2.6
Quality3.6
Difficulty35%
Would Retake84
Reviews35%
Would Retake
84
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
12
4
13
3
12
2
24
1
23
What Students Say
“For a 100 level class, it was very difficult”
BZ104 - 3.0 rating“She is a little awkward but she really cares about her students and their success”
LIFE103 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
65%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.21 avg changeRatings by Course
LIFE320
4.7
(3)LIFE203
4.0
(1)BZ104
3.3
(9)LIFE102
2.7
(3)BZ450
2.6
(5)Difficulty by Course
BZ120
4.2
LIFE62825
4.0
LIFE203
4.0
BZ101
3.8
BZ104
3.8
Reviews (84)
For a 100 level class, it was very difficult. Be prepared to take a crazy amount of notes. And also be ready to learn biology all over again form high school. Her notes are very simplistic, and her exams become very technical. If you are looking for an easy class, this is NOT the one you want. Save yourself and stay away from BZ 104.
I have Dr. Blackburn this semester and she's wonderful. Her lectures are clear and easy to understand, she has no problems stopping to answer questions for people in the class, and she is very willing to help outside of class if needed. I think people giving her negative reviews don't understand that college is hard work and are blaming her for it.
She has no information on her slides and rushes through the information just make sure everything gets done instead of focusing on the quality of her lectures. Thus it's much harder to actually study for a test. Worst professor this semester.
Im in her Life 103 class right now. I have a great academic ethic as im older then the average student. Age of 26. This is my second degree and she is by far the worst professor I've ever had.... I would not EVER recommend this teacher if your smart or not.. Her lectures are so heavy and fast paced.. Ive had a F all semester.. Good luck!
She is very disorganized in her lecture. She goes on about random topics but does not hit the overarching topics. This class is very detail orientated as most biology is but her organization makes studying concepts very difficult. She was the only teacher for lecture so there was not really an option.
Blackburn is a very disorganized professor. I have her at 8 am, and I leave her class more confused than ever. You need to read the text book just to clarify what she taught. Having her Freshmen year is very difficult.
The lectures she gives are very confusing. She moves very fast through her slides and most of the content is not presented on the slides but said instead so it is hard to follow along and difficult to pick out which pieces are the most important to study.
She is overall the worst teacher I have ever had. Her lectures are scattered and disorganized. She won't put lecture slides online. Her tests are confusing and more specific than she was in lecture. Her tests have trick questions. If you are looking to actually learn something in this course I wouldn't recommend taking it with her.
Dr. Blackburn is an awful professor. Her lectures are boring and she does NOT post slides online. Her exams are 90% lectures so you have to go. She also goes through slides very quickly and does not explain well. There are 5 online homework quizzes, iclickers points, and 4 HARD exams. Do not take this professor if you do not have to.
Her tests are difficult only if you don't study. She does make you work for your grade but she is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. You will learn a lot in her classes (P. S she has two adorable daughters)
I've had her for 2 classes and both times have really enjoyed her class. Life 320 has weekely quizzes and 3 exams and a final that are a mix of multiple choice,fill in the blank and short answer but are only hard if you don't study. Show up to class and study and you'll be fine.
She's a nice person, but not a great professor. The lectures just follow the book so the only reason to go is for clicker points. Whenever people ask questions that go at all deeper than what's on the slide, her answer is always "that's a good question but I don't know the answer". She also doesn't post all of the slides online. Avoid if possible
This class is really nothing special, just taking notes on the lecture and an exam every few weeks. The lectures aren't the most fun thing in the world, but the class is not hard and can easily be reviewed, the difficulty can be compared to an AP Biology course in high school.
She is a super sweet person, but her lectures are all over the place. She moves so fast that there is barely time to write things down and does not put the slides online. Her tests are also very detailed but she does offer a little extra credit but you have to work for it
Dr. Blakcburn is a really nice person. She is very intelligent and approachable. But, she takes forever to grade things and it is tough to see how you are doing in her class when some assignments haven't been put in over a month. Overall, the class is not bad just study the powerpoints and you will be good.
THe material in this class is really hard, but the professor really tries to explain it in simple ways, and sometimes even tries to make up helpful sayings to memorize things easier. Tests and clicker points are the only graded parts of this class (besides the 25% lab grade), so study really hard on tests.
The class is good quality! I had Blackburn last semester (my freshman yr). The material covered in class is very representative of the exams! Stay on top of the presentation material, and pay attention to your lab grade (lab practicals are REALLY difficult and have the potential to drop your grade, so take them seriously). This class is manageable!
Dr. Blackburn is caring and approachable, however her ability to teach and explain topics is limited and it can be very hard to follow along. Her slides are very poor and cannot be used to supplement studying due to lack of content. So if you want to learn you will have to listen to her speak, which can be difficult due to her poor style of teachin
The worst professor ive ever had
This Professor does not seem like she knows how to answer many questions in class. When a student asks a question the usual response is "Yano I'm not really sure". She doesn't know how to Lecture in a smooth and easily understandable way and briefly goes over complex processes. This Professor is not helpful whatsoever and an Idiot.
