Math 160: Calculus for Physical Scientists I
Summer 2010, fall 2010, Summer 2011, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
I have taught this course both as a coordinated course under the coordination of Dr. Ken Klopfenstein, as well as a non-coordinated course during the summers of 2010 and 2011.
Student course Survey
Scored on a 5 point scale: 1=Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly Agree.
Summer 2010 - Course Enrollment: 42
Summer 2010 - Course Enrollment: 42
Weighted Average
4.82 4.79 4.82 4.88 |
Question
The teacher was enthusiastic about the course The teacher created an atmosphere conductive to learning The teacher was willing and available to help students outside of class Overall, I would rate this teacher as good |
Fall 2010 - Course Enrollment: 30
Weighted Average
4.38 4.38 4.88 4.50 |
Question
The teacher was enthusiastic about the course The teacher created an atmosphere conductive to learning The teacher was willing and available to help students outside of class Overall, I would rate this teacher as good |
Scored on a 5 point scale: 1=Poor to 5=Excellent.
Summer 2011 - Course Enrollment: 48
Weighted Average
4.72 4.69 4.69 4.73 |
Question
How do you rate the instructor's enthusiasm for teaching the subject? How effectively did the instructor facilitate student learning? How do you rate the availability of the instructor to help students outside of class? How do you rate this instructor? |
Fall 2011 - Course Enrollment: 30
Weighted Average
4.44 4.39 4.39 4.56 |
Question
How do you rate the instructor's enthusiasm for teaching the subject? How effectively did the instructor facilitate student learning? How do you rate the availability of the instructor to help students outside of class? How do you rate this instructor? |
Fall 2012 - Course Enrollment: 29
Weighted Average
4.52 4.35 4.57 4.26 |
Question
How do you rate the instructor's enthusiasm for teaching the subject? How effectively did the instructor facilitate student learning? How do you rate the availability of the instructor to help students outside of class? How do you rate this instructor? |
Unabridged Student Comments:
Summer 2010
"Great teacher!"
"I was thoroughly impressed by Ms. Smallwood. She was very explanatory and thorough on the subjet. She made what could have been a difficult subject approachable. Also I was very pleased with the turnover on grades! Work was ofted graded and returned the next class period. This is hugely helpful for studying."
"Being overwhelmed with this class last semester, in this case "less was more". There was less homework, but the homework assigned covered what needed to be covered. Hilary did a fine job of instruction."
"Hilary's teaching style was excellent, very clear, and very responsive to questions. I would highly recommend her."
"She's the best teacher I ever had."
"You are a very good teacher. The examples you give help out the most. Thanks."
"Hilary is awesome, she makes sure you understand it conceptually before going to the math. She goes nice and slow and easy. And is awesome."
"Best math teacher I've had."
"This was a difficult course, and Hilary had a very simplistic way of teaching that was very helpful. I always felt prepared for the tests. If I had one complaint, it'd be that I felt I didn't get enough practice though I know that's hard in the summer."
"Awesome teacher, explained things very well. Returned graded assignments very quickly, which was much appreciated!"
"Great with instructions and taking the time to make sure everyone is on the same page. For as hard as this class is and on top of that teaching it in the summer she did an excellent job of covering everything."
"Hilary is good at teaching."
Fall 2010
"1. Classroom had no clock or room number.
2. Teacher went above and beyond for office hours.
3. Webwork took points away for syntax errors.
4. Course seemed to be aimed at "took calc in high school" population.
5. Labs did not help my understanding."
"Webwork didn't work half the time. The tests are so difficult that whoever writes them cannot even write them to make sense. Some problems were too difficult for the TA to even solve."
"Grading was extremely harsh! More challenging examples during class time. I felt way under prepared for exam questions."
Summer 2011
"Office hours were very helpful, especially review sessions. Class sessions had a lot of enthusiasm and put things in a good context. It was good to know what was going to be on exams"
"The instructor is really fantastic and helpful. I would take other courses with her if I were available."
"The professor was very professional and knowledgable. The thought that the concept homework and webwork was a little beyond the scope fo the course, meaning I benefited much more by just doing problems out of the textbook. Overall I really enjoyed the course and learned a lot."
"Ms. Smallwood was an excellent teacher who really put in the extra effort to help give everyone a chance to succeed in this class."
"Miss Smallwood is an excellent instructor, knowledgable and personable."
