2.4
Quality4.2
Difficulty28%
Would Retake113
Reviews28%
Would Retake
113
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
15
4
13
3
25
2
20
1
40
What Students Say
“Her lecture slides are very abstract”
BIOL1412 - 3.0 rating“If you have a chance to take it with someone else I would”
BIOL1412 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
73%
Textbook Required
44%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.72 avg changeRatings by Course
FUNDGENETICS
5.0
(1)BIOL1808
5.0
(1)PLANTDEVELOPME
4.5
(2)BIOLOGY
4.0
(1)BIO1
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
002010
5.0
PRINCIPLESOFB
5.0
PRINCILPLESBIO
5.0
BIO1
5.0
BIOPLANTS
5.0
Reviews (113)
She's very disorganized, unclear, and the tests are impossible
very cute little lady. Hard tests but at least she speaks better than her associates.
Her test was impossible. The average grade was a 44%. She also procedded to tell me that my tutor w/ a degree in biology was a bad tutor. I would not recommend this professor
I thought she was a very good teacher, though many of the people I have talked to disagree. Here notes are very good. She doesn't just read off of slides like most teachers.
Irish was one of the best professors I have had. Although her teaching style does not seem helpful at first, it helps you retain information and better prepare for exams. Do what she asks, write everything down and you will get a good grade.
Amazes me that someone can always be so excited about something so incredibly boring... The tests are a b*tch. Good luck.
Wow...the only thing I can say is...Crazy Plant Lady...
Extremely boring lectures, but very good notes. Puts great emphasis on pictures in the book, which tend to appear on exams. Tests require you to think very critically and are pretty tough.
not a good teacher. she is sooo boring, talking about plants for 2 months sucks!! and her test was like impossible. i would not recommend at all.
She is an ok teacher, but it was a very boring subject. I think she did not prepare us very well for the material that was on the test...some questions were tricky.
Very unprepared, lectures are very unorganized, and not even close to Wang or Dailey (who are good lecturers). Tests are very difficult and is a B****. I visited her during office hrs 1 day & she was on the phone and screamed at me for no reason for "showing her no respect" or some BS like that.
Please learn how to use PowerPoint. Also, stopping lecture because somebody 100 feet away is whispering is very distracting, moreso than the people whispering.
erin irish was horrible... please learn how to actually read what your audience is doing... know when to push and when to let students out 35 seconds early...
Worst prof i have ever had. She's soooo boring. It's kind of funny how excited she is for plants. it is a little scary how she loves them more than humans though (The greenhouse effect is a good thing!) Oh and she'll tell a bad joke and yell at you to be quiet when you laugh (out of pity)
She's an attractive older lady.
She is a pirky lady. She does her best at keeping a boring topic interesting. She is a good teacher, the material just isn't great.
One word....Bee eye tee see H
No Comments
Dr. Irish is passionate about what she teaches (sometimes overly). She was always more than willing to help during or outside of office hours. Beware, her exams are all essay, and hard!
No Comments
ok teacher kinda psychotic when it comes to plants but still goos teacher
I got ridiculously sick the weekend before her exam and had to take the make-up. Hand to God, her short answer tests are WAY easier than multiple choice because she doesn't try to trick you (and there are less questions!). So yeah, that's my advice--puke up a lung and take the make-up.
Nice lady but I swear she looks like Mother Nature
She sounded confused a lot of the time. Her test was so hard and she asked very tricky questions. Apparently studying for 4+ hours a day starting 3 weeks before her exam isn't enough. Shes kinda goofy...worst of the 3 professors in that class
Very passionate about what she teaches. She was ok overall.
She talks too fast and always acts jittery and nervous. Prepare to be crushed. :(
Yeah I agree with that person about a year ago, I guess studying doesn't really matter when you put a lot of work into it. I can't even understand how I did so bad on this final, oh yeah, because Irish and Denburg are tricky has hell. Andy Wang is the only good professor out of those three, man, take Bio I somewhere else if you want to do well
For the exams, try picturing yourself in a boxing match against Ali, there's just no way you can get through it, you will get knocked out and stay down for hours.
Irish talks so jitterish. Way too nervous. Doesn't emphasize important points as much as Wang or Denburg. Maybe I just wasn't interested in plants. Heard from friends that she degrades you in office hours; but in short, shes not too bad - just boring
Love Irish's enthusiasm for plants. Don't know why people say she seems nervous...I think she seems very confident about the topics & very intelligent. However, while going thru the lectures before the exam, I found them to be quite unorganized & difficult to pick out most important points. Also, too much info/too little time.
go to lecture. take notes. don't just write what she writes. write everything she says. then read book afterwards. this class takes a lot of work. TRY TO WRITE EVERYTHING (I MEAN EVERYTHING) SHE SAYS VERBATIM. exams are 99% lecture based.
talks way too fast, hard to understand whats going on. boring. takes an already complicated subject and makes it worse.