The lecture notes are kind of helpful, and that's all the class really is. Heather was very sweet and helpful if you ask questions and dug a little. She drops 2 assignments and an exam which is really nice too. You kind of have to teach yourself the information before exams, connecting all the notes. Online quiz due once a week.
For my LIFE103 class, it was split between two professors. Blackburn taught the plants section, and I learned a lot in her lectures. I found her lecture interesting even though the plant section of the class is suppose to be the "boring half". She was resourceful, and her tests accurately reflected what we learned in lecture. She's really good.
boring lectures. talks about some irrelevant information. sometimes clicker questions. goes through lecture slides very fast. go go go type of lecture. HW is just once a week online
I loved Heather. She is a little awkward but she really cares about her students and their success. Her lecture slides aren't super detailed so it is important to actually listen and comprehend what she says. Her tests are more about understanding and applying the material versus memorization, but overall they are very fair.
Very nice
Blackburn taught the plant half of LIFE103. I honestly loved her lectures. Her slides were vague, but she explained the material pretty well. Regardless, she was genuine and passionate about plants and ecology. There were iClicker questions for credit. The exams were easy to understand. I wish she taught the entire course and not just half of it.
Heather is potentially one of the best professors I've had. During the online transition she has been very attentive, sending out constant announcement to make sure everyone is on the same page and takes time to answer everyone's questions. Her lectures can be "vague" but that's because she wants you to attend class. Overall super amazing :)
I loved Dr. Blackburn! She is very knowledgeable and passionate about the material, and she explains it really well. She posts her slides but they're not very descriptive, so you have to go to class and take notes if you want to pass. If you pay attention in lecture, you'll do fine in the class.
Blackburn is amazing! Took ecology with her this summer, and she made the transition online so easy. She presents everything in such an interesting way, and her class is truly enjoyable! She's so helpful and caring. Could not recommend her enough.
I had Heather immediately after we went online. Her quizzes could be a bit hard, but were usually doable. Despite not knowing the technology preciously she did a commendable job this semester. Heather is very sweet and wants you to succeed.
An Angel! Watching her presentations were almost like listening to an informative podcast, she engages with students and makes sure we understand concepts. She's very thorough and so so sweet which makes attending class enjoyable.
She's really nice, but she is quite disorganized and she doesn't really know what she's doing. I was supposed to get extended time on a test and she never read my email or read the SDC emails until after the test. There's no homework, no quizzes, your grade DEPENDS on your tests. The tests are based on lectures so the textbook won't help you.
This class was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. If you have the chance, take the insect class instead. Professor Blackburn, however, is a nice woman who cares about what she teaches. Her lectures are extremely fast-paced and cover so much content. The exams are extremely difficult, but she lets you drop your lowest score.
good luck.
Professor Blackburn is really sweet and for sure knows her stuff. That said, the class is lecture heavy - be ready to take essential notes everyday. Take plant bio with her if you are prepared to show up - no biggie if you miss some days but this isn't a no-stress kind of class. I have no strong feelings either way - she's cool.
This is a tough, fast-moving class, but Dr. Blackburn teaches it really well. It can be tough to keep up with her, but if you set your mind to it, the class is very doable. Exams are hard but cover exactly what she's taught us. Only problem is she's a logistical mess sometimes when it comes to keeping dates straight and posting stuff on Canvas.
Shes knowledgable about the material and very nice and approachable. However, I found this class to be a pain. The exams were WAY too in-depth compared to the broad topics in lecture. The lectures kind of start to get monotonous. i found some of the topics interesting, but would not take this class again for the headache that came with it.
We had a virtual class because (2020-2021). She was super sweet and really passionate about plants which helps a ton with the plant unit! She showed us her plants on Zoom which was super adorable. I did well on most of the exams once the plant unit started, but I did bad the start of semester. I love biology so her class was fun, but study :)
She was fine. Doesn't know how to go into depth during lectures. Book heavy. I wish she didn't teach the animal portion of Life 103.
The lecture slides were packed with information that made the class confusing. Didn't learn anything, and she's very book heavy. Wish she didn't teach the plant section.
The lecture slides were packed with information that made the class confusing. Her slides were also very unorganized. Didn't learn anything, and she's very book heavy. Wish she didn't teach the animal section.
Heather Blackburn is just OK. She is a very nice person but she is very lecture intense and sometimes will make you fall asleep in class (and that is coming from someone who never falls asleep in class). Her slides are inadequate and they need work. Overall, would not take a class with her again.
