Christiansen, Jodi  

Physics

1.67/4.00

48 evaluations


PHYS 121


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Support)
Apr 2009
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.


Junior
N/A
Required (Support)
May 2010
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.


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Dec 2012
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.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2012
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 132


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2016
I went into this class thinking she was a horrible teacher and I believed that for most of the class because during lectures she made things overly complicated and didn't have a clear path for where she was headed. Although, I went to office hours every week and did homework problems with her, and she was EXTREMELY helpful and made things a lot more clear and this also helped me do well on the weekly quizzes. I got low C's on both midterms and was worried about passing the class and ended up with a B-. I highly do believe that going to office hours diligently helped boost my grade from a C to a B. Just go to office hours and actually do the homework rather than copying the solutions manual and you will be fine.


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Mar 2016
This was her first quarter teaching Physics 132, and I think she did a good job overall. Her class was 5% homework which was due every week and she chose a few random problems to grade, which you have to get perfectly right(equations, diagrams if necessary) so I suggest you check all your homework with the solution manual because she uses the textbook, 10% quiz which was every Friday unless there was a midterm, so just do the homework and make sure you understand the material because they're similar to the homework but not exactly the same, 15% lab(this class was lecture with her, and lab with Fraser), two midterms both 30% which she curved the class to a C, and the midterms weren't extremely, just make sure you can do the homework without looking at the answers, and the final worth 40%, which was as hard the midterms. Overall, I think her class was easier than the other Physics 132 sections because it was her first quarter, so her class might get harder. She taught the material fine, not extraordinarily but not terribly. She sometimes made mistakes, which you can just look at the textbook and learn it for real. I personally read the textbook sections before the class, which helped a lot, and is why i got a pretty good grade(I think like 96%). She has room to improve though.


Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
Mar 2016
I was really worried going in to this class because I struggle with physics and her reviews are harsh so I was surprised to find that she honestly isn't bad at all. She structures the whole course so that if you read the chapters in the book and do the homework its really easy to at least pass this class. She's an incredibly fair grader and laid out everything you needed to know for the two midterms and final. Her quizzes are very basic and her exams are challenging but reasonable. overall you could do a lot worse.


Freshman
A
Required (Major)
Nov 2016
Dr. Christiansen is honestly a really good professor. Although she often makes small errors while walking through problems in class, she demonstrates the material in a way that is very straight forward and simple. Her quizzes and exams were very straight forward as long as you pay attention in lecture and do the homework. She is very approachable and eager to help. I definitely recommend taking her for 132.

PHYS 133


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Mar 2008
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.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Mar 2008
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.


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Oct 2008
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.


Sophomore
C
Required (Support)
Aug 2009
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.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Feb 2014
"Dr." Christtiansen is absolutely the WORST professor at Cal poly. How she got a pHd is beyond me, and its obvious by her lack of knowledge that she most likely cheater her way through post grad. Honestly though, she is disorganized, and while trying to present information often gets it wrong. If you have this "professor" i suggest you either save yourself the trouble and drop the class, or get ready to teach yourself physics. She does though ask for how she can improve her teaching style, but when given criticism it falls upon unopen ears.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Feb 2014
Fuck this teacher.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Feb 2014
She is literally the worst physics teacher I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm a physics major and she made the material appear difficult. If that doesn't show her failings as a teacher I don't know what does. When anyone asks her a question she just kind of stares off into space for a while and then will stutter and fall over the answer. Didn't know what was going on half the time in lecture because she's so stupid. Do not take her if you are shaky at physics at all.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
Jodi is a joke. If you feel like taking a high school class, with a retard as a teacher, then this is your gal. This class was by far the most difficult just because of Jodi's disorganization and lack of knowledge for the course. If you have this teacher, I suggest that you immediately drop the class.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
Spends an unnecessarily long time going over material, which makes the class dreadfully boring and slow. She cares more about theory than application, which is clear when you take the midterms. She also has a habit of talking down to us like we know nothing when she's trying to "help" us. For example, she spent 5 minutes trying to teach our group about a problem we got completely right, but for some reason she decided to treat us like idiots and waste our time by telling us stuff we already knew


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
Be warned.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
avoid at all possible costs!


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
What more is there to say about Jodi other than she is a terrible teacher. Apart from her not being able to answer a couple of questions on a daily basis, but her disorganization takes this class to entire different level. Instead of 4 units it should be 8. 4 for the classwork and an other 4 to decipher her horrendous notes then giving up and reading the book. BE WARNED!!!!


