Gabe was the best professor I have ever had at MSU. If you go to class and take good notes then you are probably going to do fine. He is very enthusiastic and wants you to get something more from the class than just cramming for exams. His quizzes may seem hard, but they are incredibly fair given the material and how many times he goes over it in class.

Don't forget to do the question sets on Angel. You will need the book to do the question sets, but the answers are generally easy to find. To study for the in class quizzes just review your notes from the lecture or two before you go into class.

I never fully read the book, but most of the online readings were actually interesting. He re-caps them in class, which is nice if you miss one, but I would suggest reading them. Just really review your lecture notes for the exams and you should be ok. The lecture is where he gets most of his questions from. If you don't understand something, ask him about it. Go to office hours, it seriously helps if you do not understand the material.

Gabe is very easy to talk to. He genuinely cares about his students and their grades in his class, so long as they are putting in the work effort. He offers a generous amount of extra credit, which you should take advantage of. I missed several opportunities for extra credit, but I still did very well in his class.

Always go to class and do the question sets and you will do fine.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

Let me start out by saying that Gabe is an awesome professor. He's funny and really keeps the material interesting and relevant to you. The grading is as follows 20% for in-class/angel sets, 20% test 1, 20% test 2, 20% test 3, and 20% final. You need to go to class because he does do frequent group quizzes that are very easy. The tests are not bad if you go to class and take notes. He also does give you many opportunities for extra credit. Over all I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot. I would definitely recommend this class.

Overall Gabe is a good guy. He tries his best to get his students pumped up for class in a nerdy little way. He told snail jokes everyday for the first few weeks, which were tacky but funny, then things started to get out of hand when he was asking clicker questions about whether or not we were sick of hearing the jokes.



Like people have said, his tests are fucking impossible, your allowed a cheat sheet, so i studied my ass off, then put the entire review sheet on my cheat sheet, and still got a 17/40 on the first exam.



more than 50% of his exam questions are like this:



A. logical answer

B. another logical answer

C. oh yes, another seemingly logical answer

D. A and B

E. B and C



Or my favorite

A. confusing/complicated/poorly worded answer

B. good answer

C. another poorly worded, seemingly wrong answer

D. more than one of the above

E. none of the above





If your extremely passionate about bugs and our enviornment, then take this class, because your going to need to attend every lecture, pay close attention, and write down stuff he says thats not on the slides, because you will see it on tests. if your one of those students who likes to work extremely hard for their good grades, then take it, cause its a challenge.



If this does not sound like something your willing to do, dont take it, because you can not coast through it and it is NOT AN EASY 4.



Obviously do the question sets, cause they're easy free points, take advantage of all the extra credit he offers, cause it is a decent amount (he doesnt directly tell you this, but bring in any bug for extra credit).

I wish I could give a higher rating than 4.0. Gabe was a professor who actually was interested in what he was teaching and he enjoyed teaching. He was enthusiastic and passionate. He also cared about students and how they were learning (which you may find rare at MSU). I bought the textbook, but it really wasn't necessary, everything he tested on was from his lectures, so if you attend his lectures and pay somewhat attention you will be fine. If there is an important concept, he will emphasize it.



Also if you are worried about grades, he is understanding. His exams are not unreasonable but he knows his questions aren't worded well sometimes, and if there is an unfair question on an exam, you can tell his about it and he will give credit if you have logical explanations for why you chose your answer.



I am not a science major, and had no interest taking this class, but he made it interesting for all majors by relating his class to world problems and awareness. His class is science based, so he knows there are some issues that aren't agreed with (evolution, global warming...) and he doesn't push any views on others. He simply teaches facts.



I would STRONGLY recommend taking Gabe's class since it is a University requirement anyway.

Pros: Several extra credit opportunities

Only a few homework that is required to be typed up and printed (I think there were roughly 3 the whole semester and they were not too tough!)

He usually posts old exams to study

Tests require studying but not hard to get within the 80s at least

Cons: In class stuff, so you have to go!

