nice guy but sometimes hard to follow. marks hard.

pretty easy course overall, it seems like he determines how the course will be run by asking us a lot..otherwise, cool guy!

Nice guy and very honest about ideas.

This class is the best to take in order to fulfill the natural science requirement. 1st term: read 10 chaps. and do two m/c tests based on the chaps... a bit tricky if u don't study well. 2nd term... one test (25%)... rest small assignments - movie reviews, response to article, etc... easy peasy... fair marking.. course is split 50% each term

The course wsa very easy, he doesn't like to lecture, and always ends class at least 1.5 hours early. Exams and assignments are riduculously easy. He makes class interesting and is a fun guy.

Young enthusiastic fellor. He shares his sense with teens (his language used in his lecture is revolutionarily new and pop.) Spoils the kids too much. Involved so many workshops. But i agree with his learner-centered teaching style.

He actually WANTED students to do well. His teaching style was oriented around a more hands on approach which definitely made us learn more and boosted a lot of people's marks. I wish he taught our class for the full yr rather than only one half of it. Still though, he was the best!

Great Prof. Loved his teaching style--helped us to really learn and enjoy going to his class. It's too bad that he only taught for the second half of the year.

All marks aside (because they shouldn't matter anyway), take any of his courses if you actually want to learn something useful. His progressive teaching style, teaches what most other science courses lack: how to apply concepts to research, necessary skills that no one bothers to tell you and most importantly how to think about the big picture.

Great class but a lot of work. Lortie is funny as hell and you will never be bored in his classes...

he is a great professor, unique teaching style which is the best style i think. He is an amazing teacher more like a friend

He has good intentions but he is a little disorganized when it comes to teaching. Maybe because it was his first time teaching 2050. If he reads course evaluations, he will improve. Pros: friendly and empathetic. Cons: odd marking and scatter brain teaching. If you do your part, you will be fine. I got an A.

Easy. Almost too Easy. Really nice guy. Super bubbly. But you don't learn much in his classes, unfortunately. He's too scatterbrained. He has a lot of ideas - really good ideas about how to teach, what to teach, how to approach his students...etc. - but he doesn't prioritize them well so you end up doing a whole lot of things half-assed.

If you have a chance to take a course with him, do it! Tests are easy and he's a joy to listen to. He has a real passion for ecology and it shows. Wonderful prof!

If you have a chance to take a course with him, do it! Tests are easy and he's a joy to listen to. He has a real passion for ecology and it shows. Wonderful prof! Great Course!

AWESOME PROF! Great teacher, his classes are super fun, makes lecture interesting through his teachings, Tests- If u study his tests are easy.

Great prof. Tests are pretty easy as long as you attend lectures. T.A. and coordinator are the laziest and careless people you'll meet.

Amazing prof. If he only taught every science course in university everyone would get an A. He makes the course material intresting and is very enthusiastic. Overall the best prof ever!!!

He is so great! He actually cares about the students and doesn't make his tests impossible. A textbook is very important and attending the lecture is more important! The TA's are pretty laid back too.

He is amazing. 1. he cares about everyone doing well.2. hes enthusiastic, funny, and fun! 3. his tests are easy and straight fwd 4. he tells you what to study from the book. Take him! He makes ecology fun!

Dr. Lortie is an amazing professor!!! At first I thought I would be bored out of my mind with ecology, but he made it so interesting and fun to learn! His tests are very straightforward if you keep up with the readings and attend class. If only York University had more profs like him... Work hard and you'll have your A :)

This prof is GREAT!!!! very approachable and helpful. He teaches the course for students comfort in mind. He really his student to do good. The test are very fair. He does video lectures which are very helpful. He's got great humor.One of the best professor ever.

He is really a great professor; it seems that he is interesting in what he is doing. I do not like this course, but I LOVE it, and I think it is one of the greatest course that I have ever taken. Good Job!

he is one of the nicest bio prof at york, no doubt. he has a great sense of humor and makes ecology fun and interesting. make sure u read the textbook as most of his test questions are from text.

awesome prof. very humorous and keeps u entertained and educated for morning classes. i like the way he designed the course: lectures in class go over material in detail along with suggestions on how to study material on tests and then has a personal course website(not moodle) with vid summary and other class info. what more can you ask for?