Sometimes she can be hard to follow in lecture and her tests can be poorly written. Her smart-book hw can be up to 80 concepts usually around 65. The comprehensive final was not that hard. overall does not require much effort to be in her class. attendance is not taken but I - Clicker is used for participation points.
NEVER TAKE BZ 120 from Heather Blackburn. She is teaching an entry-level 100 class as an upper-level 400 class with the way the tests are worded. She has no idea of any tutoring available and her test average was in the low 60/ upper 50 each time. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE, if you can take animal bio instead and save yourself a lot of stress
The course itself has a LOT of content to cover and she moves very quickly. Don't skip class or you'll be so lost. She is always willing to help her students with any questions and the tests have bonus questions to boost your grade. Its a hard class, but I found it interesting and I learned so much
This class is way too difficult of a course for an entry-level 100 class and the way it is taught doesn't offer much help. Dr. Blackburn lacks clarity when answering questions or providing information about what will be on exams, which makes it very difficult to feel prepared no matter how much effort is put into studying.
No study guide. Lectures have incorrect grammar, spelling mistakes and are lacking tons of information. Exam questions are meant to trick students and are detail heavy with information that is not found in the slides. Go to class or you will miss a bunch of information that cannot be found anywhere else. There are no LAs or any other study material
Blackburn is obviously very knowledgeable when it comes to biology, but the course load is immense, and that detracts from the quality of the class, and this is seen in the grades for the tests with most being in the 50s and 60s before test corrections. Grading clarity is also an issue.
She is a very nice person and it's clear she has a lot of passion for what she teaches, but the exams were difficult. You'll need to do more than just study the slides because some of the questions were over stuff not on the slides. The slides also weren't posted with everything on them so you need to go to class. Not a lot of homework though.
The course was challenging by itself but when you ask questions she kind of avoids them and doesn't give you a straight answer which really sucks. You have to pay very close attention to what she says on lectures because that's what she will use for the exams. She's very approachable but overall not very helpful.
I despised this class. Not only does she teach this class at a 400 level, when it is a 100 level course, but she is also not teaching the information that you will see on exams. The slides were worded awfully, and many times had incorrect information. She also refuses to give any other study material and many other things.
I don't know how much control Dr. Blackburn had over the difficulty of this class, but it was tough. No study guides for any of the exams (even the cumulative final) and slides had very few words so it was hard to take notes. She did give some extra credit opportunities though, and she's caring and passionate. Also willing to meet outside of class.
Absolutely terrible teaching style and extremely hard to follow during lectures. The quizzes have barely anything to do with the lectures and she doesn't even let you see what you got wrong on previous quizzes so you don't know what your strengths and weaknesses are on the content. The quiz questions are tricky and not intuitive. Don't take her.
Plenty nice, but when it comes to quizzes it's really hard to study the content that will be in the quiz because organization, definitions, and wording differ between lecture and the textbook. This could be fixed with a study guide but she doesn't provide any. ever. Concepts are also rarely connected and vague tangents are one of the only constants
Super super sweet, her teaching style was a bit harder for me than the other professor in my section as well as her quizzes are much different/hard than her lecture
Her lectures are difficult and oftentimes do not line up with the material on the quizzes. Her part of the course was much more difficult, and sometimes she is hard to follow in class. Definitely requires a LOT of studying outside of class.
Dr. Blackburn's lectures were disorganized and it was difficult to understand the material clearly. She would often ramble to the point where I was left even more confused on the topic than before she taught it. Quiz questions based on details in the textbook rather than her lectures, even though she would tell us they would focus on the lectures.
This class was an absolute nightmare to take. Blackburn simultaneously taught the class with another professor and it was always difficult when they would switch since they were constantly all over the place. Attendance is required but the lectures are useless, exams were insanely difficult. Class average was always a 50% - 60%. Do not take.
This class was hard! I typically do very well in science classes with minimal effort but the tests in this class were extremely challenging! Tests had an average of about 50% The way questions are worded makes it difficult. I would take another class from her if it came down to it, she is very sweet but if you miss any classes it's hard to catch up
So hard for an entry level class. Most people take this course for the AUCC credit, and are not studying biology for their focus. I'm not sure if it's the class, or the teacher, but this class was really, very difficult. If you haven't taken AP Bio in high school, I don't recommend this course.
Difficult class for it being a 100-level. There are 4 exams plus a 50-point cumulative final. The lowest exam grade gets dropped. The class average on exams was typically around 60%. Lectures are very fast-paced and so much information is covered. Is accessible outside of class and seems like a nice person, but would not recommend the class.
Professor Blackburn is so sweet and really cares about her students. I feel bad because she has to cover so much material. That being said, this class covers a lot in so much detail. Averages on exams were 50-60%, so we get to do some test corrections which helps boost the grade. I really don't think the difficulty of this class is her fault.
