University of Texas student comments about Mark Loewe

During his most recent year of teaching physics laboratories at The University of Texas, Mark Loewe taught several sections of Physics 102K -- General Physics Lab I. All student comments from official course-instructor surveys are transcribed below; no comments are excluded and all were given anonymously.

The teaching of this lab appeared to be more than just a job for Mr. Loewe. He took a genuine interest in the students understanding Physics and being able to apply our laboratory activities to lectures in class. Mr. Loewe was excellent in explaining both the scientific concepts and the laboratory techniques. He made the lab an exciting learning experience. Physics concepts that I was unable to understand were explained so that I could easily comprehend them. My questions both in & outside the lab were answered without me being made to feel foolish for asking.

Mark was very well organized and always was well prepared for the labs. He made it much easier for the students. There is no area that I can find for criticism. Overall he was the best lab instructor that I have had.

Mark is a good man. He is organized, understandable, and respected a student's response & situation. The material was comprehensible and interesting only because of his interpretation and explainations. The book was not good.

Mark explains the material very well. He knows how to deal with people. The material or rather the way the material is typed up in our lab books is very confusing. The procedures often were unclear and Mark would have to alter them. He should write or re-write the lab book, it would be a lot more clear.

Mark really knows his stuff. The problems I had with this class were my own, not because of Mark. The labs were enjoyable and if I had to take a physics lab again, I would want to be in his lab.

Mark, in my opinion, is a very good TA & is overall a very good person. He was very open & helpful when I had problems & questions.

Mark was a very good lab instructor -- especially since he was easy to approach & question. He always cleared up what the lab manual was trying to say.

This lab instructor was one of the best lab teachers I have had. He made it very clear as to what the lab procedure was and how to do it. He answered questions with enthusiasm. The only problem with the lab was that there wasn't enough time to finish the labs. But I enjoyed having this lab instructor.

I feel the lab instructor did an excellent job seeing as the lab manual sucked. There was much technical jargon in the manual but little explanation.

This lab was taught well and Mark was a good lab T.A.. He was easy to understand, and most of all, he was very easy to talk to.

Your explanations of some of the material helped out with understanding the lecture. Your class had a nice, humorous air to it. (Joking etc.) Enjoyed it!

The instructor was very courteous and had a good personality when talking with you. I enjoyed this T.A., he made the class very tolerable.

I enjoyed this part of Physics much more than the lectures. I always felt that I knew what was going on. The instructor was friendly and willing to answer questions.

I have really enjoyed the lab and the lab instructor was good. It was even better that we didn't have to work hard outside the class. Everything had to be done in the lab.

I feel that lab notebooks should be allowed to be taken out of class. Some labs dictate more time than others, and thus it's hard to complete the lab write up in class. Mark is a fine instructor. I can honestly say that this lab course has increased my Physics knowledge. I attribute most of this to Mark, since it takes a good teacher to help you learn.

Mr. Loewe is a fair teacher who understands students' problems. For example, I did not make it to two lab sessions because of work. We are allowed to make up one lab. He let me make them both up. If he had not I would have made a C or D in the class.

Instructor was good, but not enough time was allowed to complete & write labs. This was due to the fact that we were not allowed (department policy?) to take the lab books home to write the labs. I believe this would enhance the grades & understanding.

Mark was friendly, helpful, and very approachable. I felt at ease asking him questions. Overall, I enjoyed Mark's lab instruction. I also enjoyed the content of the lab itself. My one complaint is that I was often rushed to finish the lab. If I had been able to take my notebook home w/ me I would have been [able] to spend more time thinking about the lab and thus understand more.

Mark -- I enjoyed your class -- I wish the lab manual was more clearly written. I felt we (I) could have understood the nature of the experiments better if we were allowed to work on notebooks on a take home basis.

I found the lab experiments interesting, but I wish they could have coincided more with class lectures. Often the subject of an experiment wouldn't be discussed in class until a month later.

It is not the T.A. that I have comments about, it is the course itself. This lab does not coincide with what is covered in the class and a time limit is most of the time a disadvantage.

The only problem with the way the course is set up is the method of the help sessions which are set up in R.L.M.. They are genuinely overcrowded and it's difficult to get help when you really need it.

This course has some problems. The booklet is too simple -- it is easy to read -- but it does not explain why one should do an experiment the way it is given -- not some better way and it does not really teach the students it just outlines what to do. The lab reports need more time for people to do them -- we should be able to do them outside of class.

I wish he had made his lecture notes available to the class prior to the week B4 the exam -- i.e. copy of weekly notes weekly.

I would have appreciated more direct observation of labs on the instructors part. Many of my worst mistakes could have been prevented with a comment or two.