He seems interested in what he teaches... different style than what a lot of people are used to. Encourages collaboration. Doesn't want you to memorize concepts, but rather understand them... midterm was stupid-easy, final was awful. Overall, meh.

What an awesome professor! Loved going to his lectures since they were always so interesting. There was never a time when I didn't learn something completely out of the box and unheard of in his lectures. The tests were easy,most from past year's tests :X and the exam was a fair game. Go to his lectures and pay attention! You'll be fine :)

Amazing professor, very easy to follow and makes you enjoy something as difficult as the topic of diversity. Readings are essential for the midterm BUT for the exam, he tends to focus on the most recent lecture material, which is why the exam is so hard since we study straight from the textbook. All in all, he's a great prof!

prof Richter is very interested in what he teaches. He studies whales and likes to bring them up whenever he can. He's always smiling and really nice so he makes u wanna go to class. He's a cutie so it's not hard not attend his lectures ;) His lecture slides aren't detailed so u should go to lectures b/c the exam was based mostly on lectures.

Somehow managed to make ecology interesting and Monday mornings bearable. Course is super easy.

Amazing whale-loving Prof! Lectures, very engaging, were mostly examples but they do relate to textbook material. He makes you appreciate the world and everything in it! Make sure to do all the readings and attend all the lectures . Just an awesome prof! Very happy to have taken this class with him.:)

Honestly I found his lectures to be kind of irrelevant to what was actually needed for the course and very repetitive the most important thing for this course is the labs if you don't ace the labs you basically will fail the course so do not take them lightly it's 45% of your mark

This class was in 2nd term, and it was SOOOOO fun. The prof would insert these wild stories into his lectures that made them a lot more interesting. But make sure to go to lecture, I was absent once and the lecture ended up on the final exam with like 8 questions. Overall, good prof and funnest class so far. The labs are super awesome.

Perfect prof. ,am not a fan of stats but with him it was pretty interesting, especially with the practical examples he had. Tests are fair and assignments are tooo easy and helpful :))

His good looks make it easy to go to class, even if you hate the course ;) overall I find his tests/exams are hard if you don't read the textbook. He also has great whale stories to lighten the mood of the class! A cute and fun prof :)

AMAZING

His multiple choice questions were pretty easy, just read the textbook. The short answer questions however were hard and he focused on the most recent lectures before the test/exam for these. For the lab tests, memorize every single little detail and use the atlas to study the organisms. Overall, he was fair

Good prof. up until the exam. His lectures seem really irrelevent but make sure you take careful notes, it was a big suprise on the exam when he had many questions based on his notes. I dropped 8% because of this!

Great prof! Very passionate about what he's teaching and very fun and interactive lectures but his tests and exams are NOT easy. You need to read the textbook as well as go to lectures and take good notes. Much better experience in BIO205 than BIO153 with him. He makes a rather dull and boring subject pretty interesting and marking is always fair.

Richter is a very nice and approachable guy and loves engaging in discussion with his students. His tests were pretty specific, and they introduced 'graded response' multiple choice that brought class averages down a lot. The exam seemed fair, but after getting marks back everyone did about 10% worse than expected which really made no sense.

I respect him as a professor because by his lectures, you can tell he REALLY loves what he does. However, in a nutshell: In lecture, he grasps a few key concepts from the textbook and explains minimally, rest of lecture is just examples. BUT WILL TEST ON THE KEY CONCEPTS IN MUCH MORE DEPTH. Lectures are not important. READ the textbook, that's it.

I had a much better experience in BIO 205 than BIO 153. My best advice is to map concepts from his lectures that are also discussed in the textbook. His test consists of multiple choice, which are mainly derived from textbook concepts, and there is a short answer portion which comes from lecture examples. Good luck!

I had him for BIO153 and I must say his lectures were always interesting but his tests were sooo difficult. This year in 205 hes AMAZING, so much more passionate about what he teaches. He spends time to review in lectures, his tests are extremely fair, a mix of lecture textbook. He really made me enjoy 205 when i wasn't much of an ecology person!

His tests were difficult on purpose in order to make the assignments and group work in tutorial much easier. He made us buy his textbook but it was a blessing because it was really easy to read from. He enjoys what he teaches and its evident by the smile on his face every time he showed up to class. Study from the textbook and it'll be an easy 4.0

Nice Prof. You should always compliment lectures with readings though that's the only way to get a good mark.