He's a great prof, but for some reason he got more strict after the 1st test which made the lectures kind of boring (probably why more than half the class stopped showing up). I would I suggest him to slow down the lecture pace since it's EXTREMELY challenging to keep up with him. His lecture style before the 1st test was awesome, the 1 after= bad

If every prof were like Chris I would get an A in every class. This guy wants you to succeed, no bs. He is very passionate about his discipline and it shows, hes not dreadful to listen to like most prof's. If you follow his instructions there is no possible way you won't succeed in class.

Awesome professor. Very approachable, bubbly and clear. Really cares about ecology and his students. Tests are straightforward, classes are fun and engaging. Great course, easy to do well. Runs a blog, video lectures, twitter. Come to class & read the textbook and you'll do amazing. :)

lectures are short and straight to the point. test are easy. read the book, attend lectures, and get your A.

One of my favourite profs: genuinely wants students to do well and learn, doesn't do trick questions, always available for help (mostly online via blog, twitter), enthusiastic, keeps things interesting, doesn't give out unnecessary assignments, cuts down lecture time so you can just read on your own, tests straight out of textbook, straightforward.

Great Prof. 1st midterm was easy, but the second one and the final were not as easy. This course is possible. Do your readings, understand and show a genuine interest and you will do well. Outdoor labs were fun. Only 1 major lab report and 2 easy quizzes. Really made me love Ecology! Great Prof! Great experience!

The course was not easy especially since the final lab report was brutal. Most of the tests were difficult. The only easy part of this course was the lab quizes which only made up 20% of the course. I think only reason why the course is labeled "easy" is because the prof is quick relaxed and is very entertaining. But the course itself was difficult

Amazing professor explains the concepts very well. Although the last two midterms were difficult,overall the course was interesting.

Course wasn't easy. Last two midterms and lab report were difficult. To do well in this course need to do well in them. Professor often times was unorganized but he was clear and concise. He made the course interesting and great course to take

Took ecology because someone recommended the class from last semester. Found out everything CHANGED. NO m/c and only short answers. On top of that, the first midterm was brutal (class avg was a 40) and he pretty much screwd us with lack of time to complete it. Wish there was m/c. -__-. oh well. Goood prof, easy to contact (via twitter).

Fun and lively classes. Tests are fair, but needs specific answers, don't get misled by the easy going nature of the class. Tries to make the class interesting, always there to help and develop strategies for us to study and do well on the test. Definitely recommend both his courses.

Do not go into this course thinking it will be easy. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication. Dr. Lortie is a really friendly guy and keeps the lectures interesting. Even during the early morning class, I was always able to stay awake. He really does want his students to succeed.

His classes were hard but he took the time to go over the marking and prepare the class for the exam

he really cares about his students! amazing proff!

Great prof. Great energy. Really enthusiastic about ecology. Genuinely wants students to learn and do well. Strongly recommend this class.

Loortie keeps you engaged at all times during the class, so while attendance is't mandatory, is highly recommended. He goes through each chapter, then has a day where he summarizes everything and he answers a ton of questions.

Prof Lortie is an amazing lecturer. Clearly loves teaching ecology, friendly. Concepts are clear, questions are answered in lecture+ twitter+class blog. Studying for the midterm+final are intensive, have to know each example (low class avg). Readings are long (interesting tho), The lab compnnt is VERY intensive & time-consuming, reports every week.

This guy is the Yoda of Ecology. He knows his stuff too well. Makes lecture super interesting. His lectures are the only ones I go to in the morning. His midterm was super hard, I mean I failed miserably. He has been working with students to make the final at bit more fair so we'll see what comes out of that. Super super fun guy!!!

good prof very intereactive. Notes are good because they are based on textbooks. Midterms are hard and labs are easy but time consuming but can bring up grades.

He is so helpful and so funny! Really makes class interesting. Exams are all short/long answer but he really helps with them during lectures by hinting what they might be along with their answers.

Lortie was a kind and funny prof. He was a great lecturer. Sure, the questions were hard on exams but you just had to attend lectures and do the readings.

Great course. Super useful and nice to be able to write a paper on a topic of my choice for once. Book was interesting and accessible. Lortie is a nice prof and good lecturer. More structure to lectures would be good though.

great professor. Sure, the tests were hard but he is a really nice lecturer.

Excellent lecturer. Period. Hard tests though.

