Jim is a great teacher who is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about forest and wildlife ecology. He is fun in class and makes lectures interesting.

He was fantastic in all 3 of the courses I've taken with him. Really a fantastic lecturer and one-on-one educator.

Jim is easily one of my favorite professors I've had at UW. Having taken three courses with Jim (FWE318, FWE306, FWE424), I cannot recommend him more! Even if you're not a student in Wildlife Ecology and looking to take an elective course with him, his classes are well-organized, well-taught, and incredibly interesting.

I really enjoyed the lectures and Jim's passion for ecology. The field trips are fun and there isn't much work outside of class. The lab and lecture exams cover a LOT of material (study as you go, don't cram). Exams are very memorization-heavy, including Latin classifications. Labs are low pressure (no pre/post lab report) but don't rush them.

Amazing prof. Go ahead and take his FW110 class!

The class wasn't too bad if you studied pretty well for the tests (definitely review Quizlets and his learning objectives), but they're basically the only grades in the class. Submitting nature walks early (for EC) help, as well as discussion posts, but you have to know your stuff to do well on tests. Berkelman's a nice guy though and passionate.

Nice guy hard working. His exams are straightforward. His lectures clear and gives good hints.

Overall, pretty solid course. The nature walk assignment is annoying, but I would get it over with as early as possible bc ec is offered for turning it in early. Grade is pretty reliant on the two midterms and final, so be prepared for that. Lectures could be a little boring, but a pretty good course.

I personally think that he is awesome! He is a tad bit preachy since there is a lot to talk about within this course, but other than that, he is super approachable and really nice to his students! He is also a fair grader and gives you multiple opportunities to get your grade up if you're struggling.

Jim was a great professor. His lectures were a little boring, but the content was interesting and made me appreciate a lot about wildlife. I loved the required guided nature walks, and it allowed me to appreciate nature more. Exams are multiple choice and cumulative, should do fine with a little bit of studying. Weekly online discussions not hard

Berkelman is very informed in the ecology area of study, so he was a great prof to have for FW110. My only complaints are that during exams he often just starts announcing random things, which is distracting and annoying. During lectures he goes on tangents and then doesn't finish the content in time, which takes away from the next class' content.

He was fairly heavy on lectures, but all the exams and projects followed the information from class. An interesting speaker, and very knowledgeable about the topics, which made lectures enjoyable. He was very accessible and helpful outside of class, and did offer extra credit opportunities. Overall, a solid choice, I very much enjoyed the course!

He's a pretty solid lecturer who has a mix of good lectures and boring lectures. The nature walk assignment is annoying to deal with because if your nature walk leader doesn't show up you have to go to another one, and most nature walks are far away from campus if you don't have a car/bike. Tests aren't that hard, but there's no curve.

Berkelman is a great prof who's clearly passionate about wildlife conservation and all the material. Lectures can be a bit dull, but overall I enjoyed this class and found it easy if you show up and do a bit of studying.

The skull lab was the hardest of the class, but still passable. The second lab was easy. The lecture exams and essays are really good if you know your animals well or at least study right but not too hard.

His lectures are good and clear what will be on the exam. His quizzes can be tough but very doable.

He is a very nice professor and understands the material, is very accessible. All of the information is in the lectures and he tells you exactly what you need to know for exams. The material was very easy for me but if science isn't your thing it may be helpful to take a lot of notes.

There are many easy quizzes throughout each module, yet they trick you into thinking the exams will be just as simple (they are not!). I am not a science person so I found many of the lectures to be lengthy and dull. However, Professor Berkelman's passion on the subject shows, which makes the class worth it.

This class was super interesting and I would definitely take a class with Berkelman again! This fall it was all asynchronous and the quizzes are comprehensive, just pay attention and you will do well!

Professor Berkelman is a great professor. He always responds to emails so quickly. The class is interesting and you learn a lot about wildlife conservation and its importance in our society. His online lecture is fine but the tests are doable if you watch the lectures attentively. In short, he is a good professor.

Very easy to do well in this class if you just take notes on the lectures. There are 3 exams including the final, easy checkpoint quizzes after the lectures, and discussion posts that are all very straightforward; he grades all of them with clear criteria. He is a very knowledgable and wonderful teacher!

textbooks not mandatory, but helpful. lectures and lab not mandatory (but best if you go because he explains things in more depth in lecture, and lab is important to go to because you look at skulls and skins and need to identify things that will be on the lab exams). I had this class during corona, so the second half of it was online.

Jim was a very nice prof and you could tell how passionate he is about his field. Unfortunately, his lectures are incredibly boring. He is a very monotone speaker and gives very dry lectures. The lectures he gives have a large amount of slides, but he speaks so slowly he takes two class periods to do one lecture.