Enthusiastic- helpful at explaining if you ask her questions but can be confusing during lecture- lecture quizes highly based on notes- exam was difficult- lecture notes and book still not enough for her exam, DO PRACTICE EXAM and make sure you understand them- the exam was very close to practice exam material but asked in a diff way
Exam unlike material covered
hmmm can we just rename this class Herbology with professor Sprout please. Overall I really enjoyed her enthusiasm and I think that she is a good teacher for the most part. Her notes were a little confusing so I found the book a lot more helpful. Basically though Bio I sucks really bad so avoid it if possible.
Dr. Irish's ?s on the final range from basic to VERY detailed. She gives the details in lecture but most students catch them. The lecture notes online give an overview but not the specific details you need to ace the exam. Reading the bio book is good but exams are lecture-based. Look carefully at the past exam questions- some will be the same
Irish is SO boring! She has a monotone and is really difficult to pay attention all class. The only reason i kept going was for the clicker points. Her tests are pretty difficult but the majority of the questions are straight from old exams so make sure you get the correct answer tests to the practice tests and know the questions well
Most disappointing professor I've had. Lectures by this professor are so incredibly lacking in organization. Attendance - mandatory. However, you can learn everything more effectively by not paying attention in class and teaching yourself. Very nice lady, but should be teaching elementary school.
She's very enthusiastic and loves what she does. Her lectures may not seem cohesive but reading back through them they make a lot more sense. No book so lecture is a must and all tests are essay and difficult. She'll help you however she can though as long as you go see her.
Erin's passion for plants is very energizing. However, her somewhat disorganized and un-detailed slides can make following along in lecture difficult. She verbally spoke all of the necessary material but didn't speak with as much direction and detail as would have been necessary to answer all of her test questions well. Overall, average quality.
Dr Irish was not as clear or helpful as Holbrook was in this class. Her test questions were much more difficult and detail oriented making it hard to answer her questions correctly. She only covers plants, which might have been another reason I didn't like her as much. Study her material more in depth for the exams
I don't know why everyone dislikes her so much. She can be a bit awkward, but she knows her stuff and she gives you everything you need to answer her exam questions. Unlike most professors she isn't arrogant.
Her portions of the tests are impossible. Averages will be near fifty percent when the class consists of the smartest people at the university. Despite this, she actually made talking about plants and ecology interesting.
Dr. Irish is super nice, but super confusing. Her lectures are all over the place and it's extremely hard to figure out what information you actually need to learn versus what information is just extra. Her test questions are generally so-so. Her lectures are loooong and she loves to give clicker questions, so it makes it hard to miss class.
Had Irish for bio 1412 and her lectures over animal classification/plants were way easier than anything Holbrook lectured over, although much less interesting and less organized. Her exam questions are pretty straightforward as long as you don't mind memorization. Overall sucky class but she is enthusiastic and tries to be helpful in office hours.
Dr. Irish is clearly passionate about biology, but is quite unorganized and unclear. She goes off on tangents about saving animals, and constantly leaves lectures unfinished. Her lecture slides are very abstract. Just read the book chapters and you should be golden on the test. I found it super hard to keep up with her train of thought. JUST READ.
Dr. Irish is obviously enthusiastic about the material, but she doesn't translate that into a clear, purposeful lecture. The lectures are disorganized, so it's helpful to take notes before or after class, in addition to during class. She tests on a lot of material she covered in lecture that isn't in the book, so study both evenly.
Irish is a wild professor. She loves her plants, which I respect her passion. Her material isnt much but you should know everything she draws. You dont have to read the book for her section. Either shes wild in lecture or boring. Personally I thought she was fun, better than Holbrook hands down
She's cute and sweet. Her slides cover everything you need to know, but I'd recommend skimming the book to understand her notes (they can be pretty disorganized). The plant unit/exam was the hardest of the three. Lots of plant questions on the final. No practice exams were offered.
Thats my girl!!! she loves biology passionately and it makes me very happy. I love being in her lectures and i get everything she says. shes also hilarious and low key cute too
I think my opinions might be out of the norm BUT I came into this semester having almost no idea why I loves biology but I knew I did and I wanted to learn more. Irish is SO passionate about what she studies and teaches and that passion is translated into thoughtful lectures. After her lectures all I wanted to do was learn everything about PLANTS!