Really useful course. Nice professor. He is definitely pushing us to think more and regurgitate less. Nice change.

Very solid upper year class. Strong focus on skills. Nice prof.

Excellent teacher. He was good at discussion. Readings essay but papers hard.

Entertaining lecturer. He is nice and tries hard to make sure everything runs smoothly. Tests are tough tho bc no multiple choice at all.

Being able to design and critique an experiment in science is super useful. Enjoyed the class.

Textbook for first part of course was a good read. student presentations in second part did not work so well. Lectures by prof were very relaxed.

Enjoyed the course. He often highlighted the relationship to upper year courses. Like. Entertaining. tests are challenging though.

Super nice professor. Good conversationalist and very laid back in lectures. Tests are hard though.

Fun lectures. He dressed up for some for Halloween. Hard tests. MUST read the book.

Good class with interesting ideas. I liked the independent part at the end but student presentations were not great really. He is a good lecturer.

You have to read the textbook. He covers only the trick bits in lecture. He mentioned this a lot at the beginning of course but easy to forget you have to do whole reading and not just main points.

Funny guy and very relaxed. Good at lecturing. Textbook very readable. Tests involve A LOT of thinking though.

Do the readings, attend the lectures, and check the blog and you will be ok. He is a nice lecturer and helpful.

Super useful instruction on synthesis and meta-analyses. Very fair. Nice teacher and funny.

Really nice prof. Yes, the exams were really hard (midterm anyway). He belled the grades up after midterm a bit though (not down).

I liked ecology. You had to stay on top of the readings though. Labs in ecology are about counting stuff and doing stats. Some identification too.

Great prof. Nice guy. Hard tests.

I like ecology. Good topic. He is a superb lecturer. Hard tests though as you must read textbook in detail.

Really nice guy. Good lecturer. Really cares about the topic. You have to read the textbook though.

Good lectures. Do the readings though. Tests in 2013 were tough but I hear that he listened to the students and changed tests this year. cool.

Solid prof. you have to keep up on readings though. he reminds you to do this but loads of folks don''t listen. pretty sure your grade is directly related to do the readings in this course. also tests are tough because he expects you to have attended the lectures where he explains stuff. BUT he does give practice questions - do them

great prof. nice person too. he really cranks on what you actually need to know for designing experiments. I like.

great prof and cool course. you must do reading though. super useful course btw.

fav prof. nice guy. you must do readings and attend lectures. he tries to help as much as possible in lectures, so attend them.

Dr. Lortie is probably one of my favourite professors I've ever had! He made an 8:30am lecture almost enjoyable. Midterms are very easy as he gives you all the questions before hand, and there is no final exam. Labs are annoying but it is very possible to do well, only 1 major lab report for the entire semester.

I think some of the negative comments must be from the year before. I took class in 2014. Totally awesome. Cool content and he gave great lectures. I think the year before the questions were harder. This year, he gave all the questions in advance - but only in class. So you had to attend.

I saw the post by some other student about 42%? Must be another year as he shared all the averages with us and they were in the 70s. He also gave out all questions in class to study so if you get 42 somehow you just skip all the lectures. Attend lectures and you are fine. His lectures are fun too.

GREAT prof. Nice person. Attend lectures though.

Experimental design is super useful course. take it. you get useful skills.

Fun lecturer and as other folks have stated here, you must attend lectures. It sucks they are 830am but not his fault. He usually provides the test question every lecture to reward students that attend.

learning how to design experiments was really useful. should be a lower level course for that reason. usual upper year course but he is a fun lecturer.

Really entertaining lecturer. Attend lectures bc he provides practice and test questions.

Excellent skillz course. take if you want to do science as a career. good speaker too and you get to do your own topical research.

super lectures. 830am slot sucks tho. however, attend them and you will do way better on tests.

he gives excellent upper-year lectures that are chill and detailed. nice to have some freedom to pick your own topics for paper too.

super clear what you need to do. read text and attend lectures. short-cuts hurt you on test. He is a really animated speaker and loves ecology. nice.

great guy. fun lectures. useful too. you have to do some heavy thinking but he rewards you for that. recommend.

Great prof. Funny and engaging. Further to the post I just read on him, sure his style is that he does not baby you. However, this is second year and a cool course. He is nice and fair. You just need to do the work and go to lectures.

