cal Poly Responsible Use Policy. Polyratings.com will report all violations of this access policy to the appropriate authorities, including the San Luis Obispo Police Department and ITS at Cal Poly.\" ...Read about 10-15 posts back, he posted a response to some students\' ratings.

I was pushed into this class because of schedule conflicts, but if you have the chance, take another professor. Niebuhr was nice enough, but he went through a chapter every day - that's about an hour and 10 minutes of lecture for a chapter that will take you 3-5 hours to read and do homework for...assuming you understand any of it. I didn't take advantage of office hours, but hearing from friends who did, they're not very helpful. Be prepared to work a lot outside of class to understand the concepts because he tends to focus on conceptual problems and having you think about the process before plugging numbers into the equations. I would recommend working with other people from your class on homework and redoing midterms before the final etc. because you can bounce ideas off each other and have another perspective on different problems. Don't be fooled - the grade I got really reflected the amount of work I did. His lecture didn't help anything - I learned all of it on my own. You basically waste 3 hours every week going to class because you honestly don't learn anything from him. If you have the chance, take someone else!

I was in the same class as the person below and they are just bitching because they had to work. Of course he covers a chapter a week, that is what is required you dumb-ass. This is college, the instructors present material and you learn it. Overall he was a good teacher, not the best, but not as bad as the whiner claims.

Good teacher, hard tests, but fair, take him as he has a good sense of humor and seems to care

Niebuhr looks and acts like your dad. He's really funny, down to earth, and tries to apply physics practically. I seriously thought this class was "physics for jocks" because he's only a part-time professor, but he knows what he's talking about. Just do the homework & study because his tests can be kinda difficult. He curves all his tests btw.

HAHA I love Niebuhr's response to all of the whining and ragging on him as a teacher. In some respects, I agree with what they are saying. He doesn't present the material as clearly as he maybe should, but a big part of it is doing the hw and reading the material for yourself. Overall Niebuhr is a great guy. He is always friendly when you ask him questions and is very willing to help you. Yes, the tests are long and difficult, but what do you expect with college physics? He has to present a bunch of information to us within a 10 week period!! He is so much more interesting than my 121 teacher. I'm glad to have Niebuhr this quarter, even if I do get a bad grade in the class...

so much hate...

Neibuhr himself kind of looks like a baby...that bald headed bastard sucks!

Dr. Niebuhr seems like a nice enough guy, some people just are not meant to be teachers. He was sick a lot of the quarter and canceled multiple classes, but he took that into account when calculating grades. With some of the material it didn't seem like he understood it all that well and I personally don't think the tests were written very well. They weren't too challenging and he lets you bring in a full 8 by 11 cheat sheet. I would probably take it with someone else.

Dr. Neibuhr is an awesome guy personally. I understand where everyone is coming from with the negative comments. He is VERY brief in lecture, and it seems like everything is easy. Then the exam comes and it\'s way more difficult. The solution?: Study as if it was a difficult class. As long as you know how to apply each equation to a problem, you\'ll do fine. HE TAKES SOME PROBLEMS STRAIGHT FROM THE BOOK AND PUTS THEM ON THE EXAMS!!! EVERY TIME! (Do extra problems from the book to study and then go to some office hours to clarify ones you don\'t get). I got a B in Phys 121, a B- in 123, and an A in Neibuhr\'s Phys 122.

The class i looked forward to least all quarter. He came in telling bad jokes at 8 in the morning and I couldn't understand his lab instructions. Not helpful, overall choose somebody else.

He sucks and he gets on his own polyratings to talk shit to students.

I haven't taught at Poly in over a year and 127 in over 2 years, I just happen to look for the entertainment value of all the anonymous whiners. Come see me in person instead of hiding behind your computer, or better yet grow up and lose your sense of entitlement. Come out to industry and see how the big boys work, where you have to play the cards your dealt, good luck and with age some of that righteous indignation will wear off as you get slapped around in the real world ;-)

I didn\'t have him for lecture only lab, but I don\'t really know why everyone is trippin about this teacher...he\'s not nearly as bad as some other physics professors I\'ve had. In lab he presents clearly and lets you get your work done, and grades really easily on your labs as long as you are neat. Don\'t miss lab because he will make you make it up in another section, which is a pain in the ass.