Really nice guy. You can tell he is very passionate about ecology, but an extremely dry lecturer. I've never seen such boring presentation before. He speaks in a dull monotone most of the time and loves to ramble extensively on simple topics. Gives lots of opportunities for extra credit

I really liked having him as a professor. Interesting class, clear he enjoys the topic, not too hard. He's a really friendly dude and will remember your name if you talk to him. Willing and able to answer any of your questions. Overall, would definitely recommend this professor and class, especially for non-majors.

This class kinda sucks. It's like an hour of just ridiculous amounts of notes half of which are irrelevant for the exam. Exams are just memorizing terms from lecture so if you like that then this class will be an easy A. He is very funny and a good lecturer but this class just wasn't for me.

Jim Berkelman honestly cares about the subject matter and it shows in his teaching. His homework and grading are reasonable and is flexible towards students missing discussion, allowing them to make up points through extra work.

Easiest class ever.

I learned so much about th extinctions and how to help the animals from this class.

Easiest Ecology class I have ever taken.

He is the best professor ever. This is an awesome class. You will learn how to protect species.

Easiest funniest and nicest biology class ever.

Easy class to pass just pay attention in lecture and do the write project and work hard on the essay.

He makes us work in groups in class and make in class activities which are easy the essay helps boost grade and his quizzes and final are great.

He was a very helpful professor. I really liked taking his class.

I learneed so much on how to be nicer to nature and my paper really helped on why I should protect my species. His class was awesome.

What can I say he really is a great professor with good lectures.

He made his 300 level classs more like a 100 level class. Great guy.

His power points are the best out of all UW bio professors. They are great to study from for the exams which are really easy but also educational, I wish all the bio professors gave tests like his. His dull lab was not so hard like I had thought. His essay was great and so were the discussions online easy points. You'll love the field trip.

He really makes sure that the students really know the stuff in class. His essay is one the easiest I had ever written.

His labs had some good quizzes the first was not as hard I thought his tests really good he is very helpful..

He was very helpful and cared a lot about his students and good heads up for the exams. The reports were graded fairly. Really good guy.

The grading criteria for essays seemed pretty vague, but the EC for field trip reports balanced it out. Exams were more about fact/statistic memorization then general concepts, so beware of this before deciding to take the class. If you don't memorize well, choose a different class, but it otherwise felt like a pretty easy course to take.

His forest and wildlife class was super easy and very direct on what we were learning. The tests can be a bit tricky but it's easy to study and there is a TON of extra credit offered if you turn in your essays early

The most boring class EVER. Do not take! Yes he is very sweet and intelligent guy, that does not mean he is a great professor. Lectures were unbearable, tests were unreasonably hard, and it was just an overall very mediocre experience.

He's very smart, but Berkelman is a subpar lecturer. There were too many topics covered on the tests. If you can memorize facts and the like, you'll be okay. If you're looking for a biology course that's interesting, look elsewhere. If you want something where your grade is determined by your ability to memorize LOTS of basic info, 110 is good.

He's a great guy, passionate for sure. Lecture slides are posted online. Boring lectures, can get away with skipping. I went to all of them but was on my phone(not paying attention) most of the time. Fill out the test study guide and study it for a few days beforehand.

Boring lectures. The exams are long and too many details to remember. Random facts tested in multiple choice that are not even mentioned in ppt or the study guide. Easy to pass and get a B without going to class. Not recommended for bio credit if you want an A.

I really did not enjoy this class, he's not a great professor (not the worst, but not good, either) and he tests on things that were glossed over, if they were covered, in lectures. Maybe if you're really interested in ecology you'll like him more? I don't know, but he shouldn't be teaching an intro ecology class.

Certain lectures are really engaging, others are boring but this is mostly due to the material. Guest lectures add some variety and make up for the more lackluster days.

Went to class 3 times all semester and got a B. Study by filling out the study guides with the online slides and use Wikiquotes for the Leopold paper. Study at least 2 days in advance (after you've filled out your study guide before each exam). Nice guy, interesting stuff, just easy to get away with not going. Treat it like a free period. Simple.

I think I went to 7 classes total. 3 of which were for exams. I stopped going because the lectures seemed pointless and extremely boring. He sends out a study guide before the exams with all of the important terms on it. All of the slides are posted online. There is a lot of material that you have to know for the exams, especially the final.

Boring but decent lecturer. Lectures more or less directly off the powerpoints, which are posted online. Lots of readings and homework, but they're pretty easy. Useful study guides. Reasonable but long tests.