Richter was MUCH better at teaching 205 than 153. I never really liked ecology, but he made it interesting and so I actually enjoyed the class and participated. Textbook is a must, since the lecture slides are pretty much empty. The tutorials are HUGE mark boosters, and being 35% of your grade, a 4.0 is doable for the course.

I don't know about everyone else, but Professor Richter's lectures were amazing, very inspirational! I've taken BIO153, 205, as well with him and liked that his slides weren't so cluttered. Attendance is a must! Lectures summarize key concepts from the book, across his courses, so pay attention (crucial for stats), that's all you need for tests.

Many people dislike his teaching but I absolutely love him! He is very interesting to listen to and this course had great content. The tests are fair, however many of his MC are repeated from online test banks and past midterms. SO TAKE ADVANTAGE!

Boring, slow lectures. Not much covered in lectures anyway. Textbook life.

You don't need to go to his lecture if you don't enjoy biology. His lecture is more focusing on real biology not on the material or tests. Tests are really hard, especially lab tests.

pretty good class! learned lots of cool animal facts, went to all the lectures and read the textbook, got an 89. very important to do the lab readings regularly if you wanna do well on the lab test.

As long as you do the reading required and make good notes during his lectures you will do good on tests and the exam! His ppt slides are not detailed at all so you need to pay attention and make good notes since the final exam was based mostly off his lecture. The lab tests are NOT that hard you need to read the labs before each lab and study!!

This course makes you fall in love with Ecology, prof Richter is very knowledgeable and helpful. I loved listening to different Ecological research examples that he brings up during lectures.

I loved his lectures and the examples he provided for class. After having him for 2 courses, i have noticed that his midterms are more based on the textbook and the exam had questions about stuff mainly from the lectures, which is why it's very crucial to go to class and take notes on what he talks about!

Extremely helpful and dedicated

He is one of the most helpful and friendly profs ever! His lectures are amazing( if you like biology). His tests are based a lot on textbook material so DO YOUR READINGS. He makes you interested in scientific research and helps you a lot. He is a very sweet person too. He encourages you to learn more and get involved in research.

Loved his way of teaching and dealing with course materials, makes content sound pretty interesting and simple. Favourite professor.

The sweetest prof I've ever had, his lectures are very interesting but do not cover a lot, so make sure to thoroughly read through assigned readings for the tests. As long as you keep up with readings and take good notes at the lectures, you're bound to get an 80!

The sweetest prof I've ever had, his lectures are very interesting but do not cover a lot, so make sure to thoroughly read through assigned readings. He loves when students participate and show interest in lectures, feel free to chat with him! As long as you keep up with readings and take good notes at the lectures, you're bound to get an 80!

Tests are mainly based off the material in the textbook. He wrote the textbook so obviously he's gonna format the course like that lol. Exam was based off textbook material and lecture discussions. Make SURE to fully read assigned chapters before tests, and review the main lecture discussions for the exam and you'll do great. He made lectures fun.

i loved this prof and his course ,he was very interesting and the lectures were super fun and engaging . the only thing is that the lectures don't cover much material so study from the textbook for you midterms but i would say it's an easy A but make sure to study.

Great Prof! Always sharing stories about his research for a more practical understanding of the material. Fair tests and very approachable for questions regarding the material. Use office hours, they're very useful!

Dr. Richter is a great lecturer. His lectures are engaging, interesting, and he makes everything make sense. My stress level for the midterm is low because he has explained everything very well, I feel I understand all of the material thanks to him. His lecture material goes beyond the curriculum in which he applies Biology in our everyday life.

cool guy

Prof Richter is really sweet and you can tell that he is passionate about what he teaches. I really enjoyed going to his lectures and hearing his perspective on topics relating to the course material.

Hes ok. His first test was very easy, but his second test was full of random questions never covered in lecture or the textbook. However, he dropped 5 marks from the 2nd test so that brought a lot of peoples marks up. Exam was fair. If you skip lectures youll fail, his tests are purely test based but his exam short answer is all lecture based.