3 midterms and a final. All tests have about 10-15 true/false and multiple choice, 3-4 problems of medium difficulty, and 2-3 insanely hard problems (which are weighted most heavily). as a result, the average for all of my classes midterms was about 60%. he curves all of them a little bit and even gave a 10% extra credit assignment in class one day which help me immensely. he hints at the problems that are going to be on the final and lets you have a cheat sheet so had i not just copy/pasted some problems on there, i probably wouldnt have passed the class even though i felt i knew the material as well as i should have. he's a nice guy and all but just not the best teacher. take someone else if you can. if you can't, get some outside help or know the material really well for the tests.

I took physics in high school, so this class was not fairly new knowledge to me, just more of a memory jogger. I actually crashed this class first day and he was kind enough to give pass codes to everyone that crashed that day. He goes kinda fast as far as presenting material, but then again, what teacher doesn't? No one really asked questions about anything, but when someone did, he was always there to break down the problem and help them recognize the given situation. He always made those small corny jokes and one time went on a tangent about how he went over a case about some guy getting shocked by a powerline and losing his long term memory. He even had the flu durring the final weeks before finals so we had to skip a midterm (which no one complained about). I showed up half the time to class, and since he made the class do worksheets from the workbook almost every other morning, i missed half the credit for worksheet completion. He curves at the end of the class, too. Despite my low scores on my midterms, I somehow ended up with a B.

The person below me is wrong about him giving pass codes to everyone that crashed. About 8 people showed up and he drew 2 of their names out of a hat. But that's beside the point. Easy class. He isn't a physicist, so he cuts out the crap and teaches only the useful stuff. He seemed to get stuck pretty often on his own problems. Nice guy, average teacher.

He has too much going on in his life to care about being a professor so he pretty much just wings it every day. the class is based on only three tests, so each of them are important but he makes them extraordinarly long for the 50 min time period. no one on earth can work as fast as his tests expect us to. even though he's laid back, we are all doing poorly because of his tests

Dude fuck this guy. His tests are way too hard and he blasts through every single lecture and doesn't clarify any questions we have. He leaves things hanging unanswered in the air and he doesn't fully know everything. Don't expect to finish any of his tests and make sure to do well on the first one or you're pretty well fucked for the quarter. He seems cool and all but he ain't the best teacher in the world which pretty much sucks cuz he doesn't seem to try to get any better as the quarter goes along. Shit was whack!

agree 100% with guy below. niebuhr gives tests that would take 3 hours to finish in a 1 hour class. he purposely writes trick questions on the multiple choice portion. he lectures really fast and screws up all the time. don't take him

Interesting comments from the two baby engineers below. I am sorry if you didn't like my class, but you received the grade you earned. Unfortunately, you are used to getting everything without much effort. Sorry to burst your bubble, but engineering is hard work and requires effort. Perhaps if you made some effort (like doing the homework or coming to office hours) you may have done better. I am not here to spoon feed you or hold your hand and yes I occasionally mad a mistake on the board-- Behold someone who is not perfect!! It's ironic you expect perfection when you do so little to achieve it yourself. I ususally don't give comments on here a second thought, but when you cuss at me anonymously instead of being a big boy and coming to talk to me directly then I felt a brief response was warranted. Hopefully, you will mature and become a practicing engineer. Look at my class as training for what you will encounter in the future: you may not like your boss, he may not always be right, but you still have to do your work, take responsibility for your actions, and not snivel like a little boy. Good luck and come by my office if you want to finish this discussion.

As someone who never took physics before he was a very hard teacher to learn from. He expected you to already know all the basics, and has rediculously hard examples that don't help you figure out the main concept. his tests are so hard that the class average for the first midterm was 54% and the second 54.7%. Thank God he grades on a huge curve. His true false questions purposely trick you. (even the kids who got A 's missed most of the true false) He was very hard for me to learn from. If you want to learn dont take him...but if you already know eveything about physics...then you will ruin the curve.

