Chalker
2 courses · 29 reviews
Courses
All Reviews
4-6 hrs/week
Retweeting the comments below. Def easier and much more interesting and engaging than 2970. Flipped learning style helped me understand what they want us to think about and how to apply the information for tests (this is why everyone does better and the cutoff for an A is higher).
11/21/2024
Just put everything on the cheat sheet and then you should be fine to get an A. Chalker seemed pretty enthusiastic about teaching, but some quiz/test questions weren't great since they were poorly worded. You don't really need to watch the lectures, just complete the activity packets and you should be fine.
1/20/2024
I was not a huge fan of how certain quiz and exam questions were written in this course. However, Professor Chalker does everything else well in my opinion. He is caring, funny, kept me interested during lecture, and was helpful inside and outside of class.
1/20/2024
He's a funny and caring person and wants to be involved in your learning process which is rly nice. But whenever he writes a quiz or exam question, he makes mistakes often or writes them under certain assumptions that you have to figure out and solve under. But he is very accessible outside of class and helps you understand material thoroughly.
1/10/2024
Professor Chalker is very nice and I believe he is a good teacher but 2970 does not lend itself well to his teaching style. I did not like the way 2970 works with pre recorded lectures and the in class worksheets, it did not incentivize showing up in person to lectures and more of stuff that just had to be done and not particularly well too.
12/29/2023
Chalker is a very sweet and genuine man who is committed to his students. The format of the class wasn't my favorite but he tried his best to help people within said constraints. His quiz and test questions were not written very clearly and often contained assumptions or errors. He wasn't very accessible over email.
12/22/2023
Professor Chalker is a really caring, funny, and passionate Professor. He brings energy to every lecture, and that spreads learning to every student. Outside of lecture, he is amazing to talk to if you are struggling in the class. He's super funny too. Overall, a great Professor.
4/11/2023
Chalker does not have a lot of authority over a big class but does an okay job explaining things. The class is not that hard if you stay with the topics and do the work to really understand the method and what it means.
4/10/2023
You guys are so mean! I love professor Chalker- he is a very sweet man and i enjoyed bio 2970 with him.
2/11/2023
Interesting mannerisms. Okay class very disorganized. Tbh genetics is boring and you have to know a bunch of little details that no one really cares about.
1/19/2023
Professor Chalker isn't the best lecturer but his videos are very reflective of exam content and he mentions everything you need to know, especially compared to Barton. He is very kind and accessible outside of class (also responds to emails quickly), but isn't the best at explaining concepts simply.
12/29/2022
An OK professor. Dr. Chalker is able to explain the basic knowledge but is not 100% familiar with the class and is not enthusiastic to the contents of genetics. Exams and quizzes are fair but also boring.
12/28/2022
It's impossible to please everyone in massive lecture classes. But Professor Chalker knows that: that's why he dedicates so much time to helping students outside of lecture. He is such a kind, thoughtful, and hilarious Professor. He's passionate and engaging, and although, at times, it's tough to understand everything he says in lecture, email him!
12/22/2022
The better of the two 2970 instructors. His videos can be long, but his quizzes and exam questions more directly reflect what we do in class than Dr. Barton's. However, he still doesn't explain concepts well, and most of what you learn will comes from the problem-solving session. Overall teaches easier content, but still bad at lecturing.
12/15/2022
Honestly, Professor Chalker is a sweetheart. He's really responsive outside of class, is really kind, and always happy to help if you approach him. Didn't have the clearest lectures, but the class isn't difficult enough for it to pose a huge problem. If you genuinely attempt the problems they give and don't slack off, there shouldn't be an issue.
11/7/2022
The quizzes and exams are very difficult. There are lots of equations to keep track of and many questions are on topics we didn't learn or cover enough. Luckily everything was open-note. Chalker is a very sweet professor and is accessible outside of class but is not a good lecturer, as his lectures are dry and confusing.
12/25/2021
Prof Chalker is a fair lecturer and is approachable during office hours. I highly recommend staying caught up with lectures to clarify the things he doesn't cover well/you don't understand. There were a few times that things on exams clearly contradicted the way info was presented in class and his response was always that's just the way it is.
1/12/2021
Gave too little time on exams. Didn't seem to account for technology time on exams/quizzes. Solving problems by hand on paper and then typing work into the text box takes time. Each quiz I would barely have enough time to answer questions bc of the time it took to type in my work. Overall, the application parts of the class were interesting tho
12/20/2020
2970 itself is relatively fast paced, and Chalker covers some material that is normally taught in upper-division genetics courses at other universities. The positive is that Chalker is responsive to student questions over Canvas. The negative (depending on what part of Biology you like) is that the material can be very dry.
11/20/2020
Prof Chalker's lectures are a bit fast-paced (because he has everything on the slides), but he is very approachable during his office hours to clarify anything , and he respond to questions via email/discussion board timely.
10/17/2020
listening to prof. chalker lecture is probably one of the most frustrating things i've ever done. he talks himself into circles, is ridiculously unclear on material, and can't explain the most basic of concepts. has no idea how to teach
7/24/2020
One of the worst classes taken at Washu, lectures were incomprehendible, professor addressed things in class that weren't necessary. You never knew what to expect on exams, and every exam had questions where you didn't know what/when the material had even been covered on the lecture.
10/20/2019
Really caring for his students. Humorous and accessible, and truly learned a lot from this course.
4/16/2019
Worst professor I have had at WashU. Slides were repeated 90% of the time, and always so unorganized you couldn't get the point of the slides. He would just copy images from the textbook (which was awful bc the textbook was inaccurate). His voice was very annoying. There were barely any practice problems. Never knew what to expect on exams.
1/11/2019
Chalker is fine -- his lectures are rather stale and sometimes confusing to follow (you'll find many typos in Comic Sans...) but he gets the point across and prepares you well for his exams, which are easy to do well on if you study sufficiently out of class. Bio 2970 as a whole is an awful course though because it is so disorganized/not cohesive.
11/2/2018