Irish is the better of the two Diversity professors. She LOVES plants. Plants and ecology are the easiest portion of the class, study what she underlines in her powerpoint and you should be fine.
By far and away the better of the two Diversity lecturers. She has a massive infatuation with everything and anything to do with plants and it's kinda cute. Often related material to real examples that she brought in which helped me understand the material better.
Dr. Irish is the sweetest and most passionate lady. The content she teaches is definitely a lot easier than Dr. Holbrook's, but her lectures were pretty disorganized. There were some concepts that she just could not explain effectively no matter how many times she tried.
Dr. Irish was such a joy to listen to. She genuinely enjoyed lecturing and the passion was apparent. Her exams are very difficult, but the curve usually balances it out. I did not particularly enjoy this class, but Dr. Irish certainly made it much better.
Professor Irish is a good professor. The hard thing is, she has the most boring unit to teach: plants. The material she teaches is a snooze fest but she does a good job for the material she is given. He exam questions can sometimes be worded a little tricky but she has passion!
I had Professor Irish for a biology seminar. In our discussion sections she always took time to ask each of us questions to get to know us. She is very passionate about what she does and is a real pleasure to listen to. A very smart, amazing woman!! She gets so excited over topics it's cute.
Dr. Irish taught the plants section of this course and I found her to be my favorite lecturer of the two, hands down. She made learning about plants way less boring than it has a right to be, and I say this as someone who is quite interested in plants. She is very sweet and cares for students and the material.
She does her best and obviously cares about the material but otherwise delivers it all in a dry, boring manner. Slides are disorganized and very succinct so you have to rewatch the lectures to absorb the material. The professor said she would update students about launchpad quizzes but failed to deliver on that promise.
She doesn't take criticism and doesn't own up to mistakes that she makes even when it's on a test. She likes the material and you can tell she is passionate but rambles too much and doesn't have clear objectives. She gets real snippy when you start to question her methods so don't do it. If you have a chance to take it with someone else I would.
I like how enthusiastic she is and willing to talk things through with students. However, half of her test questions are literally impossible, and the other half are worded so oddly that they are made extra hard for no reason. You can rewatch her overlong lectures (whopping 1h 9 minutes over 22 slides) then have none of that even be tested
Professor Irish is passionate about her field, but many of her lectures are dry and hard to follow. She also writes the longest, most obscure test questions Ive ever seen. Its hard to even understand what shes asking most of the time. I feel like shes just testing students IQ at this point and not if they know the material.
I loved that Professor Irish is super passionate about plants and teaching the course material, but her lectures were strenuous to watch and exam questions were extremely difficult. Half of her exam questions are so long and wordy they don't make sense.
I disliked the way she formatted her lectures. There was always a copious amount of information, which is not inherently bad, but she rarely if ever clearly defined anything. Many of her lecture slides were posed as questions that she did not answer or clarify, which left me to have to clarify and answer myself which did not help during exams.
Lectures are longggggg and consist of long rambles about plants. No way to study or prepare for her insanely long test questions that make no sense. Honestly, this class sucks but at least you can tell Irish is somewhat passionate about what she teaches. Good luck
I absolutely adore this woman. She is so cute when she lectures because you can tell that she really cares. The content is very difficult and many people find the topics quite boring. Try to get some enthusiasm from her enthusiasm and bring questions to her office hours. She gets SO excited when you ask her questions.
She seems like such a great person, but her lectures are all over the place. She is very hard to follow and her exam questions are very wordy and can be confusing. She's very passionate about what she teaches, so she often gets ahead of herself when lecturing. Because of her enthusiasm, she often tests on examples that she talked about in class.
Avoid if at all possible. Test questions are a paragraph each and aren't at all covered during lectures. Super passionate about the topics covered, but makes it extremely hard for no reason. Attendance is required because of the Iclickers. Don't bother with the textbooks.
She is the worst prof I have ever encountered. I went to office hours and she was super accusatory and unhelpful. Instructed me to look off of the slides as advice for studying and accused me of not looking there for the content- I'm sorry what?? The exams given in this course do not correlate to the content lectured or in the readings.
If you go to lecture and pay close attention, Irish is not that bad. She has a lot of passion over the subjects. She does a fairly decent job of dumbing down content. However if you miss lecture, slides are of little to no help. Exams are difficult and require deep understanding of complex content that is skimmed over in lecture.
Irish's exam questions were EXTREMELY hard and sometimes confusing to understand. I always did worse on her exams compared to Owings exams as she is very specific. I would suggest reading the book for additional information for Irish's sections as it seems you need to know everything before going into the exam.