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
A for effort, F for execution. Just a terrible teacher due to a misunderstanding and a breakdown between her mind and what is being told to the students. She asks us often what she can improve, but all criticism falls on empty ears, and plus as students (aka not teachers) how are we supposed to know how to teach a class? If we could we would be acing the class, not leaving a mean poly learn.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Christiansen is the worst teacher I have ever had. She goes through lectures making crucial mistakes all the way. When you ask questions in class she gets flustered and often says things which contradict the book, and known facts. But this is not the worst part. Christiansen is perpetually in a state of talking down to her students. She regulates the class like we are in high school. I was very surprised not to have to ask permission to go to the bathroom. She makes clear judgements on a person based on her subjective opinion of them and grades accordingly. Her grading system is so sporadic and unpredictable, two identical answers could easily get different points. BE WARNED. if you take her, suck up like crazy and be ready to sell your soul


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
If you have Jodi… good luck you will need it.


Sophomore
C
Required (Support)
Dec 2014
Jodi was... eh. That's about it. She writes just enough on the board and answers questions with a degree of vagueness that almost sounds helpful. If you're the group that asks a lot of questions, she'll start to lose respect for you and start treating you lesser than other groups. A professor should never punish students for asking questions. Take someone else if you can.

PHYS 141


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Jun 2007
Very friendly, presents the material well, and available during office hours.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2007
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.


Freshman
D
Required (Support)
Dec 2007
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.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2007
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.


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Feb 2009
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).


Junior
F
Required (Support)
Feb 2010
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.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
Look at her older reviews, apparently she was great, but what happened... I agree with all the recent posts below me. Consider it a self study class. Luckily after talking to Prof. Holtzapple, he let me attend his lectures in order to help me understand this class. Took the final and did well. So, if you're stuck in this class, find other professors where you can sit in on their lectures, or get help from physics experts.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Apr 2014
DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER She assigns a fuck ton of homework due online. You have to use this glitchy program, PhysGL, and it's bullshit. I have taken physics classes before and I am good at physics. This class should be a joke for me, and as far as the stuff we are covering, it is a joke, but she just assigns so much fucking busy work. God damn. You might be thinking you can skip the homework and just ace the quizzes and tests, right? Wrong. That fuck ton of homework is worth about 25% of your grade, so you need to do most of it if you want to get an A. Also she is the least intelligent professor I know. Calc is a pre-req, and she spent like a whole 2 hour class talking about how the derivative of a position as a function of time gives you the velocity as a function of time. Hurr durr, no shit. We all fucking took calc, and most of us have taken higher math classes too, we aren't a bunch of morons.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Jun 2014
Please don't take this teacher. You can always find better.


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Sep 2014
This is one of those professors/classes where you either get it or you don't. Our class was split into the all too common double bell curve, where half the class is passing with a B average, and the other half is failing with a D average. Luckily, I was one of the few that turned it around right before Finals to get the passing grade. Her lecturing was pretty bad- it was hard to stay awake. She didn't really present topics very clearly, yet was obsessed with the little nit-picky details and would run train on your test score if you left out labels and units (even in your work). Unfortunately, the hell that is PhysGL is required by the Physics department because of some kind of insider trading (Poly Professor developed it, suddenly its in required course curriculum? not weird) and if you like code it sucks, and if you don't like/understand code it blows. It's based off a type of code that isn't used anywhere else, and was extremely buggy. So if you made a mistake you were at the mercy of the program and would likely be better off rewriting everything. Would've gotten an A if it hadn't been for PhysGL, because I flat out refused to learn a type of code that I'll never ever ever use again.


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Dec 2017
This class must have improved, because I don't know why Dr. Christiansen has bad reviews. Possibly just a bunch of whiny freshmen who are used to high school classes. She explains concepts pretty clearly, and is very helpful in office hours. Also, the homework does not take an unreasonable amount of time and prepares you perfectly for the quizzes and exams. I did take physics in high school, which made this class a lot easier for me. Still, you should be fine with Dr. Christiansen, and I would recommend her.