"I enjoyed Ms. Smallwood's class a lot. This is the second time I've taken M160, so it was a relief that I could understand the way she taught. She was very approachable when I had problems and extremely helpful not only in office hours but via email. I would definitely take another calculus class offered by her."
"Overall this was an excellent course. The one area in need of improvement was the pace of the last week to two weeks of class. Either cut something out in the beginning to give more time to focus on the end, or take something away from the end."
" :) "
"I like how in class I was able to understand the concepts of calculus. The problem was when it cam to the concept homework, these problems were a little too challenging."
"Calculator labs were very confusing and did not contribute substantially to learning the material."
"Class was held too early."
"For paying $1,500 for a course you would think there would be a pencil sharpener in the classroom."
"The material near the end of the schedule seemed rushed. Perhaps, more time could have gone into making sure the material was understood."
"The only thing I didn't care for was excessive time working out established proofs of various theorems. It was quite confusing at times for me, but may have helped others."
Fall 2011
"She was very enthusiastic when she taught."
"The layout of the class can be annoying a lot of conceptual material… Hilary did a great job as an instructor."
"I really liked Ms. Smallwood. She needs to smile more, but she did teach me everything I needed to do well in the course. Thank you :)"
"I loved your teaching and I loved the class. I learned a lot, THANK YOU."
"The material on exams never really covered what we talked about in class, leaving many students confused. Homework was given in a manner that looked more like an essay than math homework."
"Alright teacher but definitely not a good one. Took way too long covering easy material, wasted a lot of time."
"We had to explain our math problems, which was odd for math and if we didn't have the exact explanation we were docked many points on homework."
"I've taken calc before, but Ms. Smallwood actually helped me understand it. She is an outstanding teacher with good knowledge of calc and very good at explaining concepts."
"I believe the course would have been more effective if the problems taught in class were more similar to the exams or vice versa. It was difficult to prepare for the diversity of the test material."
Fall 2012
"This class was a fantastic intro to calc. The curriculum was challenging but Ms. Smallwood was able to explain and clarify everything all while making it an enjoyable class. She was always willing to sit down and explain concepts and problems. I do think that the calculator labs are irrelevant and could be replaced."
"She is very helpful during office hours, and grades fairly. Wish she did more examples due to the homework and webwork being much harder than the classwork/lecture. Wasn't prepared as well for tests."
"Great teacher!"
"This class was very well taught and Smallwood is very good at communicating with students."
"She did an excellent job teaching the course, was always happy to answer my questions and was always positive. I really enjoyed having her as a teacher."
"Excellent!"
"Hilary Smallwood is a very good instructor with a good grasp of all the concepts she taught, but more importantly was always helpful and reachable via email and during office hours."
"Perhaps there should be more time spent concerning the theoretics of principles. I feel like these were not thoroughly evaluated, yet emphasized on the test."
"A lot of times in class the instructor was not prepared and could not finish examples, leaving us with unfinished examples and poor understanding of certain subjects."
"The instructor often struggles through examples and explanations in class. As a person, I have no complaints about the instructor (nice, respectful)."
"It seemed she only slightly knew what she was doing. Half the time she asked the class if what she was doing was right, like she didn't know. Also a majority of her examples were straight out of the book, which I find to not be super helpful."
"Great teacher!"
"I was thoroughly impressed by Ms. Smallwood. She was very explanatory and thorough on the subjet. She made what could have been a difficult subject approachable. Also I was very pleased with the turnover on grades! Work was ofted graded and returned the next class period. This is hugely helpful for studying."
"Being overwhelmed with this class last semester, in this case "less was more". There was less homework, but the homework assigned covered what needed to be covered. Hilary did a fine job of instruction."
"Hilary's teaching style was excellent, very clear, and very responsive to questions. I would highly recommend her."
"She's the best teacher I ever had."
"You are a very good teacher. The examples you give help out the most. Thanks."
"Hilary is awesome, she makes sure you understand it conceptually before going to the math. She goes nice and slow and easy. And is awesome."
"Best math teacher I've had."
"This was a difficult course, and Hilary had a very simplistic way of teaching that was very helpful. I always felt prepared for the tests. If I had one complaint, it'd be that I felt I didn't get enough practice though I know that's hard in the summer."
"Awesome teacher, explained things very well. Returned graded assignments very quickly, which was much appreciated!"
"Great with instructions and taking the time to make sure everyone is on the same page. For as hard as this class is and on top of that teaching it in the summer she did an excellent job of covering everything."
