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Christiansen, Jodi

Cumulative GPA: 2.12/4.00 with 17 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 1.88
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.06

Physics Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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PHYS 121 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 7:26 pm, Dec 16, 2012 Report Evaluation		AVOID if this is your first time taking physics. She is a helpful teacher during office hours but in class she is not very clear. Do the homework and rework her examples from class!

PHYS 121 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 2:25 pm, Dec 11, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Christiansen is, as mentioned before, one of the nicest professors out here in Cal Poly. She will no doubt encourage you to go to office hours, and if you can't meet her at a certain time, then she will make time for you. And it is through those times that I was able to pass the class. Don't get me wrong, I'm a wiz at Calculus and usually pretty decent when it comes to physics, but this class was almost a nightmare for me. I could not grasp the concepts, and her inability to convey those concepts through very specific material was just another aspect of the class inhibiting me from understanding. What I'm saying is, she is a nice person, and wants you to learn, she just doesn't know how to teach "well." If you are inclined towards the general subject matter, then by all means, take the class. If you are not a person who understands the concepts of general physics the first-time around, then take another professor. Just a tip to those who don't think they'll do well, she curves. A lot. So if you put in enough time and effort to the class, then you'll do fine. My major, however, was one of the most time-consuming majors at Cal Poly, so I was unable to do so.

PHYS 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:25 pm, Jun 13, 2012 Report Evaluation		People are a little too hard on Jodi. While I didn't feel she was quite as solid explaining special relativity, she did an excellent job showing us the basics of quantum mechanics. It really shows that she is interested in this material. She is pretty reasonable about late work if you get caught up with other classes and is very kind and approachable in office hours. Her homework is lengthy and difficult. The good thing is she always posts detailed solutions after the homework is collected for your reference. This is a fun class with a lot of interesting material, you will need to put in some work. The book for this class is also excellent, definitely read the book.

ASTR 326 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 11:10 pm, Mar 11, 2011 Report Evaluation		I took this class for an astronomy minor and let me say this: Cosmology and relativity is to complex of a subject to teach yourself/have a bad teacher for. Dr. Christiansen is not very confident in her teaching and asks the students " is that right" not in the rhetorical sense but because she gets her notes straight from the book that we go home and read. It may be just me, but I get very frustrated when teachers stop lecturing and back track in their notes to correct a mistake two pages ago which in turn makes every equation after different. The homework wasn't bad but I definitely had to go to office hours do 1-3 problems per set. She thinks she taught the information well and then writes a test to model what she "thinks" she taught...I like the topic but inless you have to take this class with Christiansen, I would wait and take Bee keeping or Music of the 60's in the meantime.

ASTR 326 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:31 pm, Feb 3, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr. Christiansen is very nice. The first thing you notice about her, though, is she just cannot teach a class full of students. She presents the material is such a confusing, nonlinear way, you just don't know what the hell is going on! And believe me, Relativity and Cosmology is confusing enough. Disappointingly, Cal Poly has no good Cosmology teachers, so unless you really dig this stuff, maybe try a summer class somewhere else, or grad school, or just skip it and read Scientific American. Dr. Christiansen seriously cannot write a single grammatically correct sentence. She constantly screws up all of the terms in every equation (dropping negatives here, missing c or G there) which just makes everything that much harder. HOWEVER, this teacher shines in one on one instruction. In other words: GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Her one on one teaching (or small group) is 180 degrees from her classroom setting teaching. She is one of the most excellent office hour teachers ever. Such a difference from in class! The best part of this class is the book, though. Its a small, easy to carry around book that is the best textbook I have ever read. Sometimes, it's worth it to just read the text in class and tune everything else out. Should you take this class? Only if you really like this stuff and enjoy learning on your own more than in a classroom.

PHYS 121 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 11:06 pm, May 5, 2010 Report Evaluation		Just in time for registration. Yes, she is a very very nice person, and honestly she tries to help you out but, she just can\'t seem to convey the material to the class in clear and coherent way. We just got a midterm back today, and the class average was 50%, while the first one was around a 77%. Her tests are hit and miss, look out for questions you have not come across in HW and practice exams. I felt sufficiently prepared for both, but yet i got a B on one and D (C+ with curve) on the other hand. Bottom line, shes not a good teacher..take some else if possible,...if not...prepare to be frustrated.