I liked the guy. Funny lectures and he puts a lot of energy into them. Totally recommend. However, you do need to work hard to get good grades.

design course was superful useful. he is well prepped and gives good informal lectures for this upper year course. you get choice on essay too.

you get choice in topics. first part of course gets you the principles you need, second half is more independent. good class.

solid upper year course. you get choice on essay topics at end of course. first test is regular. you read design book then have a test. totally fair. interesting too.

Perfect upper years course with some choices in how you are evaluated and how the principles are applied to topics (ie you get to pick the experiment in lab and final paper at end in lecture).

I found it very useful to learn how to design experiments. recommend. nice lectures too.

enjoyed it. good to know how to design experiments.

great teacher. he really puts effort into ensuring your understand how to design experiments. loved it!

perfect chance how to learn to design experiments. well organized upper-year course.

top notch prof. fair and direct approach to teaching. expects you to keep up. teaches what you need to know for experimental design.

you need to know how to design an experiment. period. he teaches you.

best course I took at YU. it was so nice to have choice in topics I did advanced study on!

this is the course you need for experiments and grad school too.

just completed test. loved it. super fair.

SUPER fair professor. He gives you really clear guidance on tests in this course. However, teset Qs are not super easy. But you mostly know them all in advance so PREP hard.

super nice prof. good course. you have to be creative though.

Avoid at all costs for ecology. Yes he's a really nice prof, and helpful as well, and his lectures are fun. But he has no clue as to how to make a test. The first test was really easy and the second was super hard (the questions weren't even on lecture material). If you actually want to learn ecology, take it with another professor.

great course

great prof and great topic. you have to do your readings

If you don't like presentation or group projects don't take this class, but generally its a pretty easy class and you can totally get an A if you want one. The prof is great and tries to assess us on what we want to be assessed on.

Great prof. Labs were very easy (take data outside in field). Midterms were easy (midterms average 75 %) & non-cumulative. No finals! Notebook is graded. Enthusiastic prof and funny (is also as HUGE Star Wars fan). Lectures were once a week for 3 hrs, but always finished in 2 hrs or less. Texbook not needed. Slides contain everything & posted onlin

I really enjoyed this course and the prof. He really brings the subject to life! There is the usual amount of reading, but nothing unbearable, three chapters per test which were short chapters and really easy to read. Plus, he tells you what will be on the test. The labs are SUPER easy! If you put in effort you can easily get a B or higher

amazing lectures. I LOVE the Star Wars Theme.

tests are multiple choice AND short answer. you also have to write lab reports. so this was my first and only 2nd year course where you write stuff. good experience but not as easy as other courses. lectures are super fun. about 150 students I think.

he offered us a makeup opportunity on one of the set of harder test questions for designing an experiment. it was a good boost! Also, the talks in class and the student grant proposals were a good idea.

great lectures, fair tests, but totally helps to attend lectures. handing in notebooks at end of term for 10% was a good idea if you attend too.

this course changed my life. designing experiments is a useful thing to know. you know how to do it after the book then the pratice lortie gives you.

Lectures were at 830am. However, he made them exciting. Star Wars theme was great.

It's Dr. L.! Oh, snap!

Prof. Lortie is was hands down the best prof I've encountered so far at York. he teaches the material in an innovative and interesting way. super friendly and funny, makes coming to 8am lectures worth wilded. tells you exactly what you need to know, no surprises. genuinely cares for his student. A is definitely achievable

The course material isn't hard. Labs are easy marks. However, there are weekly journal readings that is a must! The midterms consist 40% of journal articles. No final exams and midterms aren't cumulative. Although lectures are at 8:30, he doesn't take the entire time. Test questions are given in class so make sure u go to to them!

Used my grant app I wrote in course for grad school applications.

The grant proposal and PK talks were good ideas. It was nice to finally have come choice and independence.

I thought ecology would be easy. it was not too hard, and it was super useful.

terrific lecturer. i have very high standards and he met them. overall great prof. makes biol classes interesting (I had him in another class last year).

A very charming, understanding and funny professor. Made waking up for an 8:30 class worth it.

I took a field course with Dr Lortie in California this summer. It was a really valuable course, and he taught and organized it really well. I would absolutely recommend him for any course. He helped us out, and taught us super valuable stuff about experiments and ecology and stats.