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Dec 2017
First off Jodi is a very sweet person. That being said, it doesn't make her teaching better in any way. For the first two weeks I was excited for this class because I thought I was actually going to have a better physics teacher than I did in high school, but it quickly became apparent that was not the case. Looking back I'm sure the first two weeks were filled with good teaching only because the concepts were so basic. Once we reached week three (two dimension motion) her teaching skills dropped dramatically. She constantly dropped negatives or messed up her arithmetic and it only got worse from there on. By the fifth week I could not for the life of me follow what she was talking about in class and I resorted to online videos and friends to get me through the class. On the homework and tests in her class, she's ridiculously picky. My first homework got points knocked off for not having a "good enough picture" which I suppose means that everything was not labeled clearly. On the first midterm, I got three points knocked off from forgetting the same thing my friend did, but he only got a point knocked off for it. She does not use a grader or TA so your grade is pretty much up to her whims which gets very frustrating. One last thing, her homework is always 5 times harder than any of the quizzes or midterms so most students in my class ended up copying the answer key just to get the homework points and they still did fine on the quizzes.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2017
Christiansen is not a good teacher. She struggles with time management frequently in class. She will start a new very important topic with 4 minutes left in class and expect us to understand it. She goes through problems extremely quickly in class and she CONSISTENTLY makes mistakes. She wasted 30 minutes of class trying to figure out one of her mistakes and she couldn't even figure it out. To be fair, this class is EASY if you have previous experience. Quizzes are given once a week and are far easier than the difficult homework assignments. Expect 1-4 hours of outside time spent on homework (depends on the difficulty) and an hour of studying for the one quiz. Midterms are just longer quizzes, maybe slightly more difficult. If this is your first time taking physics, I DO NOT recommend her. If you have taken physics before and have done well in it, this class will be a breeze and I recommend her if you can withstand the lectures.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Jan 2018
The problem with Jodi Christiansen is that in class, the students ask questions not the clarify but to ensure she has not made a mistake. She forgets things in class a lot, makes many mistakes on the board, and makes you question how qualified she is to teach the class. She attempts to show the class how the formulas we use originated, which would be interesting if she was able to. More often than not, however, Christiansen is unable to do this correctly and ends up saying something along the lines of "Oh well, I did something wrong but here is the final formula you would get if you did everything correctly". Her office hours tend to not be helpful as well. She says the same things she says to the class and she doesn't succeed in connecting with the student reaching out to her, even though she is definitely trying to. Her quizzes and exams are not too difficult but I believe this is because I already knew the material from a high school AP Physics class. Without that background, I have no doubt I would have not found that success.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Nov 2018
Really nice person this class was basically just AP Physics with a day of calculus. Weekly homework the had a somewhat reasonable amount of problems. Equation sheets were nice and neat not messy like some other professors. She can help in office hours but probably better off going to a friend if you want to ask a really specific problem.

PHYS 211


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Jun 2012
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.


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Major)
May 2013
I don't usually write bad things about professors, even ones I didn't enjoy. Jodi is the exception. She is an awful teacher. Absolutely awful. Bad at conveying material, makes mistakes in lecture constantly, and doesn't even know what she is talking about half the time. Anytime a student asks a questions, she just goes "oh, yes, yup" without even realizing what they even asked first and then another student has to correct her. Her homework is stupid long and hard, and expect to derive things left and right. She thinks that everyone in the class is taking Modern Physics because it's the only course they signed up for, so she acts like its no big deal to assign homework that takes 8 hours or longer. She has an attendance percentage built into the grade, which is usually never a problem for me, I never skip class, but this class's lecture is completely useless because of her. Going is a complete waste of time. I spent the whole quarter teaching everything to myself because my notes had too many mistakes and random crap in them from her lecture to be any help. Like I said, I'm not usually one to rage about a teacher and say "oh wow, worst teacher I've ever had, don't take her!" except it really is true for this class. All in all, least favorite teacher and definitely least favorite class I've had, ever.


Junior
A
Required (Support)
Jun 2013
The homework problems were repetitive. This is college, not high school: It should be the will power and interest of the student that drives him or her to succeed, not mandatory assignments and class attendance. Worked examples in class were useful. but there were too many algebra mistakes to properly follow some of them. Sometimes it felt like this teacher was regurgitating the textbook without personal input, but when we diverted from the text my attention was definitely held. Definitely a nice person though, just some room for improvement as a professor.


Junior
N/A
Required (Support)
Jan 2015
Short review, I didn't mind the class overall and Jodi is really nice. It's a ton of work though and to do well you need to practically live in office hours doing homework/exam prep and I guarantee you will never be the only one there.


Junior
A
Required (Support)
Mar 2015
This class was alright. Go to office hours to do homework and she can help you or guide you through getting an answer. The homework was a lot, I was kind of mad that it took longer to finish than homework from my major courses. If you understand the homework the tests will be alright or even easy. The final wasn't too bad, it was similar to the midterms. Do the extra credit if you really need to recover homework points, she grades those harshly.

ASTR 302


Sophomore
A
Elective
Nov 2016
Christiansen did a very good job of teaching Stars & Galaxies. Much better than many other physics professors I have taken here in the past. Your grade is based on a project that's pretty straightforward, a final, a midterm, some weekly relatively difficult but helpful homework, and required telescope viewing (which is really fun even if it wasn't required for the grade). Overall a very fairly graded class and the material was very interesting and well taught.

ASTR 326


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Feb 2011
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.


Junior
N/A
Required (Support)
Mar 2011
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.

ARCH 486


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Nov 2016
Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can