Nathan Lowhorn
School: | Suffolk University |
Department: | Physics |
Location: | Boston, MA |
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
Helpfulness | |
Clarity | |
Easiness |
School: | Suffolk University |
Department: | Physics |
Location: | Boston, MA |
Helpfulness | |
Clarity | |
Easiness |
Mailing Address:
Uloop Inc.
306 S. Washington Ave
Suite 400
Royal Oak, MI 48067
Telephone Support:
312.854.7605
Email Support:
greg@uloop.com
He was a great help and was always there to answer questions.
The labs are SUPER easy. You can drop your 2 or 3 lowest and usually leave after an hour. They are very basic. You will have 3 night labs where you actually go out and observe the starts. They are fun though.
Take him if you can for lab. You do need the Astronomy lab book. It's not expensive though.
Cons: None.
- Funny
- Solid teacher
Cons: - None
Although it looks like a lot of people reviewing this professor have had bad experiences, don't be fooled - Dr. Lowhorn is an amazing teacher and a great person. He breaks down each problem into small steps to make it clear. He is fairly lenient on grading, and as long as you attend each class and give your best effort, you can get an A in the course.
You will struggle if you don't have a strong background in algebra, as this is an "Algebra-based" physics course. You will NOT need to know any calculus, but you will frequently use trigonometry, so I wouldn't recommend this course with ANY professor if you don't understand those two concepts already.
I just had Lowhorn for the lab portion of the class - I had Nat Smith for the lecture. My lab met twice a week, and we had a quiz every class period - they are fairly easy, however, and only take about a minute to complete. They are based on the reading that is assigned, so if you don't read any of the textbook, you may not do as well in the quizzes. Fortunately, these quizzes were only about 5% of the total grade, so you can afford to do badly. Furthermore, you will have to do a midterm project (10% of your grade) and a final project (15% of your grade) - both of which will take a considerable amount of time to complete. Just be prepared to set some extra time aside for those projects at the middle and end of the semester and you should be fine. You have to present each project to the whole lab class with your group, and you will be graded on your presentation. I got an A on both projects, however, so don't be intimidated! Just work hard and prepare and you should be fine. Finally, 20% of your grade will be from weekly lab experiments you'll have to perform with your group. You just write up a report in a lab notebook and turn it in each week - I think I got around a 95% on these experiments. They are pretty straightforward, and you got a 100% on 4 or 5 of them as long as you signed an attendance sheet for being at that class period! Attendance isn't regularly taken, but you will get 0's on the lab experiments if you aren't there to turn it in.
Lowhorn is a quirky, funny guy. I would definitely recommend him for your lab professor in the course!
Lowhorn is great, my only complaint is in the layout of the course.The labs get so far ahead of the lecture.
Cons: None
One of my favorite teachers I have had so far
The class is trigonometry based, but if you have a good background in geometry and know the trig functions (sine, cosine, tan), the Pythagorean Theorem, and how to find angles in right triangles, you'll do fine. You do, of course, need a strong background in algebra since nearly all of the problems you do in this class are calculated by using equations.
The textbook is free on D2L (written by Dr. Montemayor) and it is excellent and easy to understand. At the end of each chapter, there's practice problems. Doing the warm ups and "some standards" problems are great practice for the test. Don't do the "So you think you're pretty good..." problems if you don't have time, I would always do them and they were never on the tests (they're great practice, however).
The exams consist of 30% from multiple choice and 70% from write out problems. The multiple choice consisted mainly of fundamentals that were covered in lecture, but some of it also consisted of content from the lab problems. The write-outs consisted of problems from the "some standards" portion of the exercises in the text book. He also gives sample tests for you to practice with. Do them! The content on the actual tests differ from the content of the sample tests, but they're still great practice.
The final exam was 60% multiple choice and 40% write out.
There are no projects required during the summer sessions.
Overall, this has been one of my favorite classes I've taken at MTSU so far thanks to Dr. Lowhorn. I feel like a learned A LOT and enjoyed it greatly. I would love to take another physics class with him.
Cons: 2 Nightlabs are a pain but are easy and over quickly.
Go to each class, do the work, leave when you're done. I learned a lot, it's a really easy class.
This class isn't extremely hard, but if you don't understand something and you ask him, he will act like you are disturbing him by asking him.
loves science
Cons: can't really think of any
not quite Bill Nye?
This guy is awesome. He has an interesting sense of humor. I had him for the lab portion of Astronomy, which meant he didn't interact with our class as much as if we were in the lecture portion. The only tricky part are the quizzes, which occur at the onset of every meeting. If you read over the lab notebook entry for that particular day you should be fine.
a joy to take physics with.
Cons: Quizzes every week
Pretty simple class. He gives a quiz each week before the lab starts. If you read over the lab before hand you will ace it. He helps with any question. Nice guy
Goes over basically everything
Answers any questions
Cons: None
Dr. Lowhorn goes over basically everything you will need to do the activities and practice problems, which you will have almost every class (he practically does every step for you and you just have to translate it over to the practice problem assigned to your particular group). There is no extra credit or curves but if you go and pay attention you shouldn't have much trouble doing well in the class. Everything is weighted pretty evenly so if tests aren't your thing you can still do pretty decently if you apply yourself to everything else. At first I thought the idea of two labs a week for one class would be horrible, but it turns out that it works very well for physics and you learn a lot. I highly recommend Dr. Lowhorn.
Cons: he grades the two projects a little hard...
Overall take him
Homework: Online hw problems, but none were taken up. Other than that we just had the activities, which sometimes required outside work to finish them up. That was rare though.
Textbook: You need the lab manual to complete the activities, as with most lab classes.
Homework: Online hw problems, but none were taken up. Other than that we just had the activities, which sometimes required outside work to finish them up. That was rare though.
Textbook: You need the lab manual to complete the activities, as with most lab classes.
Textbook: It's just your lab manual.