James Grass

Dr. Grass is a great teacher. His anatomy 14 class was difficult, but enjoyable. He is able to focus on the important aspects of the subject, gives good exams, and provides opportunities to integrate what we've learned. He explains things in a very concise manner and I very much enjoyed taking his class. WHOO!!!

It pains me to be critical, but... it also pained me to be in this class.

He used Powerpoint, and we had a booklet containing all of the slides. In theory, I think this could be a great idea--instead of students and the instructor wasting time scribbling, and maybe missing something being said, he could concentrate on lecturing, and we could concentrate on listening (and taking a few notes), and all would be well.

In practice, though, there were glitches. He had animations, but they could never play. Once or twice the whole system crapped out so that he had to wing it (and he seemed a little lost). There were other technical problems that wasted time. It seemed to me that he could have tested everything out before coming to class, to make sure it all worked. Also, a few times he showed a slide that we didn't have in our booklets, so we had to struggle to get it all down.

I felt that his multiple choice tests were tricky (I suppose that if I had studied more, they would have been a breeze, and I wouldn't complain so much.) His usual test was entirely multiple choice, 50 questions. There was a lot of material to cover.

There were things on the tests that weren't in the Powerpoint slides.

Students did so badly on his second test that he made the third one totally different--it was entirely short answer, and he gave us all the questions (plus a few more) in advance so that we would know exactly what to study. I think I learned the most from that section of the course.

He did care about students, and he did care about whether he was teaching effectively. It was his first semester in the course, so that probably added to the confusion. He gave everyone a chance to pull up their grade by assigning an extra-credit paper that was worth a lot of points.

A couple of the slides contained wording that was just nonsensical--he spoke the words in class, but when asked about it later he couldn't seem to figure out exactly what the slide meant. I think that they may have been made up by the people who wrote the book, because they contained pictures from the book. The book sucked. It contained contradictory information in at least a couple of places.

Personality-wise, Dr. Grass seems a little gruff sometimes, but isn't a bad guy. He does care about the subject matter.

He did return tests and papers promptly.

Dr Grass is nice enough, but his lectures really bite. On the first day, I was very excited that he had all of his Power Point presentation slides printed in a Lecture Guide. I found it really helpful on tests. My gripe is that as the semester wore on, he would become more and more dependent on his PP slides for what he would say during his lectures. In other words, he was less prepared for each lecture until at the end of the semester he would have no idea what was on the next slide. His lectures had a distinct air of unpreparedness. It's as if he felt like he had done all the work of preparing for the semester ahead of time, and left it at that. I think his class would have been a lot more engaging if he had at least looked at the slides before showing them each class. Also, as many times as he wanted to show us some kind of video or animation, he could never get it to work. I believe that he could have worked harder between classes to teach us the material

Ok heres the scoop. For exams I gave him an F (0), hand writing I gave him an n/o, homework is a D(1), Lectures are an A(4), outside class availability is a C(2), personality is a B(3), projects are a D(1), and speaking skills are an A(4). The total if you graded this like a student would u get a total of 15 divided by 7 (15/7=46.6%). well we all know that a 46.7 round it to 47 is a failing grade. let me explain why I gave him a D for a grade.

Exams: his exams are hand written short answer. I crammed all my knowledge that he has given to me during class (taken in notes by me and lots of good listening from the front center of the room,) and all the knowledge that I received from reading the book that is supposedly the text book for this class (intro to marine bio by Karleskint) onto the exam where he gave 9 questions that he made up and 1 that you make up and answer for yourself based on the material or questions that he gave us to prep for the test (w/o answers to those questions). The space between each question is about an inch to write a short answer. I filled mine completely with each answer correct to the best of my knowledge and I included DIAGRAMS filling not only the space between questions but also the margins of the test COMPLEATLY. The truth of the matter is I received a decent grade of a B when I believe I deserved an A because I even drew diagrams and knew my material. Secondly, yes he did give us the questions ahead of time but he didnt answer them so we didnt know what EXACTLY he was looking for when we were to answer the questions on the test. I got knocked off points for reasons I dont even know. (My answers were pretty much straight out of his lecture and from the text)*note nearly a quarter of the original class dropped out after the first quiz, then aprox.40% of the original class dropped out after our first test.

Lectures: I gave him an A for lectures because its about the only thing that he does well. i dont doubt that he knows his material and his way of vocalizing the material is pretty comprehensive. Speaking and lecturing is probably his strongest trait.

Handwriting: I gave him an n/o because he doesnt write anything; its all on power point.

Homework: I gave him a D for homework because there isnt any homework. We are expected to read the text book which isnt even acknowledged on the exam further more he doesnt assign sections to read, we read at our own will. Some people dont even have the book.

Outside class availability: I gave him a C, because Ive never tried to contact him after class. I never intended to because I am a good student though its nice to know that a teacher is there for you outside of class. He has not given us a phone number to contact him at or an email to answer questions if we had any. Over all I had no use for him outside of class so I give him a C.

