BMZ 116B:

Although it is obvious that Dr. Meicenheimer is very intelligent and well versed in his field of study, he has difficulty communicating his points to the class.  He speaks to the class as if we already know the material, and he is just reminding us on a few key points.  His lecture slides are unorganized and not very helpful.  Although i attended and paid attention in every lecture, i had difficulty grasping what he was trying to communicate.  My suggestions are that he should re-organize his slides, so that they have titles and main points, instead of just pictures and a few points.  He should also get rid of the extremely fast animations that simply distract from the lecture.  Also, Dr. Meicenheimer seemed unwilling to put in any extra effort to help his students, outside of his usual office hours.  Whenever I asked him to put up old online quizzes for practice for the exam, the only response I would get is that it would take awhile to do and he didn't want to spend the time to do it.  Dr. Meicenheimer needs to concentrate more on helping his students learn the material than simply getting through the material.

He was very difficult to pay attention to, he constantly jumped around and made easy Botany material very challenging to understand.

I would stop trying to use so much technology and animations because it is rather distracting and is also time consuming when they very frequently malfunction.

I get the feeling that you know a lot about your subject material and I can see you really enjoy what you do but sometimes you have a hard time getting the right words out so maybe you could try to make yourself notes or something else that might help you.  I did enjoy your lectures when you were able to get your point across.

His powerpoints are highly unorganized, as is his sequence of instruction.  See: Dr. Russell for better ways to teach.  The quiz material is not really covered in lecture or the book, forcing students to use Google.<br />

I enjoyed the clicker questions because they are very helpful amd a review. The info is pretty dull adn therefore the lectures can be boring at times adn people zone out. I like the online quizzes and how they are reflective of what is on the exam

there was a lot of material that was useful and fit in what i saw as the *big picture* however there was a good deal of fluff in the slides that just ended up wasting my time, and some of the material that i was evaluated i found to be a little tedious, like knowing the names of the elements that plants use and where they fit, as well as what the inhibition of certain hormones does on the production of stamen carpels etc..  other than that it was a fine course with adequate quiz questions, and the quizzes were a boost to my grade when i needed it<br />

Black jeans, But still great.<br />

I would love to have powerpoints with animations that actually will work on my computer. Also, the lectures were too long. Cut down on the slides and focus on the main points. Focus on improving your public speaking skills. The &quot;uhs&quot;, &quot;ums&quot;, and constant motion are distracting. Show some more enthusiasm. The quizzes were informative, but did not follow the material taught in the course. I was unable to gauge how well I was grasping the taught material because I was worried about other areas.

The lectures were a little boring

He does an awful job at explaining topics and making sure that we understand them.  Moves extremely quickly even though this is new information for most of the class.  Online quizzes help but overall very frustrating.

The lecture was too boring and not very helpful. It was more beneficial to just read the text.

Dr. Meicenheimer made learning plants a dawning task. I didn't really get that much out of lecture but after drilling the book I got the material. Also, I took advantage of his online quizzes, to help test myself.  In order to improve I would just change lecture. Possibly making it more interactive. <br />

Explain things differently. I had trouble following his lectures because they were all over the place. Tying the concepts to real world examples and models are a good way for me to learn and I just felt completely lost during his lectures.

I like the fact that he went over the slides with us. I wish he would have linked the topics together or tried to connect the information with topics outside of the slides.<br />

He is a good teacher, I found it his section did not really tied with the big picture, which in my mind is what BMZ 116 is all about.<br />

Often times I felt very lost during lecture. I felt like there were no connections being made. It was more like reading off of slides than really teaching the slides.

Dr. Meicenheimer is very knowledgeable.  However, the way in which he lectures is very sporadic and a little hard to follow.  It is also difficult to decipher what we are supposed to know for exams and what we don't need to know.

less boring lectures

He is knowledgeable, but not helpful.  It is very difficult to follow his lectures because it seems like he spends a lot of time talking about things that are not pertinent to the class.  It is also not helpful that he doesnot give us the answer to the clicker questions. While I understand he wants us to read and learn on our own, lecture should be a place where questions and clarifications should be made.  So by not answering clicker questions we are not learning what is right.  There were instances in where the majority was incorrect, but he failed to recognize that and so people would believe that that was the right answer.

Dr. Meicenheimer was a very challenging teacher in the sence that he made the class hard. I feel like he souldn't just be challenging, but be mentally challenging (bring up hard questions, try to see if everyone is on the same page, and make students think critaly). I dont think that his effectivness as a instructor is good. He only went to the helpfulness of the book ( he did more information giving then leading the class to a better understanding of ideas)<br />

Your testing of the material was quite hard.  I did not think that the online quizzes taught me much because they were difficult and most people would just look up answers.  Making your own questions trying to get what points you want across to the students would be much more beneficial to their learning.