Funniest and most engaging prof I've ever had. Grading for tests can sometimes be a little sketch but an A is attainable with a bit of work. Easiest 2nd year biology class I've taken, probably easiest biology class, I've taken period.

Biostatistics was very practical. Prof gave lectures on big picture and taught us details too. Highly recommend. You have to learn how to code in R.

he went the extra distance and ensured we understood everything well in advance of each teaching instances. the labs are worth a lot too so it is good to participate in them.

The class was great because it was practical based and not just full memorization. The labs were easy marks; doing the field data collection was 20% of the marks. Also, lectures were great because he shared the textbook chapters in a clear and engaging way. The second test was open book, that was practical & applying what we learned! Good Class!

fantastic class.

Graduate level biostatistics with Chris was informative and also entirely based on problem solving. Perfect alignment with your needs a grad student. He also did short lectures with nice slides every lecture. Really good picture.

Graduate level biostats course was very well prepared. Dr Lortie focussed on teaching us R. Really well done.

super biostats class. stats are generally not that fun but you need them. lortie made it pretty interesting and used real datasets to make it relevant. good approach.

class ended months ago and he still helps out students with ecology letters and answers emails.

loved the course because it helped me out with other courses. good to know how experiments work.

been using the skills we learned last term in ecology at a job I got this summer for trca. field sampling and stats. super lucky I took ecology with Lortie.

I took this class with Lortie two years ago. I now have a job designing clinical research trials. This course turned out to be super useful.

he made this three-week intensive course on scientific synthesis amazing and fun. He also taught us dplyr and meta-analyses in R.

got a job doing consulting because of this course.

I took a field course with Lortie over 2-years ago. This course was super useful. He answered emails after the course was over, remembered us all, and did a reference letter for me too. beyond the call of duty.

solid teacher. you will get a lot out of this class.

you work hard but super useful.

took course last year and was great and set me up for research this year.

got an A but really enjoyed the course because still using the ideas now.

he taught us an open science workflow. amazing.

workshop on rstats was the info i needed to get going for my graduate research

excellent stats course. totally recommend to all grad students that have data.

applied course where you find solutions to enviro problems. good ideas.

The marking is very specific for the two tests. The lectures are super tho.

Grad-level biostatistics class taught us R, data models, and fitting models. great!!

stellar class

biostats was super helpful. very funny prof.

nice prof and good class!

BIology for environmenrtal management was an applied course where you get a topic each week then reverse engineer the solution. then a group poster that end. good format. upper year.

Best class ever. We did a big poster session at end with pizza and had a guest judge that was a real science reported. cool!

big focus on reading papers. that is ok but just be prepared

Excellent stats course.

Biostats was a grad course. Big focus on R and coding.

Just rediscovered the text and my notes for some contract work for MNR. Cool that it was useful in trying to decide how to design an experiment with different kinds of controls. need more courses like this at yorku.

in experimental design, we did a grant proposal for grant school. I got in because of this.

The course was biology for environmental management. Very applied course and we worked through a lot of readings. All journal papers no textbook. Good, I liked the poster at the end on the topic of our choice.

We read a book together for the first 6 wks. Excellent book. A bit pricey. each week, he also lectures about the content and WHAT it means too. that is the hard part. plus I liked experiments in labs.

fun class with good readings. super interesting to see how environmental science relates to people.

Hes soo passionate about his work, and always makes the lectures very interesting. Very applied course with many journal articles to read. And a poster session at the end, which was awesome. One of the best profs at York, I'll never forget how great he was as a prof. Take this course for sure!

Text then papers. Got to write your own grant proposal.

The text is Experimental Design for the life sciences. read it for first 6 weeks then have test. good fair questions, mostly about application. then you get to have some fun with a grant proposal and also short student talks. good course. the grading is fair but definitely at upper level.

funny lectures and he put a lot of effort into them. slide decks with star wars meme always fun.

Biostatistics was a very useful setup for my grad work. I use what I learned all the time. He teaches only in R, but that worked out just fine for me.

Experimental design is a general course on how to design experiments. useful if you plan on grad school or research. text is good too.

Stats course for grads. Did last year, and I using skills for research in bird biodiversity contract this summer. Goodintro to R.

I got an A. Test easy. Other assignments more challenges but you get choice. Pros and cons. Sometimes tests just easier.