Awesome prof and it was clear by the way he lectured that he was really passionate about biology. His lecture slides weren't super detailed or full of textbook material, he gave plenty of real-world examples and case studies to deepen understanding of the material. Written questions on the exam were based on these such examples so pay attention!

very caring prof but the lectures are kind of hard to follow since theres nothing but pictures on it

Very passionate professor, but sometimes lectures are boring. Not his fault though, just not intense course material. Very possible to get 100% in the class

Prof Richter is an amazing prof. He cares about what he teaches and his slides don't have much info on them but powerpoint slides should not have lots of info. Listen to what he says and make notes. He is a super nice guy and totally approachable after class. BIO153 an easy A if you put in the work (pay attention, go to class, take notes, study)

Despite all these past reviews saying the slides are not helpful, TRUST me they are!! Advice for future students: get to class 20 minutes early and copy down the slides as they will be posted and bold them as subheadings. In regular font you need to make notes off of what professor says in class. Study the textbook. Easy 4.0

Read the textbook chapters and make really good notes, you'll definitely need them later on as all tests and exams are based on the readings. I found his lectures a bit boring but his slides are useless for studying so go to the lectures. Overall, he's a really nice prof!

You can clearly tell he is passionate about what he is teaching and so I found the lectures quite intriguing. He is great at explaining new concepts and engaging with the class and is also very friendly. The only "downside" is that he tests stuff that wasn't mentioned in class but is in the textbook so you kinda have to put in the effort to do well

All you really need to do is show up and pay attention to his lectures, and you were set for the tests. The exam was a little harder though.

His lectures are identical to the textbook so you don't need to read it. He mostly focuses on case studies but his tests have knowledge-based multiple choice so use the chapter questions to study. His short answer questions are taken from lecture so make sure you remember the discussions you have. Pretty easy class and tests were straightforward.

It's honestly one of the best biology courses at UTM. The prof is really passionate and friendly and you get so much out of it - discussions, project design, ability to read scientific literature etc. With that being said, if you prefer courses where you just need to memorizing everything and do well on tests, then this isn't the course for you.

He is an amazing and really infesting person, he will bring examples in class to engage students and make them find topic interesting. Listening to lectures and reading textbook to prepare for classes is more than enough to get a good grade.

Hes a very nice Professor, great person. His lectures however are quite useless. Tests are very textbook heavy. The lecture does not really teach you anything, he tells stories and talks about research more than teaches the material which is quite frustrating. Unfortunately but I dont come to class to chat about vertebrates.

Prof. Richter is one of the sweetest prof in UTM, at least in my first year experience. The course focuses on bacterias and phylogenic trees which is interesting. The lectures are engaging. Prof is very caring since he would provide specific chapters from the book to study & the assignments are really easy to follow. I would recommend this course!

The highlight of BIO153 was prof Richter, a kind, wholesome and caring person. He had 'just chatting' hours along with his office hours, never attended but seemed like a kind guy. Will always answer your questions in lectures, which is why the lectures were so slow. Fact based course and honestly you would probably be better off skipping lectures

Seems very passionate about what he teaches. Tests were reasonable.

he'll always take the time to respond to you and to your questions. his lectures were fun and he's clearly very passionate about biology, but the lectures (and their slides) weren't ultimately helpful. study the textbook and don't waste time w the slides. the midterms were fine but the final bulldozed me

You can tell he was really passionate about ecology. Make sure you read the textbook and pay attention in class as he draws specific examples from both for the term tests.

The lectures are BORRRINNGGG, but if you stick to the textbook chapters he assigns you'll find a lot of similar questions in the tests were taken straight out of the textbook. Richter is a great guy in my opinion and has a strong passion for what he teaches.

nice guy, he loves what he does and cares about teaching his students to the best of his ability. People who say his lectures are boring just don't like bio, he is a very good prof. He does cover material from the textbook, as the questions he asks as well as the info he provides during lectures are both very relevant to the info in the textbook.

Was quite miffed that he didn't give out practice tests, but you could find all of them online anyways. Questions on exams are all similar to the mastering bio questions. You better keep up with readings since the amount of content you'll need to know MASSIVELY increases in the second half. Overall, not a hard course if you actually study properly.

Took this class in 2022 and it was honestly the highlight of my final year of undergrad. He's really passionate about the topic and somehow gets you interested in marine mammals as well. He's very kind and just wants people to show interest. Would highly recommend for upper-level small-ish classes as he is really able to interact with everyone.

Very kind and he makes his tests very easy if you rely on textbook and ONLY textbook. unfortunately his lectures are not very useful and he should've made that known at the beginning so students wouldnt struggle on the tests. if anyone ever takes his class, just use the textbook and u will succeed his courses no doubt