She got off-track most classes & would start talking about her days in college. 4 exams, ranging from 4-6 chapters no notes. Class average was 50%. It was really hard to follow along during her lectures, when asked a question she always said, "That's a great question thx for asking" and would move on. Don't take for AUCC credits.
Her lectures were unorganized, boring, and uninformative. She never knew the answers to any questions pertaining to the material. The tests covered a large range of subjects and were quite challenging; they were also a high percentage of the overall grade. If you have the chance to take this class with anyone else, do it.
I took LIFE 320 with Dr. Blackburn this summer. She was amazing, she definitely cares about her students and she'll answer any of your questions. The class was 4 weeks long so we had an exam at the end of every week which was a little bit challenging but if you go to class and ask her questions at the exam review sessions they're easy.
Do not take this course with Dr. Blackburn. Requires a ridiculous amount of time studying outside of class to maintain a high grade. She is a very nice person, but is horrible at conveying complex topics in a way that makes sense. This was one of the hardest courses I've taken throughout college, including lots of upper division science classes.
Speaks more about personal life than content.
RUN! DO NOT TAKE HER! The worst Professor I've ever had. I'm telling yall DO NOT TAKE HER!
Unorganized, hard to follow, links don't work, typos in materials, point values don't justify amount of work, illustrations / photos for reference are poor and make you wonder what you're looking at or make you more confused...the list is never ending. I don't doubt that she's knowledgeable, but knowledge doesn't equate teaching ability.
All of the tests are based on lecture material, her slide notes are minimal, so make sure your taking notes. The individuals that claim this class is hard either don't know how to properly take notes and study or they want the easiest A of their life. She's very engaging and lectures passionately.
Her "study guides" are just a list of every single topic we've covered in class, lacking additional resources or guidance for exam preparation, which is crucial for our success in the course. She rambles in lectures, which are often disorganized and hard to follow.
Her slides contain no information, and she provides no study materials. The exams are complicated and cover too many topics to effectively study in a short period of time. She expects students to remember everything she says, even if she has only mentioned it once, and she is not very helpful when asked to elaborate on certain topics.
Slides contain little to no information - most of her slides consist of only images. Hard to contact her as well, she never responded to any emails or canvas messages sent, had to reply on going to office hours for any questions I had. It was hard to study as her "study guide" were a couple words on a topic to study on. Lab was relatively easy.
Yes her slides are minimal, but if you take notes you're fine? Do people wish she just read of the slides… that's not teaching. Curious to what peoples study methods are because I have gotten above 90 on every test. Guess what, all I do is go to class and review my notes 5-7 days before the test… She teaches passionately!!
Awful no lecture slides and very poor at actually teaching material
She is OK. Not the most engaging professor but by far not the worst I've ever had. Only tips i have are that the exams are very wordy and test you on overall concepts and not definitions only. Study for comprehension of processes not vocabulary. You might have extra credit bonus quizzes to makeup exam points if overall exam scores are low.
Dr. Blackburn is great to talk to in small groups or one-on-one but her lectures don't make any sense. There is no flow and it's impossible to look back on the slides and understand what the lecture was about. She also answers too many questions (many that should be asked NOT in the middle of class). Exams are unnecessarily long and difficult.
terrible. tests were 50 questions in 50 mins but the study guide didn't relate to the questions at all, we weren't able to keep previous tests making studying even harder. lectures weren't engaging and hard to take notes for since she would go off on tangents of useless stuff. unless you already know the topics of this class WELL you'll struggle.
Studying is highly suggested! But the course as a whole was easy. All tests were multiple choice with occasional extra credit. Textbook was online and required for homework. Attendance is mandatory via iClickers. Her lectures tend to be all over the place, but can be pretty informative. Notes are the only way I kept track of anything we covered.
If you have the chance to take this class with another professor or get a substitution, do it. Disorganized, does not provide helpful study materials, no quizzes to gauge understanding, and difficult exams. Weekly online articles are assigned and can take hours to comprehend. Back-end heavy, with most lab work due the last two weeks of class.
You basically have to teach yourself again before every exam. Exam resources, if available at all, are very vague.
I really loved Dr. Blackburn! She explained things in an interesting and digestible way. She also seemed to care for her students' well beings. She was very approachable to ask for help with the course, and made sure everyone felt welcome at office hours! I hope I get to take her again, and might even seek to take a class by her even if it's extra!
I really felt like Dr. Blackburn cared about her students. She inspired us to learn about the subject in an exciting way!
If you can take 103 with someone else you should
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
65%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.21 avg changeRatings by Course
LIFE320
4.7
(3)LIFE203
4.0
(1)BZ104
3.3
(9)LIFE102
2.7
(3)BZ450
2.6
(5)Difficulty by Course
BZ120
4.2
LIFE62825
4.0
LIFE203
4.0
BZ101
3.8
BZ104
3.8