He talked way too fast and could not go two words without saying umm.. much of his information was irrelevant to our knowledge

Very knowledgeable although he had trouble presenting it to the students. It was hard to pay attention to the lectures.<br />

Although he was very knowledgeable about his area of expertise, Dr. Meicenheimer could not successfully get this knowledge across to the students.  His powerpoints were very unhelpful, and he often assumed we knew botany terms that we hadn't been taught before, making his lectures very confusing.  He also seemed to bypass some much needed explanations to save time for later.  In the futrue, I would suggest that he include more information in the powerpoints and attempt to define all terms as he is lecturing.

I thought that he was most definitely up-to-date nd knowledgeable; however, his teaching methods were less then stimulating and effective.  Reading from a PowerPoint does not adequately convey and teach to students subject matter.  He was a glorified reader.  Because of this, I found the exams to be challenging, and the most dedicated part of this class didn't seem to be the instructor, but me to studying for each 45 question, very broad-based exam.

He understands the material very well and challenges us very much, but is a little bit dry (boring)

boring lecture, challenging quizzes, easier test questions since they come from the quizzes

I would write down what was said in class, and when I went back to go over slides with my notes from class, there wasn't usually enough information on the slides for me to understand

Not too approachable. Could do a better job explaining his lectures...

try to avoid saying &quot;um&quot; so many times during lecture

-Could give fairer quizzes that actually pertain to the lectures and material<div>-Try to make lectures more interesting and stimulating</div>

Less images on the powerpoint slides--they made me distracted and dizzy when sitting in class. Also, Dr. Meicenheimer says "um" every other word which is very distracting as well.

<p>during lecture he would say &quot;uh&quot;/&quot;Um&quot; 600+ times and do the cha-cha slide the entire time. i didn't like the online quizes because the change in format from during class to out of class caused me to forget when it was due and i missed alot of points. also i felf like the information on the quizes didnt relate to lecture. but all in all he is a decent teacher that cares about the students and has been helpful in office hours, deffinatly not the worst teacher i've experienced at miami. </p>

He tends to ramble and beat around the bush when it comes to big topics. he is not very organized and does not centralize his focus on what needs to be taught. <br />

He knew all of the material that he was covering in class very well.  I thought that the online quizzes were much better than in class ones because they were more aimed at preparing the student for the exam.  The problems that I had with the teacher were his lectures were not as informative as I hoped and his office hours did not help me as much as I had wished for.  <br />

I thought you did a good job incorporating fun into a hard, and at times, painfully borring class.

I thought that your slides in class were not very helpful. I could never tell what was important. They were also full of interactive diagrams that would not open on my computer and I also didn't know what was happening in them unless you were talking about them. I mostly learned this course material through the book rather than your slides. <br />

Questions dont match what he discusses in class; they are very detailed when he doesnt go into the same depth of details and application of the subject matter

My biggest concern was the use of all the videos on powerpoints.  I am not a big technology person, so it was difficult for me to learn from the videos because viewing such things on a computer is difficult for me and does not fit how I learn very well.  Many of the illustrations were these videos, which was not beneficial to me, whereas more of other types of illustrations would have aided me more.

<p>I didn't always know what Dr. Meicenheimer was talking about in class.  I had a hard time paying attention and learning about the subject matter.  His teaching style wasn't bad, but it did not help me very much.  The questions on the on line quizes were never discussed in class.  The tests didn't fit the material that was learned.</p>

online quizzes are very helpful but his lectures are dry and the animation is annoying.  Less animation and more entertaining speaking would improve results

Not to have so many moving and flashing objects on his slides because they are very distracting and take away from what he is saying during the lecture.

I like the simulations in the power points and the on-line quizzes. I think they are very helpful.

Lectures could be more interesting. He has good slides, and is very knowledgeable

Dr. Meicenheimer did a pretty good job of teaching his section of the class.  Although I would say most students were not too interested in the botany component of BMZ 116, I think he did a good job of teaching the class the material.  The online quizes were helpful along with some of the annimations.  He could possibly seem a little more enthused to teach though as he sometimes appeared monotonous.

very poor clarity of material<br />  hard to understand

Dr. Meicenheimer was a very intelligent teacher who used the turnpoint clicker system well to see what students already knew and to see what information was not clear to the students.

perhaps, instead of reading straight from the powerpoints, involve the class more expand beyond what the power point says.  Demonstrations maybe.

Was definitely knowledgeable, not very interesting, however.

I think Dr. Meicenheimer tends to lose the attention of his students and gets stuck in his own world- while very knowledgable, he doesn't effectively share his knowledge with his students.<br /><br />Also- questions are detailed to the point that the are not covered in the text.  This is ineffective. THE PURPOSE OF TESTING IS TO HELP STUDENTS, NOT TO TRICK THEM. I feel the testing in this course needs a serious overhaul.  When averages are this low- you have to look to instructors for SERIOUS REFORM.<br />

While I learned quite a bit about botany this semester, I felt that the in-class presentations confused me more than self-study as time progressed. My scores actually improved through self-study; and while my own experience is likely an exception to the rule, I wonder if the presentation of material could be a little less technical, or at least allow for relation of technical terms to a more common-sense definition of those terms. As it stood, much of the botanical jargon required several passes before it really stuck.<br />

Not very engaging as a teacher. Didn't do much but read off the powerpoints which didn't provide much information. Most information needed for the test was learned from the online quizzes which weren't much help anyway because there were 200 total questions and only 20 were on the quizzes.