Personality: I gave him a B for personality because he tries to be funny at times though most of his jokes are a bit dry. Any effort is better than no effort. He doesnt seem to be a jerk or put you down for not knowing how to do something so he is above average in that sense.

Projects: I give projects a D because the one project that is due at the end is an open-ended project meaning it can be on anything in marine biology or remotely related. Also, he doesnt give us a list of instructions that shows what he wants in his project rather he says put it on a poster board. A kindergartener could paste paper on a poster board. Because there is only one project and it is worth a lot, if one were to fail the project by not doing well on it because of lack of instruction, his or her efforts toward a UC or 4 year if that was the plan could dramatically effect his or her potential as a transfer to his or her choice of 4 year college. You can go from an A to a B from the project, keeping in mind that we are new to "His Projects" because we do not know what he is looking for when he grades his projects (same as his test).

Speaking Skills: I gave him an A for speaking skills. Grass' speaking skills like i said earlier are very good. His lectures are clear and crisp though very boring at times. all in all, the speaking skills and his ability to convey his teaching and thoughts through his words is very good.

This is Dr. Grass' first semester teaching Bio 101B and boy does it show. Dr. Wetzel normally teaches this course but she is retiring and is only teaching in the lab sections. Still, I wish they would have coordinated with each other better before this semester began or Wetzel co-taught with Grass because I really don't think he has a true plan on how this course should be taught. Lucky for you, but crappy for me, we are his guinea pigs for this semester and it shows. There are 3 midterms, final and 2 lab practicals which is rather insane considering how much material there is. The last two midterms were multiple choice but he decided that he didnt like that format and is changing it to essay/short answer style for the next midterm. SO we will see how that goes. He has an OVERLY strict attendance policy in my opinion, which requires everyone to sign a pass around attendance sheet and by midterms if you have missed 3 classes for whatever reason he drops you from the class. I think dropping students based on absences is rather excessive and rather stupid. This is college, if they dont come to class fine, let them fail and learn from it. That aside, the class isnt that bad but not exceptional by any means. He is trying though, but he is uncomfortable with the way the class is going and it shows. Overall, I give him credit for taking on such a project, I just wish I hadnt got the trial run semester.

If you take this class don't buy the book. I wasted my money on it and I didn't open it once the whole semester and I got an A. His lectures on powerpoint are very informative and include everything that will be on the test. If you listen in class this will be a breeze.

I truly have nothing bad to say about Dr. Grass- he is one of the best teachers I've ever come across here at CCSF. It isn't easy trying to drum up enthusiasm for a subject as dry as Anatomy & Physiology, especially since I stay far away from science courses whenever possible. However, Dr. Grass' lectures are very interesting and humorous. He doesn't offer homework, which I appreciate. We also did a lot of lab work, most of which were very fun, albeit strange at times- analysing our own blood types, peeing in a cup (I kid you not) to check our glucose levels or something, and the piece de resistance- going to the cadaver lab at the conclusion of the semester.

The quizzes and exams are very straightforward- no tricky questions or whatnot- and if you study the night before, you'll ace it just fine. I second the comment about his strict cell phone policy. Cell phones went off twice during the semester and it was definitely not a pretty sight to see. Thankfully, he changed his mind at the end of the semester and deducted 50 points off for the offenders themselves instead of the entire class. Still, please be aware.

Dr. Grass really sparked my interest in a difficult subject and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of his class.

This semester I had to buckle down and take all gen ed classes. I had English, Poli-Sci, Psych, and Anatomy and, being terrible at science and good at my other choices, figured that this was going to be a hellacious class. Dr. Grass, who looks like a skinny Charlie Weaver, managed to make it my favorite class of the semester. I was able to download all of his powerpoint lecture slides before the class at his website and he also provides lesson recaps and sample quizes on the web in order for students to test themselves. He is very low key and humorous, though he doesn't tolerate nonsense. He has a STRICT cell phone policy (If a cell phone goes off in class EVERYONE loses 50 participation points, which is nearly 10% of the class points. I happen to appreciate that because I hate cell phones, but if you have a habit of forgetting to turn your's off, you should avoid this class. He offers easy extra credit if you need it, his tests are straight forward and the lab practicals, though rushed (it's a timed test)are easy enough if you have studied the material. I may never take another anatomy class again but I really enjoyed Dr. Grass' class and learned a lot. If you have trouble with science in the past and are willing to pay attention, I recommend this class for you.

I am not much of a "science" person...but Dr. Grass made the class fun and interesting. He has built a website for the class that has lots of informative information, such as practice quizzes, and slides for all the notes in class (meaning you will not have to write much - if you print out the slides) Overall, I had a great time in class and am sad that its over. But beware - register for his class EARLY b/c his classes fill up rapidly - may not be able to take any adds. - I highly recommend him!!

Good teacher, knows his stuff. You can ask him any question. The majority of the class were scuba divers and he offers scuba field trips. The lab course 32L has many fun field trips. His test are overly boring, mainly memorizing species names to pictures instead of having a good knowledge of the species. Learn many great facts about the sea and biology of fishies.