An amazing lab professor. I had a great time with Professor Patten and he saved me from losing all faith in BIOL 104 (Hamilton and Fox are the most depressing professors). A wonderful, new asset to the department.

He is a great new lab professor. Very helpful and fun and interesting. The one good thing about this course.

Prof Patten is amazing. He is an incredible and very funny and witty professor. Hiring him is probably the best thing that has ever happened to the bio department. I want to take every course that he's teaching! What a fantastic professor. You do not find people like him often so while he's your professor appreciate every second!

Great professor! I took bio lab over the summer, and he was very helpful, funny, and made lab awesome. I hope I can take another lab with him again, and if you have the chance, definitely take him.

Amazing lab professor! He is actually clear about what you need to do unlike all the other professors. Restored hope in the Georgetown Biology Department. Oh and he is not so bad on the eyes either!

Easily one of my favorite teachers at Georgetown. As a lab professor and lecturer, he is interesting, organized, funny and genuinely cares about his students.

Super enthusiastic, hilarious and easygoing. Easy to listen to his lectures. He makes the material simple and down to the point. Still, he is teaching really hard subjects, and expects a lot from his students. Pretty hard grader, but not impossible to get A if you put the work in. One of my favorite professors at Georgetown - highly recommend.

Awesome! He uses funny analogies to relate bio to his students. Everyone looks forward to his lectures. He co-teaches with Profs. Hamilton and Fox, but he's clearly the best professor of the three. Take his class if you want to learn.

Don't take his courses if you just want an "easy A." But I strongly recommend taking him if you want to meet the nicest, most interesting, engaging, and competent professors at Georgetown.

Professor Patten is arguably the best teacher in the Biology Department. He challenges students to think about science through problem solving and reasoning, rather than rote memorization. Take any of his courses if you are interested in learning how to think like a scientist. He is the epitome of what all science professors should be.

Patten is the best! Engaging, energetic, and clearly interested in seeing students do well. Difficult teacher, as he won't just feed information and expects you to take the next steps yourself. One of the best Bio professors at Georgetown.

Easily one of my favorite profs at Georgetown. He's a brilliant man, and you can tell from the way he teaches lab and how he is in office hours that he really wants his students to learn and become better scientists. I really left feeling like I'd gained a lot from his course, not just unnecessary exercises I wouldn't use years down the line.

Professor Patten is a gem. He is engaging, has a great sense of humor, and sincerely wants his students to learn and succeed. In the lab, he is clear and more than willing to help. Although Foundations is an extremely large course, he is attentive to each individual student (especially in his lab sections). His passion for biology is contagious.

Manus Patten is a true icon. He's hilarious and just an great human being overall. He's really passionate about what he teaches, and he's always willing to help you out if you need help. He's super approachable and loves to get to know his students. Please take him if you can whether for a lab or a lecture, he's a real gem.

Prof. Patten is awesome. One of the funniest and best professors you'll come across. His tests are pretty tough, but if you put the work in you'll be fine. If you can, take lab with him. He's great in office hours, and really takes time to help you out.

A true gem! Prof. Patten is a great mentor and teaches the TA cohort for Foundations. He is hilarious and motivating and does a great job teaching us how to teach. Taking BIOL 203 may seem like an annoying requirement, but Patten really makes it worth it!

Patten is such a great choice for Foundations II Lab! He's super nice and funny and really cares about your performance in lab. The TAs grade everything but Patten gives them guidelines, and he's always fair even though he might be harsher than the other profs. Overall, you will learn a lot about the process of scientific research!! Take Patten :)

Took him for Ev. Proc. as well as Found. II. Prof Patten is simply the best. Seriously. I am into microbio, but he made me appreciate evolution and get excited about stats! My best advice is this- yes, he speaks fast, but it's because he's passionate. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. He gives great explanations and will really work to help you understand!

Manus is amazing and by far the best introduction I could have gotten to the bio major. His lectures are insanely funny and his office hours are genuinely helpful. Sure, he speaks fast, but the lecture capture (Panopto) he uses makes catching up on lecture content a breeze.

Patten has been my favorite teacher at Georgetown. I was a little nervous about taking Foundations II, but he made it super interesting and engaging. He really emphasizes "pattern" and "process". I studied for tests by making a chart of those two things and listing all the concepts. It's very concept heavy, so do the problem sets. Great teacher!

Prof Patten is a real gem. He's really fun and engaging in lectures and is overall very animated which makes the content more interesting. You should definitely go out of your way to get him for your Foundations II lab professor

He is such a genuinely kind person and it is clear that he loves what he is teaching. He makes assignments/exams/reports very reasonable and I left the class feeling like I actually learned a lot. The course was structured around four units with unit exams at the end of each, and there were 3 reports. You get what you put in! Great choice.

Prof Patten makes Bio pretty fun. He was very generous with timelines in light of the pandemic. Nothing had a firm due date other than lab work. All tests were open notes, but graded a bit harshly. The material is somewhat interesting and Patten tries to display real world examples, unfortunately that makes it a bit tough to follow the key points.

This class killed me. I went to a lot of his office hours but I can't say they helped. I love ecology so it was sad I did worse in Foundations 2 than Foundations 1.

Patten is a really awesome professor. First off the class is amazingly easy which makes lectures so much more enjoyable. Secondly, Patten is seriously the sweetest and is really funny as well. Highly recommend taking this course over Foundations I!

I loved Foundations 2! If you're pre-med Patten does a good job trying to make ecology more palatable. Very accommodating if sick, rewrite opportunities available for every paper, and he was really funny during lectures. You didn't have to show up but many of us did regardless. Don't need textbook, 4 tests, 3 big labs, no final exam.