As you can tell from his input three comments down, he seems to have a false impression of how and why students have difficulties. I struggled a lot in his class and got a bad grade, not because I didn't work hard, but because he is not an effective lecturer and he gives unreasonable tests. In fact, I put in a lot of effort, I am not a baby, and I am not used to getting everything without working hard. Apparently, he seems to think that our personal laziness is the only reason why the average is so low. Niebuhr, how about instead of telling us to take responsibility for our actions, YOU take responsibility for your incompetence. You think that the class average is 55% because you happened to have 40 lazy slackers in your class? How condescending to assume that the only reason why some students don't agree with your teaching methods is because they are whiny, snively babies instead of hard-working people who were screwed over by an unfair class.

You will probably need to figure everything out on your own. All he does is derive/write the equations straight out of the book and then try to do some examples. He has notes on the example problems before coming to class, but usually he makes mistakes and it takes a while for him to figure out what he did wrong. Honestly it feels like hes teaching himself the material while we watch. The grade system is laid out clearly at least. It just seems like he expects more out of his students than he can preform himself. Oh, and he picks fights with students on polyratings and in class, so there's that.

Eh... He's mediocre. Evil man, but an average professor.

I have to admit, I partially decided to write this review to lower Niebuhr's polyratings because they're deceptively high, considering a few of the reviews were from the guy himself (and I'm sure he didn't fail himself in the evaluation). Anyways, onto the rating itself. Niebuhr does try to be a reasonable guy, especially at the start of the quarter. His jokes liven up lectures, making an otherwise dull subject easier to pay attention to. Unfortunately, these lectures were only 50 minutes and when Niebuhr made a mistake, which happened way too often, it would take up to a quarter of the lecture for him, with the help of the class, to solve the mistake. He would also sometimes become defensive of his work rather than explaining clearly where the work came from. That being said, Niebuhr cut the bs and extra work/formulas from lectures, teaching the class just what we needed to know for the common final. In the short-term this was pretty helpful, but unfortunately 204 transitions straight to 207. Now that I'm beginning 207, I'm realizing how screwed I'm going to be because of Niebuhr's approach to teaching 204.

I only had Professor Niebuhr for lab, and he did fine. It's a boring lab, and some of them take quite some time, but that's the material, not the teacher. Actually, he is apparently a LOT easier than some of the other lab professors. Pretty much everyone did well on their lab reports, which can actually be frustrating when it's obvious there are groups half-assing and bullshitting their way through the whole thing. It kind of sucked when he had to leave an hour early every day and some grad student came in to cover for him. He really wanted us to think, which is tough in the morning and regarding such boring material. But, all in all, he's a good professor if you need this lab. I recommend him.

I took him for lecture only. He's a great professor. Has a great personality and good sense of humor. He always tries to make the class more exciting by incorporating in-class activities and guest speakers. Has a lot of experience in industry and it really shows in his lectures. It's really important you don't miss class because he focuses less on book material and more on what he talks about in class on the midterms. One quiz was on what the guest speaker spoke about. I recommend taking Prof Niebuhr.

Prof. Niebuhr was a great lecturer for MATE 210. He explains the concepts well, but doesn't make things boring for all of us who aren't Materials majors. He has a good sense of humor, better than most professors I've had at Poly. He curves everyone's grade at the end of the quarter, which is how i got a 50% on the first midterm and still pulled off a B in the class. Niebuhr rocks, take him if you can.

prof niebuhr was good, just make sure you study a lot for his tests. they aren't too difficult, but you just need to know all of the information. he's a very funny guy and helpful in office hours, i recommend him for this course.

Nice guy and interesting lectures but doesn't explain the material very well. Also doesn't involve the class at all. I don't think i ever said a word.

Niebuhr was an alright teacher. His tests were pretty hard sometimes (the final was pretty tough) but he is laid back and curves everything at the end -- figure out the curve yourself: I never scored higher than 8 on a quiz, 64 on the first midterm and 84 on the second, not sure about the final and I got a B+.

pretty cool guy. his tests are pretty tough, i think my 73 on the first one was pretty close to an A w/the curve. he's got a pretty good sense of humor (he put a question about vanilla ice toys on the final). i guess the problem is that he makes the material seem easier in his lectures than it really is.however the curve in the end is very generous and i ended up with a B+ after considering dropping out of the class after week 4.