Poster at end was a good ideas. Two tests. No labs. Standard 4000 level course at yorku.

Thesis course. He left me to do my work which was good and just helped when I asked for it. Good experience so up to you to get the grade you deserve. plus these courses are kind of lead by the chair of department. recommend if you have a research idea you want to test out.

Data Carpentry Workshop!!!

Carpentry workshop via Zoom. Data and R. R bit beneficial.

online R course.

The textbook is very clear and you read it together for first 6 weeks. In lab, you do experiments. Good experiences to get a handle on how to be good at doing experiments.

so far, so good. super start to course!

So far so good. All online via zoom and marking was fair. He provided marking keys at the start of course for all assignments. really helps.

Collaborating on team lab research on trees with Lortie. Excellent course.

Published my research paper from the course thanks to Lortie. WOOT WOOT. He kept in touch after course and edited paper. That seems like it would be pretty unusual to me and I am grateful.

This is the best course Ive taken in my entire undergrad at York! Chris is the best prof you can get. Hes so funny and he actually makes you realize that there are some professors out there who are still are passionate about teaching. He made this course so much fun. Go to his lectures and listen to his grading requirements and youll do great!

Best professor ever!!! He made this course so much fun during a pandemic where he even dressed up for Halloween! Honestly, hes very clear about his grading so if you follow that, youll do great! Youre missing out if you dont take this course.

Asynchronous plus meetings if you chose to attend. recorded lectures and put all materials online. rubric clear. exactly what you need when stressed out. Super fair.

Best online class I took last year too. Lortie did a superb job of Zoom lectures plus pre-recorded stuff and readings. Labs were also really fun to do, solo, and safely.

Best class of my time at York. He prepped everything so that it was clear what to do.

Synchronous and asynchronous were provided during pandemic. Recordings great. Grading clear. Best you can get nowadays!! This prof put the prep time in.

The assignments in this course are interesting and useful. you get to write a grant app for grad school and get feedback. so if you think you might want to do research, this is a good course for you.

Exceptional graduate class. We have take some to graduate, but this one actually helped. Still using the R and GitHub stuff.

Online emergency course because of pandemic. thoughtful and the book he wrote to support the labs was critical for making your life easy. TOTALLY recommend this class.

I took this last Fall. Checking new courses by Lortie bc this one was super. They did all the prep in advance so you knew what to expect during pandemic. That is key.

Lectures are kind of optional with everyone on zoom now. I still attended. It was really beneficial. The lectures really made the reading clear.

Prof Lortie using a clear experimental design text. they keep the ideas general for all life sciences so that is nice. you get to apply ideas in a test and in a grant app top. like that.

A FINAL year course that you get to read in. Fair and readings are good. We applied science to solving climate change stuff.

NEW TO R. GOOD INTRO TO STATS AND THE WHY-DO THIS TEST VERSUS ANOTHER.

Clear reading course. I like the book they prepared for us - like an e-book class outline. useful.

You read a lot but the slide decks really facilitate. You can do all the work on your own, but if you have time, attend lectures too. Really helps clear up key points from the readings. Text good, papers good, and you can get to pick your own experimental design topic at the end of course.

remote course this fall worked out great.

4000 COURSE at YorkU. Read and think. One test - fair. Then advanced work that you choose topic for. That part is super.

we read a very accessible textbook in lecture, did test, then did our own research to write grant app for grad school. liked. useful. labs, do experiments and practice skills. good stuff.

great feedback. follow the course outline though.

Clear course. ebook with directions. great worked examples in lectures and in labs too.

clear course with rubrics that really helps. labs fun, lectures are well done. best to attend them though.

outline, outcomes, book, all planned. check course to see what you are getting into. VERY fair and accessible. clear sense of equity and justice in this course too - it is stats but all the data and discussions are well framed.

experimental design course with creative twist. worth the time. the labs are work. lectures totally fair. all materials provided up front for whole course

super clear course. lab manual was the highlight - like a little book.

no videos but super clear lectures. useful to attend them although short and fair pacing

clear course - blended really, you can do a lot (like all) of the work independently if you are motivated.

Clear course. All materials in advance.

read a lot in first half then you plan your research grant app in the second half.

good practice to designing experiments. textbook easy to read too

There are videos now too. Good stuff.