Ralph Larson

i'd have to say that this course was quite overwhelming and full of information, but dr larson, alongside his "twin" dr patterson were the most awesome professors! they never put me to sleep and made the course really interesting. as mentioned above on the previous review, dr larson is really passionate about marine biology, particularly fishes. as you know, having passion in a subject one teaches is extremely important and dr larson has it. he is also really friendly and happens to remember my name. the course breakdown is: 3 midterms each worth 150 pts and a 300 pts final which is a combination of the remainder part of the course + cumulative material. their tests are not hard and are fair just as long as you study and review. i'd recommend getting a dictionary of latin roots because this course has ALOT of new vocab..unless you happen to have photographic memory or something.

in addition to dr larson being an awesome professor, he's also the lab coordinator which is nice because the lab does coordinate quite well with the lecture. the lab itself includes a whole lot of information and goes quite in depth so be prepared to study for this as well.

with all this said, i recommend taking dr larson and dr patterson in the fall because you'll probably enjoy them as much as i enjoyed them.

Dr. Larson is an exceptional scientist, an accomplished educator and an admirably mindful individual. I've only had the opportunity to take one graduate seminar with him to date (Population Ecology of Fishes), and his seminar formats are purposefully open and free, so perhaps my critical perspective is somewhat less than complete. Nonetheless, I fully appreciated Dr. Larson's choice of reading materials and I enjoyed his systematic approach to the varied course subtopics. I also appreciated his approach to we graduate students (he is altogether trusting and encouraging). His subtle, insightful and challenging teaching style suited me quite well. The selected readings, while extensive and difficult, were truly fantastic and I learned much more about fish populations and the associated coastal/oceanic processes than I had anticipated. By having small subgroups of students lead the discussion sections I feel we all benefitted, and in several different ways (e.g., presentation technique, organizational skills, literature review methods, leadership stuff, etc.). I found Dr. Larson's decision to mentor the group from "behind the scenes" (principally interjecting to reset and re-focus)very effective, however atypical this may be. Overall, I find Dr. Larson to be a respectable, interesting, hard working and very approachable professor. He also appears to be an entirely decent fellow. From my vantage he gets a solid "A" for his conscientious efforts and for his commitment to the SFSU student body!

LARSON OVERALL IS A GREAT TEACHER. HOWEVER, THIS DEPARTMENT IS LACKING TRUST IN ITS'S STUDENTS. IF WE ARE THE FUTURE OF TOMORROW AND WE MADE IT TO COLLEGE, WHAT IS THE NEED OF WEEDING SUTDENTS OUT? WE NEED TO FOCUS ON HOW TO TEACH OUR STUDENTS TO SUCEED NOT HOW TO WEED THEM OUT OF THIS COURSES. I'M NOT SAYING WE SHOULD NOT HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS OF THE STUDENTS, BUT WITH OTHER COURSES IN THE BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT HOW CAN WE BE EXPECTED TO SPEND ALL OF OUR TIME IN JUST ONE CLASS. BOTTOM LINE HELP US, NOT WEED US. OBVIOUSLY WE ARE NOT ALL A STUDENTS, BUT B, C STUDENTS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SUFFER TO THE EXTEND OF WITHDRAWAL,FAILING OR REPEATING THIS COURSE. IS ALREADY OVERWHELMING ENOUGH. JUST HELP US DO IT BETTER AND PUT YOUR TRUST IN US!!! THANK YOU AND I HOPE THIS GIVES SOME STUDENTS AN IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS CLASS "CCCCCCC'S

Ralph is a nice guy who cares about his students. However, his lectures were confused and lacked focus. He seemed unsure what he was trying to say most of the time and often lost track of the topic. The tests were fairly graded but I strongly recommend already knowing alot about fish before you take this class. I did and would have been lost otherwise. There was also some favoritism towards the grad students, but I think it was unintentional.

Larson rocks!! He is so passonate about his fish, that you can't help admire him for it! He makes you learn with the same passion! I wasn't a big fan of Bio 240, I could go on about that RIDICULOUS class forever. But if you have the opportunity to take Ralph in an upper division class, do it. He's a very nice and approachable guy. And his tests are hard, but fair. They make you learn a lot, but you'll appreciate the knowledge you take fromhim. He is quite demanding in his class for your time. I mean after all, in the Fish Biology class we had to learn 120 fish! But it actually wasn't that hard. His lectures can be on the boring side and he can sometimes go off on a wierd tangent, but he gives study guides before tests and pretty much tests you on that. If you study all the lecture notes you'll have no problem in his class. He's really funny, too, and has these great fish shirts!!!

Dr. Larson taught this class along with Dr. Patterson. I feel that there should have been more frequent test and a better availability of the instructors. I feel that BIO240 is a class that requires extremely huge amounts of material to be learned. For only 2 exams and a comprehensive final to be given and the class not be told how the grading is going to occur is completely unfair. I recommend to any student at SFSU to take BIO240 or BIO230 at another institution and transfer the credit in. These classes at SFSU need to be completely rewritten and a new format be implemented.