Professor
Richard Kaner
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Most Helpful Review
Just another rave review here. Professor Kaner is awesome. He communicates the material very well, does demonstrations, takes all questions during lecture, and hosts multiple office hours. The class is out of 330 points with the following contributions: HW 30 points Midterm 100 points Final 200 points The midterm was straight forward but time is a major issue, the average in my class was 65. The final is substantially harder and was harder than the practice final, which surprised me. I assume a B in the class is around a 60 or 65. Last note: take his CHEM189 seminar, it's interesting and easy. He just talks about different materials for an hour a week. No homework, nobody even takes notes, you just listen. Easy 5 page paper due at the end of the quarter, but he lets you turn it in after finals so that it doesn't get in the way of studying.
Just another rave review here. Professor Kaner is awesome. He communicates the material very well, does demonstrations, takes all questions during lecture, and hosts multiple office hours. The class is out of 330 points with the following contributions: HW 30 points Midterm 100 points Final 200 points The midterm was straight forward but time is a major issue, the average in my class was 65. The final is substantially harder and was harder than the practice final, which surprised me. I assume a B in the class is around a 60 or 65. Last note: take his CHEM189 seminar, it's interesting and easy. He just talks about different materials for an hour a week. No homework, nobody even takes notes, you just listen. Easy 5 page paper due at the end of the quarter, but he lets you turn it in after finals so that it doesn't get in the way of studying.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - Professor Kaner is awesome! His lectures are very engaging and the course material itself is interesting and important for chemists. Most of the people that took this class took Professor Kaner’s 171 class in the Fall, with some grad students sprinkled in. The course structure followed very closely to 171’s, with weekly homework, a very difficult midterm exam, and an easier, though comprehensive, final exam. As such, I would recommend this class to anyone who did well in 171 and would like to learn more about some of the more interesting topics covered in 171. These included crystal growth, gemstones, silicates/other minerals, semiconductors and metals, and conducting polymers. I scored below average on the midterm but felt confident about my performance on the final and ended up getting an A in the class. It seems like if you show growth and demonstrate a solid understanding of the material on the final, you will be fine. This is why I love Professor Kaner; he is caring and genuinely cares about student learning.
Spring 2022 - Professor Kaner is awesome! His lectures are very engaging and the course material itself is interesting and important for chemists. Most of the people that took this class took Professor Kaner’s 171 class in the Fall, with some grad students sprinkled in. The course structure followed very closely to 171’s, with weekly homework, a very difficult midterm exam, and an easier, though comprehensive, final exam. As such, I would recommend this class to anyone who did well in 171 and would like to learn more about some of the more interesting topics covered in 171. These included crystal growth, gemstones, silicates/other minerals, semiconductors and metals, and conducting polymers. I scored below average on the midterm but felt confident about my performance on the final and ended up getting an A in the class. It seems like if you show growth and demonstrate a solid understanding of the material on the final, you will be fine. This is why I love Professor Kaner; he is caring and genuinely cares about student learning.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Very cute and essential class to take with 171! It really builds on concepts that you learn and doesn't take too much time and is honestly super interesting to anyone even without a super deep chemistry background. You learn about a lot of materials like plastic, glass, gemstones and the like and it's very casual. For the last lecture we just talked about random things and he showed off his cat and talked about research and stuff and it was overall just good times and good vibes. During covid, I didn't attend a single class live (he recorded them and I watched all of them at some other time, although I usually think he requires attendance) and just did the final paper (the only assignment) in about a day and got an A (which he says basically everyone gets.) Overall, highly recommend!
Fall 2020 - Very cute and essential class to take with 171! It really builds on concepts that you learn and doesn't take too much time and is honestly super interesting to anyone even without a super deep chemistry background. You learn about a lot of materials like plastic, glass, gemstones and the like and it's very casual. For the last lecture we just talked about random things and he showed off his cat and talked about research and stuff and it was overall just good times and good vibes. During covid, I didn't attend a single class live (he recorded them and I watched all of them at some other time, although I usually think he requires attendance) and just did the final paper (the only assignment) in about a day and got an A (which he says basically everyone gets.) Overall, highly recommend!
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