Go to class! Take it later in the day if it is too early for you, the in class work is short usually group and most of the time he just gives you credit for going!

Utilize the old exams and "essay" questions, they make the test so much easier!

Overall it is very easy to get at least a 3.5 in the class, as long as you go most of the time.

G. Ording is avery amazing professor. He is very enthusiastic about teaching and interacting with the students, and you can tell his goal each semester is to make sure his students go away knowing a lot more about the subject he teaches. It is very important to go to class, because he has in-class assignments or group quizzes just about every day. It is easy to fall behind as well. He offers a lot of extra credit and it would be beneficial for you to act upon any chances he gives.

Pros: Each exam is curved in the end, you always get bumped up a few points



He is hilarious and lectures are fun



Most "quizzes" don't count, he just thinks it's funny to scare you



You get a cheat sheet for each exam

Cons: Exams are difficult, the written parts will help boost your grade though if you know the material



You need to do the few readings he assigns



There are Angel question sets throughout the semester and you NEED the book for them

I hated this class. You can't really skip; otherwise you will fail the essays because he needs a verbatim 5 paragraph answer of what he said in class using 20 specific words of the jargon he spits out in one lecture. If you skip, you will get 3/5 points, even though you showed a full conceptual understanding of what is being asked of you.



The tests are stupid. The average on most of them is around a 70 even though he gives you last semester's exam and gives you the chance to make your own hand-written cheat sheet. It’s evident that neither will do you any good, because as pointed out by Gabe himself, the averages were lower than when he did not give out previous tests. Its aggravating that 60% of your grade is determined from his three ambiguously worded tests (he will also act like the answers would be clearly evident if the students had an iota of logic, after he applies certain technicalities, but only to certain questions). He will let you argue for questions, but you forfeit the curve which is usually 8%.



My test scores were also inversely proportional to the amount of time I studied. I got a 104 on the one I studied a total of 20 minutes for, and got mid-eighties on the two I studied more than one hour for. Extrapolate what you wish from that.



It is a somewhat interesting class. He also gave out a huge load of extra credit to everyone’s in class grade which is only 20% of your grade(which means it possibly boosted your total grade 2%). Oh and he loves the environment, so instead of giving him a 0.0, he gets a 3.0

Gabe is such a nice guy and that counts a lot in my book but at the end of the day, I felt he doesn't give you the necessary steps to be successful in his class. His clicker questions are mostly BS stuff like asking you if you like his jokes, his powerpoints are mainly pictures not giving you a clear point of what the heck he wants you to get out of it. His questions sets are useless busy work on angel as NONE OF IT SHOWS UP ON QUIZES/EXAMS. The quizzes are usually pretty unfair, his exams I only did pretty good on because I got old copies from previous years. Gabe teaches you this material as if you have been extremely exposed to it in your past. He doesn't emphasis key points and going to his review is a waste of time as nothing from it shows up on exams. He lets you make cheat sheets which I only used to solve very few questions on tests and thinks with that cheat sheet he lets you use you should be just fine!!! not true. Gabe is just frustrating because he makes it seem like he is there to help you ace his class with curving exams and he wants you too but contradicts himself in every way possible.If he didnt curve his exams chances are a good portion of the class would be 2.5 or under. I know his love and passion for science and teaching is there, but I dont think his way of doing it is. I found his lab and lecture to teach me very little but keep me very busy and ending in just above average grades. I think most ISB's suck but if you can find a better one it might be the best idea.His final was BS as well.

Gabe is a great guy and very passionate about teaching. He keeps your attention with his dirty "snail" jokes, and occasionally there will be a very random and funny picture of him that just pops up during the lecture on his slides. Gabes gives tons of extra credit and the homework is pretty easy.