PHYS 141 Junior Grade Earned: F Required (Support) 6:22 pm, Feb 11, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Christiansen is a VERY nice PERSON, but I\'m sorry, she\'s a very poor teacher. I went into office hours at least once a week and I still failed which is the only class at Poly that I have ever even gotten a C or worse. She really doesn\'t know how to convey the learning concepts and when she does problems on the board she puts up the initial values and then the answer with no steps in between. I wouldn\'t recommend her at all.



PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 5:51 pm, Aug 29, 2009 Report Evaluation		she is really nice, but not a good teacher. if you are not already good at physics, take someone else. although everyone who teaches physics is pretty bad as well.

PHYS 121 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 4:18 pm, Apr 2, 2009 Report Evaluation		Dr. Christiansen is an ok lab instructor. She can be misleading for help and makes you think more than you have to for questions. Since you work in teams for lab it wasnt that bad. Take her if your good at physics, if not take someone better.

PHYS 141 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 8:37 am, Feb 21, 2009 Report Evaluation		Christiansen can't teach. If you want to learn the material on your own or already know it, she is probably a good professor for you. If you're trying to learn the material get someone else (although the physics department sucks).

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 10:59 pm, Oct 22, 2008 Report Evaluation		Dr. Christiansen is a very nice person, it was just really hard to pay attention in a 90 minutes class at 8 am. She would sometimes get mixed up about the material, and spend 15 minutes trying to figure out where she went wrong (the first day of class she wrote on the board "opposites repel" while the whole point of the class is that opposites attract) or doesn't realize it until someone in the class points it out. With her class, you have 2 midterms and a final, and a quiz every week or so. Homework is also due in her class, and she likes to have you do workbook problems as well. If you have problems, she is really good at helping you. I ended up getting a horrible score on the second midterm, and I went and explained to her how I was sick while I took the midterm (and she could tell, because I could barely speak because I had lost my voice), and she said that if I came in to her office hours and talked with her about my homework every week until the end of the quarter, she would make sure I got a C in the class. So she is really willing to help you if you are willing to work at it.

PHYS 133 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 7:46 am, Mar 26, 2008 Report Evaluation		She is a great teacher. We had a blast in our class also. She gives lots of homework, but it is for us to learn. Use her office hours for hard homework because you might see similar questions on tests and quizes.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 10:57 am, Mar 11, 2008 Report Evaluation		Took her for 141 and for 133, good for both. Some really hard tests but she is always very fair with the curve. Very nice and helpful. Definitely recommended.



PHYS 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:33 am, Dec 12, 2007 Report Evaluation		Dr. Christiansen is a very nice teacher. When she explains material it may seem sort of confusing, and she does tend to be "klutzy" at times so you lose the train of thought going on in the problems. Her tests are quite challenging, although her quizzes are basically homework problems. The homework is long, so don't expect the class to be easy work, but it expect it to be busy work. It is nice that she grades on a curve, because it definitely helped me. She really does like her visuals.

PHYS 141 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 11:50 am, Dec 11, 2007 Report Evaluation		If you have already taken physics before this class will be a breeze. I, personally, have never taken physics, so I did pretty poorly. She tends to do many demos, which don't help you solve the homework problems. The exams are pretty hard, because I studied to homework problems for hours, and there were no similar problems on the exam. If you are confused make sure you don't get behind and go to office hours.

PHYS 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 10:29 pm, Dec 10, 2007 Report Evaluation		Dr. Christiansen is very nice, she grades on a "curve", and as long as you keep up on the homework, most things click. Her tests are pretty hard, so be prepared. Good teacher. She really likes her demos, haha.

PHYS 141 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:37 pm, Jun 19, 2007 Report Evaluation		Very friendly, presents the material well, and available during office hours.

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