"Hilary is good at teaching."
Fall 2010
"1. Classroom had no clock or room number.
2. Teacher went above and beyond for office hours.
3. Webwork took points away for syntax errors.
4. Course seemed to be aimed at "took calc in high school" population.
5. Labs did not help my understanding."
"Webwork didn't work half the time. The tests are so difficult that whoever writes them cannot even write them to make sense. Some problems were too difficult for the TA to even solve."
"Grading was extremely harsh! More challenging examples during class time. I felt way under prepared for exam questions."
Summer 2011
"Office hours were very helpful, especially review sessions. Class sessions had a lot of enthusiasm and put things in a good context. It was good to know what was going to be on exams"
"The instructor is really fantastic and helpful. I would take other courses with her if I were available."
"The professor was very professional and knowledgable. The thought that the concept homework and webwork was a little beyond the scope fo the course, meaning I benefited much more by just doing problems out of the textbook. Overall I really enjoyed the course and learned a lot."
"Ms. Smallwood was an excellent teacher who really put in the extra effort to help give everyone a chance to succeed in this class."
"Miss Smallwood is an excellent instructor, knowledgable and personable."
"I enjoyed Ms. Smallwood's class a lot. This is the second time I've taken M160, so it was a relief that I could understand the way she taught. She was very approachable when I had problems and extremely helpful not only in office hours but via email. I would definitely take another calculus class offered by her."
"Overall this was an excellent course. The one area in need of improvement was the pace of the last week to two weeks of class. Either cut something out in the beginning to give more time to focus on the end, or take something away from the end."
" :) "
"I like how in class I was able to understand the concepts of calculus. The problem was when it cam to the concept homework, these problems were a little too challenging."
"Calculator labs were very confusing and did not contribute substantially to learning the material."
"Class was held too early."
"For paying $1,500 for a course you would think there would be a pencil sharpener in the classroom."
"The material near the end of the schedule seemed rushed. Perhaps, more time could have gone into making sure the material was understood."
"The only thing I didn't care for was excessive time working out established proofs of various theorems. It was quite confusing at times for me, but may have helped others."
Fall 2011
"She was very enthusiastic when she taught."
"The layout of the class can be annoying a lot of conceptual material… Hilary did a great job as an instructor."
"I really liked Ms. Smallwood. She needs to smile more, but she did teach me everything I needed to do well in the course. Thank you :)"
"I loved your teaching and I loved the class. I learned a lot, THANK YOU."
"The material on exams never really covered what we talked about in class, leaving many students confused. Homework was given in a manner that looked more like an essay than math homework."
"Alright teacher but definitely not a good one. Took way too long covering easy material, wasted a lot of time."
"We had to explain our math problems, which was odd for math and if we didn't have the exact explanation we were docked many points on homework."
"I've taken calc before, but Ms. Smallwood actually helped me understand it. She is an outstanding teacher with good knowledge of calc and very good at explaining concepts."
"I believe the course would have been more effective if the problems taught in class were more similar to the exams or vice versa. It was difficult to prepare for the diversity of the test material."
Fall 2012
"This class was a fantastic intro to calc. The curriculum was challenging but Ms. Smallwood was able to explain and clarify everything all while making it an enjoyable class. She was always willing to sit down and explain concepts and problems. I do think that the calculator labs are irrelevant and could be replaced."
"She is very helpful during office hours, and grades fairly. Wish she did more examples due to the homework and webwork being much harder than the classwork/lecture. Wasn't prepared as well for tests."
"Great teacher!"
"This class was very well taught and Smallwood is very good at communicating with students."
"She did an excellent job teaching the course, was always happy to answer my questions and was always positive. I really enjoyed having her as a teacher."
"Excellent!"
"Hilary Smallwood is a very good instructor with a good grasp of all the concepts she taught, but more importantly was always helpful and reachable via email and during office hours."
"Perhaps there should be more time spent concerning the theoretics of principles. I feel like these were not thoroughly evaluated, yet emphasized on the test."
"A lot of times in class the instructor was not prepared and could not finish examples, leaving us with unfinished examples and poor understanding of certain subjects."
"The instructor often struggles through examples and explanations in class. As a person, I have no complaints about the instructor (nice, respectful)."
"It seemed she only slightly knew what she was doing. Half the time she asked the class if what she was doing was right, like she didn't know. Also a majority of her examples were straight out of the book, which I find to not be super helpful."