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Keller, John

Cumulative GPA: 3.38/4.00 with 16 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.25
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.38

Physics Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ASTR 301 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 3:54 am, May 15, 2012 Report Evaluation		One of the best teachers I've had at Calpoly. Does an excellent job at covering a wide variety of material but tying it all together. Realize that you will definitely need to have some time to commit to this class because you will have a couple projects. They aren't too difficult and he's a fair grader, but this isn't just a blow-off course.

ASTR 301 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 2:29 pm, May 7, 2012 Report Evaluation		What a great professor! He is very personable, knows the class by name, and really cares about the subject matter. In my opinion you couldn't ask for more. Tough midterm and final, but that should be expected for a level 300 class. When I missed class he made a time for me to see him(not even office hours) so I could catch up. If you don't do well on the midterms he has many projects that are pretty easy, but still useful for understanding the solar system. Homework was time consuming, but important information to know not busy work. Highly recommended!

ASTR 301 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 12:14 am, Jan 12, 2011 Report Evaluation		I had him for ASTR 301 and it was by far my most favorite class of the quarter. He was extremely knowledgeable and could present the material clearly. Very good at making material interesting and often uses interactive activities to illustrate concepts and ideas. Amazing professor

PSC 101 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:32 pm, Dec 23, 2010 Report Evaluation		I loved having Dr. Keller. He is very enthusiastic about teaching. He is very particular in his grading and what he expects you to include in your answer on the tests and this was fairly frustrating so be detailed in your answers and make sure you label things. This particular class is set up in a way that the students teach one another, this works well for some people and not so well for others. I found it to be very helpful and Dr. Keller is always ready to answer your questions, or help guide you to figure out the answer. Sometimes he will do these teaching strategies that seem very \"high school or jr. high like\" but it is his way of trying to explain the concept to the people who are not grasping it yet and solidify the concept in the people that do. Keller is a teacher who you can tell enjoys teaching.

ASTR 301 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:18 pm, Nov 13, 2010 Report Evaluation		What a boss. Few people are as dedicated to teaching as Dr. Keller (the science feller). If every teacher at this school was like Dr. Keller, Cal Poly would be the best university in the nation. One of the 1st things you will notice about this guy is his commitment to his students. He goes far out of his way to help you such that you feel bad about it. I agree with pervious posts: be sure to be extra complete in your explanations. Grading is as fair as it gets. His teaching: abnormally enthusiastic (he clearly enjoys the material). On rare occasions, when he is having a bad day, he is not very good at explaining concepts. Fortunately, this almost never happens, and usually his explanations are stellar (no pun intended). Despite being VERY busy, he still makes himself available. He also has lots of experience teaching youth science, so if you really need something dumbed down he can do it. Sometimes, he will sing science songs that he wrote. Conclusion: Dr. Keller is a good model for other teachers to try to be like.

PHYS 103 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:31 pm, May 19, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Keller is a really funny teacher and he makes the class really fun. Sometimes the 2 hour lecture/lab goes by fast and fun, if you are doing a lab, and other times the class goes by slow because it is mostly discussion. So far in 203, there has been too much hypothesizing so the class gets confused on whats the correct answer and what is the hypothesis. Tests seem to be easy when you take them, but they turn out harder than you thought. You have to explain everything you know and study really hard/understand everything. The only time you have homework is the activity homework in the book, but its not that much. The worst part of 203 compared to 202 and 201 is that there are so many \"little\" projects. Theres a sunset and lunar project, a geography fieldtrip (which may be hard if you dont have a car), and a trip to the campus observatory. It seems to take up a lot more time.

PHYS 203 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:31 pm, May 19, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Keller is a really funny teacher and he makes the class really fun. Sometimes the 2 hour lecture/lab goes by fast and fun, if you are doing a lab, and other times the class goes by slow because it is mostly discussion. So far in 203, there has been too much hypothesizing so the class gets confused on whats the correct answer and what is the hypothesis. Tests seem to be easy when you take them, but they turn out harder than you thought. You have to explain everything you know and study really hard/understand everything. The only time you have homework is the activity homework in the book, but its not that much. The worst part of 203 compared to 202 and 201 is that there are so many \"little\" projects. Theres a sunset and lunar project, a geography fieldtrip (which may be hard if you dont have a car), and a trip to the campus observatory. It seems to take up a lot more time.