I had Diversity of Form and Function with Dr. Irish. Her lectures were the worst I have experienced. They were extremely disorganized, extremely fast, and difficult to follow. I HAD to study the textbook because coming to class was pointless if she was lecturing. The tests were difficult but if you keep up on the material you'll do fine.
She does not like talking in lectures and her test questions are insanely difficult. Do not take!
The worst lecturer I have ever seen in my life. She makes basic concepts into impossible processes. She speaks super quite and punished us when we said we could not hear her by closing in class questions early so we could not fully think out our answers and no allowing us to talk or discuss these questions. Worst profesor ever.
Won't let us ask questions in lecture as she doesn't like the talking. Speaks so quiet you can't hear her half the time. Very rude in lecture. Skips around a lot and barely covers the (few!) slides she has. Slides are practically useless as she skips over a lot of content that you need the book to get instead. Exams were extremely difficult.
Who let this woman teach? She talks so quietly. Doesn't like students talking. Doesn't understand technology. Skips important information. She deserves a 0/5
One of the worst professors I have ever had. Avoid at all costs. She skims through lectures, and gets super detailed on the exams. It is very frustrating to think you have a concept down and then get to the exam and know nothing on it. I have even gone to office hours with her and nothing helps. It is very frustrating and I would not recommend.
cannot work a microphone. treated our biology class like preschoolers (shushes her students). does not know how to work technology
Everything negative you read about her is true. I wish her passion for plants made up for how bad of a lecturer she is, but it doesn't. Does a terrible job teaching concepts and then asks high level questions on those concepts in exams. Doesn't know how to handle a large lecture hall. My advice: skim the slides, learn concepts from the textbook.
Sweet woman, BIG plant mom. Super passionate about plants, it's cute and makes me feel bad for hating on her. Her slides are disorganized. HAVE to watch her hour long recordings to understand what's going on. Even then, it's unclear. Jumps around a lot, so it's hard to study her slides. I understood what's going on, but at the same time I didn't.
Most agree that Dr. Irish is very passionate about plants, which made her lectures engaging in my opinion. I just think students weren't too fond about learning about plants in comparison to the animal stuff, which made the course hard for some. However, if u just study her slides, an A is very doable! Dont procrastinate studying!!
Dr. Irish was excited about the material, but lectures move very quickly and it is difficult to tell which questions are important. Test questions centered on minute details that she mentioned once and were very difficult to study for. Not accommodating to students with disabilities and not receptive to questions in office hours.
horrible horrible horrible, do not recommend
She lectures as if everyone already knows the content. Exams= impossible. Don't take this class unless it's required for your major. Expect your GPA to go down AT LEAST 0.10.
This is quite possibly the worst professor I have ever experienced, she teaches as if everyone has already taken the class before (probably because she recognizes half of the faces from last semester because she failed them). As she lectures she talks like she has no idea what is on her own slides and she can't work a mic or Zoom.
Meh, she isn't that great of a lecturer, and her questions on the exams are specific to whatever she rambles on about, so you gotta pay attention lol. Hope they switch up this class and the lab bc it has no reason being this disorganized. Dr. Waltz is great though, and might be the only bright spot about the class.
Class content was not super complicating, but the exam questions are written in bad way that makes you wish you had studied for way longer and second guess the simplest things. My exam grade for the first exam, which was only written by her, was the worst of the semester. Dr.Waltz was the calm after the storm that she created.
She is a good person, but her lectures are not good. Towards the end of the year, I stopped going to lecture and took my own notes and it ended up working better. She is very smart and is good for office hours.
Erin Irish is the worst professor I have had at my time at Iowa. Her lectures are a drag to say the least. She goes on rants about certain plants for half the lecture and then will go over other parts of the lecture quickly. Several times throughout the course she stated "not on exam" yet it was. Her exams are impossible. Waltz is amazing though.
Truly the worst professor I have taken in the biology department. Writes lots of trick questions for top-hat/exam questions and speeds through material at a rate which is impossible to digest. Ridiculed me and my friends for walking out of lecture the day before a midterm when she had said she had finished teaching new material for the coming exam.
Dr. Irish is a very nice professor, she really does mean well. However, her lectures are tough to follow and her exam questions are very difficult for the material. I think the biggest problem is simply the content she is teaching. It is new to most people and makes it much harder for her to explain well. Study early for exams!
If it wasn't for the coordination with Dr.Waltz with this course, it would have an extremely high fail rate. Several times she came into lecture and joked/bragged about how many of her questions tricked people into getting the wrong answer. She gets satisfaction from seeing her students fail, even if you understand the material and studied.
