Charles E. Bickel

I enrolled in this course in 1981 I believe and I recall it being held at night. I think I managed a B mainly due my fascination at the time with planetary geology and Carl Sagan, who we later learned was an LSD user with a dogmatic fixation on ETs.

Bickel was something of a martinet 26 years ago and I can see that based on reviews posted here, not much has changed. He had the uncanny ability to hear even just a slight whisper when class was in session and demanded an awful lot--believing in his mind that each student was taking 3 credit hours that semester (his class alone!) But Bickel was an erudite of his field and at least did not spew out the Marxist doctrine I received in my years at SFSU from several other "professors".

I thought the class was okay. it's freakin EASY because: No homework, you don't need to study everyday because most of the material is pretty easy, and during class all u do is watch slideshows (you don't need to do presentations or activities, just watch slideshows of his trips). only negative comments is yes, he is MONOTONE and easy to fall asleep since watching slideshows means that the lights are turned off... he's sorta strict on attendance(if you don't show up on time, he LOCKS THE DOORS so don't even try coming 10 minutes after class starts). otehrwise, his tests are not bad, his humor is dry, and he's not that bad :) it's an easy class with NO HOMEWORK so if u're hard on time, this is a good class for u. u could probably skip a few classes and be okay on tests still (which half the class did). i would recommend him because he doesn't use difficult language to understand.

Whatever you do, do NOT take this class with this professor! You have been warned. He is one of the worst professors I have ever encountered (and there have been a lot). He is extremely intelligent, but that does not make a good teacher. His lectures are soooo boring - he makes interesting subject matter so uninteresting. It is hard to stay awake during his lectures (I took the night class - big mistake). And his tests!!! Holy mackerel - he makes them as if everyone in the classroom is a Geology major. Everyone fails them miserably so he grades on a gigantic curve - i never got more than half the questions right which equaled a B- or C. Avoid the class at all costs.

His class is worse than traffic school and first offenders program combined. His room-mate has the disease where he falls asleep all the time--I know why.

This guy's heart is in the right place, but boy does he have to work on his communication skills. He strikes me as being a little unorganized, but his biggest problem is maintaining the attention of the class. His voice is monotone and we all just tune out. He also needs to limit the slide shows. I know it's tough to teach us about volcanoes when we don't have one in the classroom, but we don't need to spend 3-hours a week looking a pictures of volcanoes!

If he rethinks his lecture/presentation, it might be more bearable, but as it is now he's managed to make an interesting class incredibly dull. Seems to be a nice guy though.