Funny guy, alright professor. The quizzes were fairly easy, but the 2 midterms felt like "stone-passing" as Niebuhr terms it. His powerpoint lectures and suggested homework aren't enough to help you understand what is going on. I suggest going to office hours (which were very helpful). I didn't go to office hours until finals week, but I wish I had gone earlier. After taking the two midterms I thought that Niebuhr would be merciful to give me a C- after curving, but I ended up getting a full A. His funny/interesting court case stories are an added plus. (Niebuhr occasionally serves as an expert witness).

THIS GUY IS AWESOME! I would highly advise not getting the book, I will admit the one time I used it, in the entire ten week course, it did help me quite a bit. Doing the homework he assigns from the book is a great way to actually do well on his tests, which are beyond impossible. Honestly, if you find a professor who gives a harder exam, let me know cause I bet you it isn't true. The thing is, it is some personal joke or something of his, I swear he gets a kick out of watching the grades just fall through the floor on his tests, and once he is done laughing at you he curves it so nicely that your F somehow becomes a B and everyone laughs about it the next day. He is about as understanding a guy as you will find and he really only wants to have some fun and make the course interesting. He talks about really REALLY interesting stuff in class and throws in some personal stories that make the hour long sessions seem like 5 minutes. If you have to take this class, or you are just looking for something to fulfill minimum progress like I was, I HIGHLY recommend this course with Niebuhr, he is awesome and really make it fun.

Dr. Niebuhr is a great materials teacher and his curve is beautiful! The tests are the hardest thing anyone will ever take, but this class is so worth the effort. Everyone can pass if they try just a little bit and Niebuhr is such a nice/funny guy. Great teacher!

This class is hard, and Prof. Niebuhr really wants us to learn every single thing about the course so that we can take it with us FOREVER. So it can be overwhelming. His quizzes are always curveballs, meaning that you never know what to expect; sometimes he asks questions on the previous lecture's material, othertimes he asks questions about an anecdote he shared the previous week (always related to the material, though). As far as his tests go, yeah, they're crazy-hard, but if you go over the review sheet and read the text on the related topics, you'll do fine (as in a C on the exam). Luckilly, his curves are so cool and his extra credit boost you up. I wanted to drop after the first exam (on which I got an F) and I ended up with an A-. I definitely recommend him, plus he's funnie and passionate about what he teaches, albeit way over our heads at times. The most important thing you should take with you: ASK HIM TO EXPLAIN EVERY SINGLE GRAPH/CHART. THEY WILL BE ON THE QUIZZES, EXAMS, AND FINALS. YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO KNOW WHAT EACH MEANS AND BE ABLE TO DRAW INFO FROM THEM. SO ASK ASK ASK!!! Enjoy.

This guy rocks. He is funny and makes this class very interesting...even for EE's. After this class, I felt that I have learned engineering in a whole new perspective. He is also very helpful during office hours. If you are really confused, you should definitely go for help. My suggestion would be skim the textbook first (since there are so much to read), then ask him questions if you have any. This is not a hard class, but this class can be overwhelming. Just understand the basics you will do fine, and Dr. Niebuhr will always help you if you need.

Good teacher. 2 Midterms and a Final, and some quizzes and group activities along the way. Homework was always posted with solutions, and ALWAYS PRINT THE LECTURES B4 U GET TO THAT CLASS, it makes it easy to study for the tests. The tests usually contain information that he would mention in class but not have in his powerpoint lectures. He was a good lecturer, i got an F and a D on my 2 midterms, and failed every quiz, and got a C- in the class... his curve is amazing! His lecures were always interesting especially about his court cases. Talk to him about your grades, improvements from the midterms are taken into consideration.

Best teacher I have had at calpoly. One of the nicest guys also. Definitly take him if you get the chance.

If you want to understand concepts and materials for this class, take just about anyone else. Everyone I talked to in other classes had no difficulty understanding material, but everyone who took Neibuhr had real difficulty. He struggles through his own examples, fails to explain challenging concepts, and over all is an awful professor. Take someone else.