Online quizzes helped in determining if we knew the material, but some of the material wasn't in our textbooks. <br />

The videos on his power points help stimulate the subject more, but at times it's hard to follow him and stay stimulated in the subject matter.

Very Knowledgeable.  Sometimes his vocabulary is a little over my head and I get lost. <br />

The content and his enthusiasm for the material really showed in class. However, he tended to ramble on the slides, which made some concepts unclear. The visuals on the slides, although probably helpful for some people, distracted me.

Dr. Meicenheimer, while a good instructor overall, and obviously knowledgeable about his topic, did not seem to bring out much enthusiasm in his teaching. While Russell is full of fun facts, interesting slides, and even metaphors (Monty Python, for example), Dr. Meicenheimer simply portrayed his slides on the board and elaborated on them. Suggestions for improvement are just that - change up the style, come with some interesting facts, especially given that most students taking BMZ 116 are the least interested in Botany. Many students had problem maintaining interest, and also complained of the difficulty of his exam (likely related.)

<p>stop using so many animations, it takes too long for you to figure out and its more distracting then helpful. Just talk about the material from the slides.</p>

Dr. Meicenheimer is a great professor who knows his material, but he sometimes is unclear in the way he presents the material.  He is enthusiastic about his topic, but does not make the topic sound interesting.  He should be more clear in his lectures and follow his slides better.<br />

Lectures were hard to follow and the slides were often skipped through extremely fast.  Dr. Meicenheimer is obviously very intelligent and enthusiastic about his field but he was not able to convey the knowledge well to students.  Expectations for his test questions were not given and the study guides posted online were excessive to the point of being almost unusable.  Lectures should be taken a little slower, with more connections made between topics and look a little at the &quot;big picture&quot;.<br />

he is very smart and that is clear but not a very good teacher. it was hard to follow what he was saying and he needs to explain things and talk to us not just read his slides and stand in one spot.

Online quizzes are very very difficult, but very helpful in the long run.  I tended to get lost in the material before the end of lecture, so maybe including more excitement throughout would be helpful.  Something like using more real life relevance may have kept my attention more.  I feel that Meicenheimer provided plenty of support, via office hours and online supplies, for his students to succeed.<br />

Please use quiz questions that relate to the material you taught us. I had difficulty finding information on the slides, my notes, and the book to help me answer the quiz questions. Also, please actually teach us rather than zooming through power point slides with little information on them. Many people in the class, myself included, did not take AP Biology and therefore did not have the background that would have been required to be able to comprehend the random details that were thrown at us in class.

Could be more stimulating by explaining the big picture better. Helpful and knowledgeable though!

Sometimes he seemed scatter brained, and all over the place. I felt like his powerpoints and lectures did not correlate with each other nor the book. His exam questions were too hard and did not express what was being taught during the lecture.

More excitement would be great. I often found myself falling asleep in class<br />

Dr. Meicenheimer is a good professor and you can tell he is really into what he teaches. It is hard to evaluate his teaching in class though becasue of the format of BMZ. The teachers assume that you are familiar with most of the material already. Unfortunately learning about plants was totally new to me. In order for me to give Dr. M a highly Satisfactory evaluation he would have to had spent way more time teaching the material, starting with the basics. This is not how BMZ is set up, there is not time for that. Therefore, given the time he had to teach the material he did a pretty good job. From taking the class I have learned to have a new appreciation for plants <br />

Information was given in an overwhelming way. Could be better to relate it to other things that may be easier to understand.<br />

Dr. Meicenheimer is one of the most knowledgable professors with his topic and you can definently tell that he knows what he is talking about.  I would reccommend that his lectures be more participative where he lets students &quot;fill in the blank&quot; to answers.  I do not think that the Clicker Questions added to the course.  If the clicker questions were eliminated there could be time for other things.   

Most components of a "good instructor" were there, but some areas were noticeably lacking. Classes were generally not very stimulating and the presentation style was often less than effective. You need to speak with more fluidity to make coherent sentences on your first attempt. You need to use language appropriate for students with little to no botany background (if you want to use a technical term that we likely have not encountered before, either define it or use a more colloquial alternative). Your use of clickers was an ineffective waste of time; asking identical questions before and after a presentation is not an accurate way to assess the effectiveness of said presentation. Also- please, please, please get rid of the rapid-fire flash animations. Either slow them down to a reasonable speed, or just spare us the seizure-inducing images altogether.

I think he is a very intelligent guy who knows what he is talking about but he does not know how to translate his knowledge into something that students can comprehend. He needs to stop trying to sounds smart, slow himself down a little bit, make it simple, and easier to understand.

He was a pretty boring lecturer.  His lecture notes weren't very helpful either.  I think a simpler way of explaining plants would have been helpful.  <br />

In reality I could have not attended his lectures at all because he read of his slides, word for word. His flash animations were unhelpful and distracting. Its hard to understand the chemical components of plants when the animation is going a million miles an hour. Also, his public speaking skills could greatly improve