Good class! Definitely got bored during lectures and Patten can go on tangents or things that seem irrelevant at times, but he was a very flexible teacher, helped out with the weekly homework, and always graded fairly for tests. Very understanding + accommodating, and one of the easier STEM professors around.

Professor Patten was a decent lecturer and made lots of dad jokes, which I appreciated, but he went on tangents frequently. Loose deadlines provided a lot of flexibility but also prolonged the time we needed to wait for feedback on assignments. Though tests were difficult, there were lots of easy points that made getting a good grade manageable.

Prof Patten is a kind, caring prof who definitely knows his stuff. I thought lecture material was boring, but I didn't think he was a boring lecturer. Tests are take-home, but for units 1, 2, and 4, the questions are very open-ended. I often didn't see how the test questions related to lecture. This class was def easier than Foundations I.

His tests don't make too much sense sometimes, but the class is fun. Reports graded by Prof & TA so feedback is decent & opportunity for a resubmission to boost grade. Overall not a bad choice for foundations.

Professor Patten is a funny lecturer, and although I am very much not an ecology person, he made it bearable. All the exams were take-home and open-note, but they were difficult! He is very understanding, though, and a reasonable grader despite vague guidelines. Don't be afraid to ask for points back if you think you deserve them on assignments!

Patten is one of the best biology profs I've ever taken. He's super accommodating with due dates and friendly with engaging lectures. Tests are open-note and take-home but they're also pretty open-ended, so they're stressful to take but it's fairly easy to do well. There's also lots of help available outside of lectures!

One of my favorite professors ever at Georgetown. Flexible deadlines, always available for help outside of class, and a genuinely nice person. Cares about his students and has a true passion for teaching and helping students understand the content. Learning the R programming language was a bit difficult, but his teaching style and help got me an A.

I loved Patten. I am not a huge science person, but Foundations II was so easy. It's a good option for the science requirement. His lectures were great and engaging, but they are not required. I went to two lectures all semester, and I'm ending with an A. He is super accessible outside of class, and he's the most understanding professor I know.

A solid ecology-based intro biology course. While it would have been appreciated for lecture materials to be more accessible online, Dr. Patten's instruction was rather insightful and encouraged a lot of thinking.

Prof Patten is an entertaining lecturer and is very passionate about ecology. Def a lot of work, but not awful for college bio and is not terrible for science for all. Grade mostly depends on 3 take home tests + 3 papers (2 scientific ones), feedback can be unclear depending on who grades it. Go to office hours and guss, it will make a difference.

Honestly, even though I didn't like this class, Patten was a good lecturer. The way he taught the lectures were engaging, and he is a hilarious man. The tests and labs were ridiculous. Labs could be very boring, and the tests were graded with no criteria. In general, this would be a relatively easy science class.

Professor Patten is one of those professors that really is engaged in what they are doing. This was a tougher class for me as it was broad in scope and tests were in unique formats; however, I enjoyed the perspectives and insights I gained from this class, science and non-science.

Dad jokes in class. Great guy. His tests, though, were graded weirdly and difficult. They are take-home, though. Make sure to go to office hours for abstract concepts. He is very caring and helpful.

Such an amazing prof!! Loved going to lecture every day and he really cares about students and class environment. Although he can go on tangents and often goes over class time, he's super funny and a really nice guy. The exams were pretty strange but they push you to really understand material.

I went into Foundations 2 as someone not incredibly interested in ecology/evolution side of biology but I genuinely enjoyed the class. The exams were open note/open google. I think he really cared about you learning how to think vs. memorizing a bunch of facts. Lectures were easy to follow and interesting. I would recommend.

Decent professor, tests are open-book but somewhat hard, super nice and enthusiastic about the course material. Went to office hours a lot and it was really helpful. Even though I didn't find the course material super interesting, Patten makes the course somewhat fun.

Loved Professor Patten - he's a really funny guy and I thought the lectures were super interesting. Def attend lectures because that's mostly what tests are on. Tests were pretty difficult - much more applying concepts instead of memorization - but lots of OH opportunities. I only read textbook when confused in class

Yes, you need to know every conceptual model on every slide and be able to imagine how it functions in other scenarios. Great lecturer, but it's impossible to prioritize studying because 1/6 of the test may be dedicated to testing a topic he spent 2 minutes on the slide for. The only way to anticipate scoring is by practicing previous years' exams

Manus is hardworking, caring prof. Not many out there like him. Advice: (1) Flex your critical thinking skills, don't just memorize content. (2) Don't skip class, take it seriously. (1) Really dig into old exams. If you're stumped every time you try a question, that should be the signal for "hey I'm actually not getting this like I thought I was".

Very unique quizzes; said mandatory attendance because it made me pick; You should go!

I love Manus' class!! Yes, you do need to pay close attention in lecture- I usually rewatch his lectures to study and his summary chapters are super helpful!! Manus also truly cares about his students doing well and he's so accessible outside of class. I recommend going to office hours because he's super nice to talk to! 100% recommend

Manus is my GOAT! The class isn't the easiest, but there are tons of buffers in the gradebook and he's so accessible for extra support. He's funny and genuinely cares about his students (he literally met with everyone after the first exam). Figure out a study plan that works for you, lock in on labs and you can definitely get an A. #daddymanus

Manus is clearly extremely knowledgeable and cares deeply not only about the course content but also about the success of every single student in the class. Every test is 2 parts and he only takes the higher grade and drops the low one. I don't even like science but I would take another class with him because he is a great guy.

What a fun guy! 1 credit R class definitely valuable for an overview (though I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing), but you'll need to devote at least a few hours to each assignment.