PHYS 203 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:30 pm, May 19, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Keller is a really funny teacher and he makes the class really fun. Sometimes the 2 hour lecture/lab goes by fast and fun, if you are doing a lab, and other times the class goes by slow because it is mostly discussion. So far in 203, there has been too much hypothesizing so the class gets confused on whats the correct answer and what is the hypothesis. Tests seem to be easy when you take them, but they turn out harder than you thought. You have to explain everything you know and study really hard/understand everything. The only time you have homework is the activity homework in the book, but its not that much. The worst part of 203 compared to 202 and 201 is that there are so many \"little\" projects. Theres a sunset and lunar project, a geography fieldtrip (which may be hard if you dont have a car), and a trip to the campus observatory. It seems to take up a lot more time.

ASTR 102 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 5:48 pm, Jun 3, 2008 Report Evaluation		Dr. Keller is great. He is really awkwardly funny at times and is the biggest science dork ever, but his passion for astronomy makes his class interesting. If you have questions he'll totally answer them and if you are still confused he'll set up a private office hour just to help you out. And for me, it made a world of a difference. If you don't do well on the 2 midterms or the final your grade can still be saved because there are some fairly easy homework assignments and one mini project that you can do well on to pull it up. I would definately recommend taking his class.

ASTR 102 Senior Grade Earned: A General Ed 11:02 pm, May 26, 2008 Report Evaluation		Tried, fairly successfully, to memorize everyone's name in a 60 person class. I highly recommend going to his office hours, He is very helpful and easy to approach. Sometimes he didn't label or mislabeled his charts in class which annoyed me, since he rarely uses them anyway. My one major complaint of the course is his planet observation assignment. It was a massive waste of time and energy, I ended up using a computer program for most of the assignment. We were not taught how to find planets using star charts and it was difficult for me to complete the assignment logistically. Tests weren't particularly difficult. If you go over homeworks / tutorials / go to his out of class "tail gater" study sessions it won't be that bad. Although during class material can seem difficult it generally clicks and becomes simple fairly quickly. All in all an upbeat, geeky, and knowledgeable professor.

ASTR 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 2:26 pm, May 15, 2008 Report Evaluation		Amazing teacher. Super into getting the class involved and is constantly taking polls in class with iclickers so he knows exactly where students are struggling. Exptremely approachable in office hours and frankly is positively adorable. He LOVES what he is teaching and is extremely knowledgble. and his lectures are never boring. He is quarking and seriously amusing. very clearly presets the information too. but his tests were reallllly hard. Loved his class. wish i could do nothing but stalk keller's classes, go back in time, then make him 15 years younger so i could marry him and have the smartest babies in the world.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 6:59 pm, Feb 8, 2008 Report Evaluation		never know the answer to any questions you asked of him always had to refer to notes for solutions in lecture. read straigth off the powerpoints, wasnt that great at explaining

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:26 pm, Jan 7, 2008 Report Evaluation		Keller works hard for his students. He would hold 20 office hours if you asked him to. Phys 133 didn't make sense to me, honestly it still doesn't, but if you want someone who will do his best to help you understand the class - take Keller. I didn't regret it



PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:43 pm, Dec 18, 2007 Report Evaluation		Keller is very enthusiastic about trying to "bond" with his students, he reminds me very much of Allan from 2 and a half Men though in that he tries really hard and just doesn't seem to get it. He never gave very many reasonable example problems, just reiterated what was on the powerpoints. He is very helpful in office hours though, if you don't get something I definitely reccomend going. He basically worked through a replica of a final problem (this was the day of the final). Hopefully he'll do quizzes in the future, he gave 2 then abandoned it for some reason, but it made the midterms really hard because it was hard to prepare for the type of questions. Unfortunately, this course is basically taught the same by all of the professors so no matter what teacher you get, it is unlikely for you to avoid the wrath of the powerpoints. I know some teachers didn't collect the homework, but Keller did. My advice is to use the solutins manual before submitting an answer to Mastering Physics otherwise you are going to be hard pressed getting the exact right answer because of strict submission rules.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:10 am, Nov 7, 2007 Report Evaluation		Keller is a good teacher. He goes slow and makes sure you understand the material. It isn't the easiest of the Physics classes, so do the homework and go to his office hours (which he has plenty). He has a fair grading scale in the end that will help bring your grade up. His only downside is that he loves the workbook problems, which confused me more than helped. He collects the workbook and mastering physics hw, so be prepared to spend some serious hw hours on physics.

ASTR 102 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 6:10 pm, Jan 21, 2007 Report Evaluation		He is very excited about what he teaches! It is very refreshing to have a teacher that us so enthusiastic about what he teaches! He really cares about his students success and does things like have "Tail Gate" Parties to help his students study for midterms and final exams! It is almost cute to see how much he loves his subject! It makes you interested in the class!

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