His class is super easy, all you have to do is put in a minimal amount of effort. Tests are half short answer and half multiple choice. Mostly memorization of things he puts on the slides.

Berkelman is a great professor and really cares about his students. Slightly boring because he does basically read straight from the slides (available online). Going to class isn't necessary but the tests are pretty tough, you need to study a lot for them. Recommend this class.

He's a great professor. Tests are fair, he likes to joke around, always open to questions and provides advice outside of class. Great FWE Instructor all around. Do go to class and pay attention.

Jim is very available to his students, and even takes the time to learn some of their names in a large lecture. Lectures were a bit long and his tests were partly short answer and a bit tough at times. However, the amount of extra credit you can earn by going on field trips early makes this class an easy A if you put in the effort.

Reads from the slides, so it's not a big problem if you miss lecture. He's a really nice man.

Worst class I've taken at UW - material either interesting or painfully boring, and there's a lot of it. Jim's nice enough, but is a bad test-writer and paper grader, requiring memorization of random facts to get an A. Don't need the book, but assigned papers to read are tedious. Getting an A is possible, but you'll have to work for it.

Lectures can be boring as he talks off of the powerpoints, but the content is interesting. You have to go on at least one field trip for the class but it's pretty open ended as to what the field trip is. You have to write a couple of papers too but they're graded really easily.

Although he may not be the most gregarious professor at this university, Jim is passionate about this subject and is apparent through the way he lectures. Overall, a good course to take for the bio requirement in L&S and I felt the grading was reasonable.

Decent class, very easy biological science credits. Make sure to do the study guides before exams and you will do fine. Use wikiquotes for the leopold assignment and you don't even have any homework!

Not very exciting, reads off power point but he knows his stuff. He also cared about the students learning everyone's name. Some test questions were meant to trick you but overall was not a hard class and the subject is interesting.

Very helpful and friendly; made a point of learning all ~50 students' names within the first week of class. Not the most captivating, especially for 10 hours a week during the 4-week summer session, but the content is easy and exams are really just memorization.

Exams are completely memorization based so they are difficult if you have no interest in the class. He does provide a way to get a good amount of extra credit. If you're looking for an easy science to fulfill a requirement, pick something else

Very difficult exams, final being the worst. Way too much information to have a cumulative final. Uses "sim-u-text" text book which is a lot of work/reading and easy to do poorly on. Intelligent guy, very very boring lectures where everything is read straight off powerpoint and ridiculous tests.

Nice guy. Reads off of powerpoints that are provided online. No point in going to class, but much studying is needed for exams. Wicked hard finals compared to boring lectures. Stupid class

I took Extinction of species with Jim over the summer, and it was a lot of fun. We even went on a field trip to the international crane foundation before the last exam. He teaches clearly, insists on class participation and group work, and gives pretty easy quizes. Just pay attention to the lectures!

Jim definitely knows a great deal about the content. Admittedly the lectures were at times very dry, he was very clear and it was easy to make up study if you didn't pay attention. Discussions were interesting, better than most. He is very clear, and his passion obviously lies in this area. I would recommend taking this class.

borrrring lectures...he basically just puts up a powerpoint and reads off of it, stumbling through phrases and misprouncing words such as "fungi" and "cacti". exams are much harder than what the content suggests, but study & you should be okay. lot of trick questions or multiple answers where the difference is one word. nice guy, but lame class

Exams are overly hard given the material. Lots of vague questions on the final. Make sure you study. Otherwises, pretty typical class.

He's a pretty nice guy and his class is fair. His lectures are a little dry sometimes but mostly very clear. Overall the class is easy; just go to lecture. Make sure to study well for the exams tho, because they are a little harder than you might think.

He seems like a very nice man. Lectures are about as boring as any given lecture at UW, but they are clear. The exam questions are trickier than you will expect, but I didn't mind this course.

I had him for summer school, 1 month of class, every day for 2 hours. Lectures were very dry and it was hard to stay awake, but Jim is a really nice guy, and you can tell he cares a lot about students. Overall the class and discussions were interesting and interactive. I don't know how the class operates during the regular semester, though.

Hard exams, but fair overall. Obviously puts a lot of effort into the class. Lectures were pretty interesting.

This class is very easy in concept, the material is pretty easy to understand. However, the exam questions are very ambiguous. Choose the 'best' answer, though sometimes there can be multiple possible answers. Also, the wording can be very tricky, and sometimes confusing. The exams turn this relatively easy class into crap.

Wildlife Ecology 318 This professor is not only extremely boring but he also has some major misconceptions on how the animal world works! The class is extremely easy but I definitely feel dumber for having attended it. His test questions often remind me of a high school teachers'(poorly worded and ambiguous). Overall worst class I have had at UW