This class can be really intimidating and difficult the first two weeks. Dr. Niebuhr's lectures, reading the books, going to study sessions, and working with friends didn't seem like they were helping me understand how to calculate moments or even understand what a moment was. However, after doing enough problems something clicked and this made the class a lot easier. This class is hard in the beginning and it is still difficult throughout the rest of the quarter, but if you put in the time and do most of the homework problems on your own, then you will understand the material and you will do well. The mid terms and final are pretty difficult, but if you do your homework and understand how to do those problems as well as the class activities, you should do just fine. Dr. Niebuhr can be confusing sometimes, but if you truly don't get something, don't be afraid to ask him. He is more than willing to help students especially at his office hours. He can sometimes seem harsh, but he truly is a nice guy who likes to joke around. I really enjoyed having him as a professor and would take him again for another course.

He hardly knows the material and just copies down examples on the board and gets lost on the examples and takes forever to do them. He is terrible at explaining concepts and how to do the problems. You will teach yourself how to do statics. Good luck.

Pay attention, do the Homework and be ready for hard tests. I had friends in other sections and they struggled too. Lectures are a lot of examples and he does assume you read the material ahead of time. Not the best teacher I had, but not the worse either

He is very inconsistent. He will throw units on there sometimes, sometimes not. He is all over the place during his lecture. I feel very unprepared for dynamics even though I got a B. I had to take it upon myself to teach myself the material to get a B also. Overall, would NOT recommend. Don't even settle for him, try to crash other sections with a different prof before you settle on Niebuhr, otherwise, you will surely regret it.

This teacher is not very good because he assumes that everyone understands everything and doesn't care to go into detailed explanation. This is one of those classes that feels like it's everyone vs. the teacher lol. He grades the midterms really easily and isn't very tricky. tl;dr doesn't explain things very well but grades easily.

Niebuhr, I thought, was a clear orator and very helpful professor as far as what was on his tests. His HW is through Connect, which, though expensive, was very useful because we were allowed to take the homework as many times as we wanted, and after our first attempt it gives all the solutions, and the numbers don't change. Considering homework is 20% of the grade, this was a great cushion for everyone. He was also explicit about what would be on the test, and does his best to give us a reasonable amount of problems that were challenging, but not beyond our reach. His teaching style was excellent for me. He gave us worksheets every class, worked out most if not all of the problems in a step-by-step basis, and asked for questions after each one. He gave us nothing he couldn't do himself, and I think was a very fair grader. If there was a need for a curve on a test, he would curve it, and in the end he curves your final grade. I felt very prepared for the common final, that being said I also studied a lot. Put the time into this class, review the problems in class and actually do the homework and understand it, and you will be fine.

This class was the toughest class I took all of freshman year. With that in mind, Niebuhr never helped me understand the concepts that were difficult. We got a lot of worksheets in class but he just copies down his notes onto the board without much of an explanation as to what he is writing down. As a result, the midterms were hard and a huge time crunch. I basically had to teach myself this class. In the end, only by reviewing the concepts, homework, and midterms repeatedly did I feel prepared for the final. Overall, I would suggest that if you can get another professor, do it. If you cannot avoid him, there is an ME tutoring session in building 192 that I would highly advise you to attend if you are struggling with any of the concepts.

After reading through Niebuhr's polyratings I was rather shocked at how many students disliked him. Not only is he unexpectedly hilarious, but he's obviously very knowledgeable about the subject matter and his lessons are very concise. Although some of the negative feedback such as using class a majority of class time to do a few examples or making the occasional error on the board (who doesn't though?) may be true, I've found his method of teaching to be incredibly easy to follow. I think that the disconnect between the students that enjoy him and the students that struggle in his class lays in your understanding of how you learn. I did learn a lot of things about statics outside of the classroom, but his homework makes it very easy to teach yourself as long as you take it seriously and take the time to do it. Any answer you can clearly pose he can clearly answer.