Unfotunatley I cannot say the same for the exams. During class I would take extensive notes on what he was saying and it would be for the most part word for word. Then before exams I would study all of my notes, take the pre test on angel, and go over all the chapters in the book that were covered. I went into the exams feeling extremely confindent because of all this and expected the exams to be for the most part common sense. NOPE! All of the questions on the pre test on angel had NOTHING to do with the material on the exam! Then on top of that all of the questions on the exam were almost an entire paragraph long! All the information that was covered in class was not on the exam either. He would give us these great and interesting scenarios in class about a topic and I would really undertand the material and felt like if that was on an exam I would be able to answer correctly. Then once the exam is passed out there is a whole new scenario that dosent make sense and that was not relative to the lectures what so ever!

Gabe is an awesome person - he's funny, nice, and entertaining. But do NOT take ZOL319H with him! it is the most unorganized distaster of a class i have ever seen. there are like six professors who take turns lecturing for this class and none of them know how to use powerpoint like normal people. all of their lectures contain 100+ slides and are impossible to take notes from. there is NO rhyme or reason to how this course is set up. each lecture is on a completely different and unrelated topic that has nothing to do with the lecture before it. i think this class should be organized into units or something so that there's at least a little bit of cohesion..isn't that common sense? you have three tests that are all absurdly specific, minute details from lecture, and two papers. i honestly thought i was going to fail this class and i'm a junior with a 3.6 gpa.. the only good thing about this class was gabe, i gave him a 3.0 because he's so nice and because this is supposed to rate the prof and not the class. if i was rating the class i would maybe give it a 1.5 if i was feeling generous.

Pros: Gabe is an awesome guy. He is passionate about teaching and the course is very interesting. I didn't think it would be possible to enjoy this class because science does not interest me, but I learned a lot in his class and had fun doing so. Gabe is always there to help and if you put forth the effort he will get to know you and help you along in the course. The content is not extremely complicated and the information you need is provided in the lectures. He doesn't always grade the homework he assigns, but generally speaking it's a good idea to do the homework, he assigns it for a reason. He will tell you when information is very important and you should attend every lecture.

Cons: You do have to attend every lecture. Though attendance is not required in order to get a good grade you have to go. The exams are extremely difficult and specific. You have to really know the course material in order to do well.

Go to class, do the homework, chat with Gabe. He's a great guy and it is an interesting class. You'll be surprised at how much you learn.

he's a really nice guy but his tests are RETARDLY HARD and you sit there, while taking the test thinking "okay now i just studied for 4 hours last night so why the hell am i not understanding these questions.", even though the next class so many people complain that he usually curves each test around 6-7 points, but that means barley anything when you get a 60% on it. his lectures are usually interesting but fyi, he's a george w. bush hater, and sometimes i felt like i was going to fall asleep cause i don't give a hoot about nitrogen fixtation in soil. he asked our class the first day how much % wise we wanted the class to be on bugs, and i think the overall was below 50%, so we didn't talk much about bugs at all this semester, even though it's called "insects class" practically. overall, he's a really nice guy willing to help you out if you need it, but his tests make it almost not worth taking. i suggest not taking isb201 as a whole, but i do hear the isb201lab is easier than the class.

My Grade for this class does not reflect on how great of a guy and professor Gabe is. I gave this class a 1.0 simply because for a University Requirement I felt that it was too hard. I'm not an entomology major and this class felt like I was in a 200 or 300 level entomology class. This class is nothing to play with and if you don't like entomology or science this is not the class for you. You have to really grasp the concepts of this class and apply them to everyday life and it can be difficult because going into this class you may think that because its a University Requirement it may not be that hard. Take my advise if you really love and are interested in entomology then take the class because you will learn alot, and you will be able to keep up with the material, but if your like me who is a Communication major and your major has absolutely nothing to do with this subject and you just need to fulfill your ISB requirement there are other ISB classes that are not as challenging.