Absolute horrendous professor. Please take a different biology class. At Iowa, Diversity Form and Function is for some reason the second expected bio class one takes. Erin Irish is horrible. Very bleak lectures where nothing is made clear and on exams you are expected to know outside information as well independent of the lectures.
I realized there is much to live for other than studying plants as my gun jammed.
All she does is go over the slides with no clear clarifications on the main concept. Her lectures are very boring to be honest and students in the back can barely hear because of her low toned voice.
Half of her exam questions are not about anything we learned in class. Her exam questions are near impossible. she often will go on and on about topics that have nothing to do with content. I hope the university does something about this problem
Lets put it briefly, worst professor ever
She is a cute grandma, but there's a reason my grandma isn't teaching an intense biology course. Her lectures are not accessible at all as her mic pack cracks the entire class and she does nothing to fix it, so you literally cannot hear her. Her slides are often unusable because she puts different slides on ICON than what she presents. Good Luck!
Dr. Irish is very nice and cares a lot about her class, and is super smart. I wish I had more good things to say. Lectures are hard to follow as she does not connect the dots between topics, slides are not formatted well and confusing. Could never fully hear her during lectures even though she had a mic on. Her. test questions are extremely hard.
I could write a novel but let's just say Brandon Waltz is the only good thing that happened with this class. Good luck! I'd rather take my hardest class six times over again then deal with Irish again. I wish her nothing but the best but man her exams are hard and lectures are unhelpful. Did better on an exam not studying than 15 hours of studying!
She is a nice person but shouldn't be teaching this class, It is so frustrating having her write the exam questions and not having them connect back to what she taught in class.
Dr Irish is a very nice person and does seem to care about her students but should have retired a long time ago. Does not understand technology well and her lectures are poorly organized with little to no consistency. She writes very confusing test questions that test you on your logical reasoning rather than knowledge of the content.
She is so sweet which is why it pains me to say this. Simply put, awful. Her lectures are so incoherent and scatterbrained its not funny. No cohesion or connection with any concepts. Her exam questions were unrelated to almost everything in the lectures and were unnecessarily difficult.
Her lectures are definitely more difficult to follow that Dr. Waltz's, and she will oftentimes put very specific things from the lecture on the exam. It's definitely not impossible, but just know that her exam questions are typically harder/will require you to think and remember a lot more.
she is the most evil teacher in the biology department.
Dr. Irish is clearly very passionate about what she teaches, and she is animated during lecture. She is a very sweet lady. Her exam questions are significantly harder than Dr. Waltz's. It is hard to take a lot away from her lectures because she doesn't say much more than what is on the slides (not a lot of explanation).
She really likes the career she is in but the way she teaches simply isnt good. She is all over the place, overcomplicated topics or scrambled sentences. Her tests are the worst part. The questions are often long, wordy and hard to comprehend. If you can do well in lab and on Waltz tests, you should get a decent grade, but I dont recommend Irish.
Dr. Irish is extremely caring and she's not out to get anybody. People claim she's a bad prof, but if they would just listen to her, they would see everything she says is in the exam. Her questions are very difficult though sadly! I believe people don't like her because she teaches about plants, which is entirely unfair. She's a great professor.
EVERYTHING ON THE SLIDES CAN BE ON EXAM. Even things you spent a minute talking about in class and never brought up again. Her MCQs were pretty brutal. Lectures contained all the content you need, which is good but again every little thing can go on that exam
Her lectures often focus around plant material but as long as you are present and listen to what she says it's pretty straightforward. Her questions may come off as more difficult than Dr. Waltz but are not as bad as people make them out to be. Dr. Irish is very passionate about her field of study and personally one of my favorite professors.
I tried giving her an honest chance, but she genuinely was a horrible and cruel professor. Her questions are unrealistically difficult and far off from what she lectures. After exams I would search her lectures trying to find the content but it was no where in the notes, or had to be deeply analyzed from the smallest bit of content. Stay far away.
I don't even know what to say other than good luck. Her lectures are okay, but each exam question is like an essay. If you can read and comprehend things quick, you'll be good, but kind of hard for a biology exam with a decent amount of questions.
Test questions are unrelated to the content and nearly impossible.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
73%
Textbook Required
44%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.72 avg changeRatings by Course
FUNDGENETICS
5.0
(1)BIOL1808
5.0
(1)PLANTDEVELOPME
4.5
(2)BIOLOGY
4.0
(1)BIO1
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
002010
5.0
PRINCIPLESOFB
5.0
PRINCILPLESBIO
5.0
BIO1
5.0
BIOPLANTS
5.0