Steven Spangler - University of Iowa

Professor: Steven Spangler

Department: TBD

College: University of Iowa

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Physics is going to be difficult no matter who you take it with. Go into office hours!! He is super helpful one on one and truly cares about his students.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: ASTR1080
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

For someone who isn't naturally good at science, Steve (we all called him that) made this class fun and doable. His lectures were good and informative. He was also great when it came to getting help outside of class and was fun to talk to. If you go to class and do the homework quizzes you will do great. He wears jorts too!

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures and pretty easy going and slides are online. Go to lecture and do the homework and you will be pretty ready for the tests. If you dont understand anything, hes happy to help you during his office hours. Good attitude and good teaching style

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ASTR1080
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lots of lectures, some of them feel pointless but he tries to make them fun. Overall, he is funny and he's a great guy, but the last two exams out of three were kind of difficult with no curve. Take this class if you're curious about space but make sure to listen and do the readings and take good notes.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ASTR1080
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Steve is a very caring Professor.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Steven is a great guy but not an amazing lecturer. He talks around topics and tests over very specific things that youd only know if youve taken a prior physics class. Office Hours is where he shines and his personality makes up for not being the best lecturer.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures and slides can be confusing and hard to follow. Some lectures focus too much on derivations of equations that do not help to explain concept nor are helpful with future course material. Demos were cool. No practice exams provided, and format of exam questions was confusing. He is a nice guy and cares. Lab (easy) counts for 25% of grade!

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Tests were very different than lecture examples and homework problems. I didn't find his lectures extremely effective, but office hours were sometimes worth going to. Definitely a lot of work, but expected in physics

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures were not highly relevant to the material we needed to know for homework and exams, they were mostly him deriving equations and doing demos. However, he is helpful one on one in office hours.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Made physics way harder than it needed to be. Pointless to go to lecture. He mumbles to the chalkboard the whole time. Posts nothing helpful on ICON. Exams were ridiculous, unpredictable, and weighted heavily so each exam question made a huge difference in your grade. That said, he's a nice guy one-on-one and cares. He just can't teach at all.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Professor very strictly follows the book and posts his lecture notes online. This is very helpful, because it allows you to follow learning at home if you can't make it to lecture. If you can make it to lecture, he is funny and does cool, memorable demos. He is also very happy to help you outside of class.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: B-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Would not recommend taking physics with this professor. Rambles a lot and isn't really helpful. As one of the comments below said, he grooms people that go to his office hours to do well in the class. This is a course for prehealth students and he doesn't treat it that way. Feng Chu is the best lab TA to have for this physics course though.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Professor Spangler was incredibly, incredibly disorganized in his teaching method. He barely provided class notes (photocopies of his notebook) and he often rambled, derived equations instead of teaching us how to use them, and 60% of the things he talked about were irrelevant to understanding the course better.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Physics with Spangler was the worst experience of a class during my undergrad at Iowa. Rambles on during lecture and fails to provide any example problems. Tests are nearly impossible (75% and 50% averages on the two so far). Discussion section was useless as TAs didn't know how to solve problems. Bad experience and didn't learn anything.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Went to many office hours and he was helpful and fun to talk with. Yes he rambles in lecture but his humor and off topic tangents actually did make physics a more interesting subject to me. Tests were very hard and unpredictable but he's a good professor who really does care about his students.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHYSICS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

The difficulty of the class has less to do with the subject and more to do with his personality and lecture style. Abstractly presents material during lectures with the intention of luring students to his office with questions: More concerned about grooming certain students for success in his office than properly instructing the whole class. Awful.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

For what is supposed to be a pretty basic physics course Prof. Spangler does a good job of making sure it's not. By far one of the hardest course I've taken compared to organic chemistry and biology. The content itself isn't difficult however the textbook/professor make it seem impossible. Even the TAs couldn't solve some problems on practice exam.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Literally worst professor I have ever had at this university. Terrible lecturer and doesn't seem to care about student learning. Would never recommend this guy to anyone.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: INC
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lecture will not help you. He rambles a lot and none of it helps you learn physics. Tests are only 10 questions long and everyone does relatively well so there's no separation from the pack, screw a test up and you're done. Doesn't help at all in office hours or discussion. Overall incredibly hard to learn the material. SELF TAUGHT CLASS.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PHYS1511
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

One of the most useless professors I've ever had. He writes equations differently than the textbook, rambles like a river, doesn't explain things, and if you ask for another way to solve things he wont help you. Kind of a jerk and only writes on the whiteboard, even in a 300+ person lecture hall. Miserable.