Thankfully, it doesnt take too much teaching to learn statics, just practice. Niebuhr does not teach. He uses the flipped classroom to be lazy by telling you to read the book, then if you ask him to explain something he will just tell you to read the book. He does a problem quickly on the board and you copy it down as fast as possible and he does a terrible job explaining anything you ask questions on. This guy does not teach he is just here to hand out and collect assignments. That said he is a chill guy and its easy to miss his class and catch up, but you do need to do all of the work. Avoid if possible

Overall, Niebuhr did a great job teaching the material, just had some glaring quirks. Most notable is his grading, which is probably the source of his overwhelmingly negative reviews, and it is understandable. I had one of the best grades in the class throughout the quarter and had a very good grasp of the material but barely pulled off a B-. Niebuhr does a quite fine job helping you to learn the material, but apparently does not hesitate to get out the weedwhacker and do some weeding. I imagine a decent, hopefully not horrendous, proportion of the class failed, who with other teachers would be on their merry way to Dynamics. Another negative of Niebuhr is his online HW assignments, they're a pain. All in all, I would give Niebuhr 5 stars if it weren't for his apparent disregard for the beautiful thing called grade inflation, which we take for granted. Don't get me wrong, he's a great teacher, but I feel he's the kind who is part of the 5-year engineering degree problem.

Most of the reason I enjoyed this class was because of the people I took it with. It's more fun to suffer with other people. I would definitely not call Niebuhr a great teacher. People would often ask questions that he wouldn't directly answer which made things pretty confusing, or he would answer a totally different question. I never went to office hours so I don't know how he was outside the classroom setting. But he definitely made the effort to make himself available, and publicize exactly when and where office hours were throughout the quarter so props for that. If you don't have a great basic understanding of forces from physics this class is really going to bite your butt. Thankfully, Niebuhr hella curves the final (because it's a common final) and whatever grade you get on the final can be your grade in the class. Basically a hail mary at the end of the quarter LOL.

He doesn't deserve a 2.2 rating. Niebuhr always cracks dad jokes in class and if you look at his eyes closely you'll find one of his eyes always having seizure. My friend and I always roast him about that. He presents the materials fairly clearly (definitely understandable), fair tests and quizzes, homework is very helpful when it comes to studying. I swear 90% of the people bitchin about him on polyratings are people who didn't put enough work in this class and try to blame it all on the professor. Statics is not that hard, but it's not an easy A either. Put in SOME work, not even a lot, go to office hours, you'll be fine. Absolutely no reason to fail.

Dr. Niebuhr is a great instructor that knows the content very well but has a difficult time conveying that to the class. He works through the problems and concepts very quickly and it's difficult to get him to backtrack and explain why he did what he did. Apart from that, the quizzes and tests are fair for the level of the material we learn and accurately convey the difficulty of the class. My only word of advice, both for students and Dr. Niebuhr, is to just be patient with each other. Statics is a fairly difficult class and it takes time to understand the content.Textbook was required for the class to do homework and reading to understand the concepts. Other than that, no other materials were used except Engineering Paper.

He is a great techer and really helps out. The labs are tough for 1 unit, but there's no homework and they really help with the 210 lecture.

Niebuhr is hella cool. By far my favorite professor I've had yet. He is very good at making explanations that are simple to understand. He is also extremely willing to help. Niebuhr is also a real jokester... this guy WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH! Definitely makes the class a lot of fun and a good learning experience.

Niebuhr is a superb lab teacher. I had Granados for lecture (MatE-210) and when Niebuhr explained something in lab, I instantly understood what Granados struggled to teach us for weeks. He is that good. The reviews below mentioned Niebuhr's insane grading in 210...that does not apply in lab. I recall only one lab that our group did not get at least an A- on. I only wish I could have taken this guy again; 215 went by quickly and I never did find out about the court cases everyone is talking about below. But anyways, you can't go wrong with Niebuhr for lab. Take him now. (Especially if you, as a CPE major, have a choice between materials and statics.)

Really hard in MATE 210 (lecture) but awesome for lab. The guy knows his stuff, is patient, and grades fairly. Towards the end my lab partners and I got tired of the labs, but somehow we all ended up with A's. Take this guy for MATE 215. He's also good for MATE 210, but be prepared for low test scores.

