Cooper, Alan  

I was very sorry to see the above responses for Dr. Cooper. I have been at Cal Poly for almost a year now. This is my third Biology class and I've also had a lab with each of these classes. Therefore I have had about 6 different BIO professors. Dr. Cooper goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to entertaining a class. I have never had more fun and learned so much in a single class. His style is unique. He is constantly pounding the information into your head. For those who have trouble being put on the spot, Dr. Cooper wouldn't be your type of professor. But for those like me, who don't mind the challenge...he is great. You will leave his class with an in depth understanding of the subject. You will have plenty of field stories and other interesting bits of information to further your range of information. I've heard from professors and several students that Dr. Cooper is an excellent instructor. I must concur.

I admit that Dr. Cooper can be somewhat intimidating but I think he is a great professor. He makes the class get involved and repeats things numerous times so that you can remember for the test. Tests were fairly easy and had numerous questions that he repeatedly said were going to be on the tests. He is pretty funny and if you get a chance to take him for lab I would do so. After having Ortiz last quarter Cooper is a saint. He will stop you when you are walking out of class and make sure that you are understanding everything okay. Two words of advice though.... dont argue with him about your test grade and dont fall asleep in class. Follow these two things and you will do fine. Overall very nice man!

Probably the worst teacher I've EVER had, not just at Poly. He's hard to follow and he rarely finishes a competent sentence. His tests were only loosely based on his lectures. Thankfully he's retiring soon. Avoid him if at all possible. Take a different section or put the course off, and you will be much better off for it. Not only will you do better in the class, but you will leave the class with a much better understanding of the topic.

Dr. Cooper is a funny old man, and he clearly taught the material. He would repeat over and over this is a test question. But a word of advice don't fall asleep in his class! I liked Dr. Cooper and he was also a great lab teacher.

Cooper is a terrible professor. He does go over material several times but it is totally irrelevent to the tests. The lectures are confusing, he talks to fast, answers questions very ambiguously and requires you to draw several intricate lame ass diagrams. Seriously I think he is senile. I struggled to get a C-. Avoid this teacher if at all possible.

You guys are just bitter because your grades ate shit. Cooper is the man. He's funny, smart, interesting, and really helpful. If you can't pay attention in class long enough to realize that he spoonfeeds you the material you need to drop out of college and have your mommy wipe your ass after you make bears. YEA I SAID MAKE BEARS. hahahaha. TAKE COOPER.

I had fun in this class, Dr. Cooper makes the lab time much easier to handle than the other instructors (so I have heard). Instead of having to do lab reports and pop quizzes, you just get to spend the time learning about the stuff in the lab - some of which is actually pretty interesting. Anyway, he's just a simple country biologist...

Cooper ROCKS! This guy is awesome. He makes Bio lab enjoyable. I can't wait to take another class with him.

NEVER MAKE THE MISTAKE OF TAKING THIS JOKE OF A CLASS. EVERYTHING DISCUSSED IN CLASS NEVER SHOWS UP ON TESTS. THIS IS ONE CRAZY OLD MAN

Absolutly no point in going to the lectures, since the tests have nothing to do with the lectures. During the lectures he will tell you his life stories. In my opinion, try to avoid this teacher.

This class is geared for engineering students who don't need to know a thing about bio but need to take a bio course. Cooper taught the class in exactly this way. All of the test questions were either available at Second Edition, come straight out of the end of the chapter(10 questions per chapter) or from his lectures. All you have to do is show up. He doesn't go into great detail about any topic because nobody in the class realy needs to know the info. The tests consist of 100 questions multiple choice. Basically all of the questions at the end of the chapters are on the test. another 25 are specifically outlined during lecture. YES HE SAYS "THIS IS A TEST QUESTION" and what do you know it IS. the remaining questions come from the question list. This class was not difficult. I personally liked his teaching style. Besides he let me play with the cadavers. :)

are you kidding me, this guy really needs to be at home in his rocking chair babbling to himself

This guy really shouldn't be teaching. He is the most arrogant teacher I know. He uses his tenure as an excuse to talk down to students. He is very pround of the fact that he gives at least half the class D's and F's. If I could do it over I would take BIO 101 and PE 250 in place of this class.

Great guy. I'm glad I had Cooper as a professor. It was one of my more enjoyable courses taken in my college career. The students in my class who complained about him were the students who did not put effort in their studies. They wonder why they do bad and instantly blame the professor. I recommend him over anyone else.

Cooper is a retired teacher they hauled back in and he doesnt seem very happy about it...he is a nice guy, but always is poking fun at one or two of the students...his labs were pointless...you go and just sit there and watch his 1970's slide show of diseases...all I have to say is his lab was a GIANT WASTE OF TIME!!!

Dr. Cooper is awesome! people who complain about him are just a bunch of pussies.

The thing that gets most people about Dr. Cooper is it is hard to warm up to him. You actually have to TRY. He's a riot in lecture and lab, personally; after a while you get used to his sense of humor and it's great. Ask him about his orchids or his new house in Templeton, and he'll talk for hours. He *IS* a harsh grader; you can recite verbadum from his handouts and get it marked wrong. (We're still working on figuring that one out.) But, hey, that's Dr. Cooper - he's one of a kind. I liked the class, actually.

Cooper is a great bitter old man. Gruff would be the best way to describe him. The gruffness may turn people against him, but if you can get by that you'll see he is as smart as he is gruff. He likes to poke fun at his students....especially during tests "I see you cheating" Or my personal favorite " 'When you graduating?', ' This spring', 'You wish'" Anyway, the lab is really really quick but boring (come on it is plant diseases - though the nematode lab was fun and so were the field trips). I'd suggest Cooper for anyone who wants a good lab teacher.

Cooper is extremely old and should retire because his teaching shows it. When he's talking he will go off on random tangents and his statements trail off and end in babbles. It's really hard to decipher his babble language. He writes notes on the board that are in his own language/cursive and usually very hard to read. The lab should only take an 1 and a half hours max., but what should be 15 minute slide shows take 1 hour and are completely pointless because non of the information from the slides are on the lab tests. He will take 10 minutes explaining each slide, and tell a story about Davis or Berkeley or some other random story about his garden every slide. The slides are from the 60's and just about half the information on them are wrong anyways. What's helpful about Cooper is that he tells you certain things that will be on the test to look out for, but not everything. He's a great guy and you can learn a lot if you pick out the relevant information that he teaches. The lab is super easy, he sets out a bunch of slides for you so you don't have to waste your time making your own and the big boards, pictures, and magazine cutouts he provides help out a lot too.

no quizes, only two midterms that are not cumlative. if you go to class everday and study a little bit you will do well on the tests. it is a lot of memorizing latin genus and species names. one disease collection worth a significant amount that you can get done in class on the three field trips. take cooper he is a very funny entertaining old man. he makes fun of his students and himself which is hilarious. go to every class bc if you dont he will call you out in class and rip into you otherwise

Worst teacher ever. This guy has something stuck up his arse. The material is seriously from the 60's. Not that I ever learn anything at poly, but I really didn't here, except that this shithead should have retired about 35 years ago.

During this entire quarter all I could think about was how this professor reminded me of that small little dog that runs through the back of scene 23 in The Incredibles by Pixar. Seriously, if you look it up you will only be able to see it...