I would recommend that anyone who is willing to work take this class. Gabe is one of the best professors here at state and honestly cares about your performance and that you comprehend the material. You have about 15 supplemental readings throughout the course along with readings in the text (which aren't as important as the suppl. things - those are what your pop quizzes will be on). If someone asks a question related to the material, he will take time to discuss it and really assure that you feel fulfilled in his answer. On one of the Angel question sets i didn't agree that i should've lost as many points as I did so i went into his office hours and explained my case. He went over the concepts with me and gave me the points back. He wants you to apply what you learn in class. He is a very fair prof; you get outta the class what you put in. I got a four point in the class but i attended every lecture, read all the readings and busted my ass for the exams.

Note: This class is not an entomology class per se. it is an environmental science class, that uses entomology as a reference to explain environmental science and its issues.



Pros:

Dr. Ording is an extremely intelligent man, who has a passion for what he teaches. the man is not a passive teacher -- he engages his students and can make any topic interesting. his lectures are stimulating... this is one class where you wont find a lot of people sleeping/on their laptops. He is also a cool guy and kind of silly.



he lets you have cheat sheets for his exams. and has review sessions before each exam.



he lets you rebuttal for points back on anything. and also lets you turn in late homework for half credit.



Cons:

You have to go to each class!! if you dont, you will be missing out on a lot of learning, that you now have to do by yourself.





overall, you learn a lot in this class. you might just starting caring about environmental science and its issues.

What makes Gabe Ording an excellent professor is the high level of devotion he has to the subject matter, and his motivation to make sure students leave his class taking away something valuable.



ISB is a requirement for most who are taking the class, and Ording knows this and makes going to class worthwhile. The key to success in his class is paying attention in lecture, reading the supplemental readings on Angel, and doing the 10 Questions (Angel) each week.



The exams are based off of both readings and lecture. The exams are not memorization, they require students to think critically. That does not mean they are necessarily hard exams, but they are not blow off either.



At the end of this semester, he gave a decent amount of extra credit, basically curved everyones grades.



You wont find the class that difficult if you simply listen at lecture and read what you are supposed to. Basically what you should do in any college class.

Ok Look, Gabe is a great guy and an awesome prof, His lectures are focused and entertaining, and class was generally a good time...



Here's the catch though... ISB 202 is not a "science class for non-science majors" you have to either know a lot of science knowledge previously or be prepared to learn enough bio and science, that you'll consider changing your major because of the amount you now know!



His test are very difficult because their 40 multiple choice (+2-4 Essays) and the answers are like:



A) A good answer

B) A good answer

C) Another answer that seems good.

D) A and B

E) A and C



Makes the tests very difficult if you don't know the material exactly down to every detail.



Overall, If you love biology and already have a good understanding of it, this is the class for you.



If your looking for an easy class to 4.0 without going to class and only doing the exams, you should find another ISB.

His tests are VERY impossible. I only missed one day in this class and got the notes from a friend. Nothing that you learn will be on the tests, or even on the study guides. It's almost like his tests came from a completely different class. I'll most likely get a 3.0 in this class by 1 or 2 %. He won't let you make up any quizzes even if you have a doctors note and there are quizzes almost every day that go towards your participation/in class grade. There is a lot of extra credit but it only helps your in class grade portion. He's a fun teacher and the class is interesting, more than you would think for ISB but his test make it impossible to enjoy. Do NOT take this class unless you have full confidence you'll get about 90% on all the tests because that's the only way you'll 4.0 the class even if you have above 100% in the in class portion. The tests kill you.

i'd just like to echo the majority of gabe's reviews: gabe is a fantastic teacher. he takes a personal interest in all of his students and makes the material applicable and engaging. after taking his ISB lecture and lab, i've been inspired to reevaluate my course load and major. the lab was an excessive amount of writing required, but hard work comes with anything worth while. you've got to go to class EVERY day. i am not a science major, i'm in law, and i've got to stress to any of his prospective students- you WILL be entertained and attendance won't be a burden. it's hard to see some of these 1.0 reviews from students that say they worked really hard and didn't do well in gabe's class. i would give my guarantee to ANYONE if you go to class and ask questions you WILL do well. gabe wants you to well and that sentiment is reflected in his passion for teaching.