If you are taking Dr. Niebuhr for anything above MATE 210 or 215 you are stuck with him so I don't know why you are reading this. But he is an amazing teacher. I went into the class thinking it wouldn't be to bad. But this class just has so much material and Dr. Niebuhr set out on the impossible to teach it all in one quarter. His test were ridicules and you better start studying the small stuff because you will need to know everything down to the last detail. Oh and the freaking pop quizzes, honestly they are pop quizzes. They are probably the hardest part about the class. But don't ever go into his class thinking it is going to be and easy ride because he will work you to the bone. Although his is a disorganized lecturer he is a fair grader and I look forward to talking more classes with him.

I only had Niebhur for the ME 236 lab but he was excellent! The labs were pretty easy and he was super helpful and always made sure to check up on every group to see how they were doing. He also answered every question and definitely knows what he's talking about. He gives a lab quiz every week which are pretty easy if you read the lab but even if you bomb them it doesn't really matter because quizzes are only worth 3% of your total grade. Niebhur is also really helpful when it comes to office hours. I know a lot of people don't like him in other classes but in ME 236 lab he's a fucking homie and a great professor.

Professor Niebuhr is funny and chill (unless you get on his bad side). Whatever you do, don't interrupt his lectures. The labs are pretty easy and Niebuhr makes the lab reports easier than other professors, so he's definitely the one that you want for the lab professor. And you'll almost always get out of class at least an hour early. However, you will certainly have to work hard for an A in his class, so be prepared for that. Getting good lab partners is also very important. The quizzes are difficult but don't affect your grade so studying for them is really optional. I would recommend Neibuhr, but just don't let his chill demeanor fool you into thinking he grades easily or that he cannot suddenly get angry.

Dr. Niebuhr is a good teacher. He was unfortunately assigned to teach e-prop when Dr. Vannasupa was on leave that one quarter (winter 02). Too bad the department don't have anyone else other than Dr. V who knows about the subject, so when she was around for the first half of the quarter, Dr. Niebuhr got to ask her questions about what he didn't understand or stuffs that the students ask him in class that he couldn't answer. But after Dr. V left the second half of the quarter, Dr. Niebuhr would try REALLY HARD to find the answer from the book but half the time it was in vain. Don't get me wrong, Dr. Niebuhr is the nicest guy you will ever meet and he is very understanding too, but he just doesn't know that much about e-prop and unfortunately, for him and for the class that he got stucked teaching the it. He REALLY tried and i'm sure he learned a lot too, but over all the class was kinda lacking. From what I understand, Dr. V asked the ceramics class (in the quarter after e-prop) quite often whether they've learned some e-prop concepts and the class usually answered no and she had to take time to reteach them. As for the lab, it was even worst since all we did was to learn to use the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and it only worked sparingly since we only had a part-time technician to maintain it. We only did 2 labs the whole quarter because the 3rd big lab was cancel deal to the malfunctioning of the VERY hard working teacher who tried his very best to learn and teach us e-prop, however, it was so-what lacking to the level that Dr. V would have done it. All in all, this e-prop class by Niebuhr was rather educational, we learned quite a bit. The best thing was that most people got A's or B's (since he only asked us what he understood and it was ALL in the lecture notes and homework).

This was the most incoherent, rambling class I've had at Cal Poly. In addition to the course being completely devoid of structure or logic, Dr. Niebuhr seemed as confused as the students taking the course and as a result, your education will suffer. Dr. Niebuhr's grading expectations are not clearly stated and as a result, the student is marked down with no explination whatsoever. The only saving grace is that Dr. London stepped in for the last half of the quarter to teach the lecures when Niebuhr was on leave. I would strongly recommend avoiding this course.

If you read the previous drivel don't be fooled. It was written by someone with an axe to grind. I need say nothing more than anyone who calls Dr. London a "saving grace" is dillusional or hopes he'll make a pass at him. Dr. Niebuhr is one of only two professors in the department who actually cares about the students and has a life outside Poly. Niebuhr Rocks!!

Nice try Krista, we know you are Vanasupa and London's pet and that you are a critical, self rightous bi#$h. Niebuhr is one of only 2 prof's who give a sh$t for the students. Vanasupa probably wants to lick your c&*t as she is a dike and it is obviuos she favirs girls. So get over yourself and accept the fact you aren't perfect.

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