Really enjoyed this class, but if you're not a plant person you might not. Lectures follow the slides pretty closely, but there is extra credit and other info you prob want to attend lecture for. 3 lecture exams + 3 lab exams. Exams are fair, but VERY memorization heavy!! Make a quizlet or find the few I posted & u'll b fine.

I really enjoyed Professor Systma! Attending lectures is very important because he hints at things that will be on the exams that you wouldn't catch reviewing lecture slides at home. He is a great guy who wants students to succeed.

Dr. Sytsma is very knowledgeable in plant evolution/systematics. Ask all questions you curious about this topic to him! Email responses are always fast and helpful. The course is easy if you interested in classification/evolution; the only thing that made this course a little bit challenging is the lab exam.

Botany 401 is a horrible class wouldn't recommend. Be prepared to memorize 80-90 Latin plant names, families, & be able to ID them as well as half a semesters worth of lecture material. Lectures are barebones & don't help you much. Ken is distant, most interactions is with TAs who make lab handouts & study guides which had multiple errors in them.

Ken is very knowledgeable in his field and clearly has a passion for the subject, however I wish he was more involved in the lab/massive group project (you have to catalog and id a full forest sight) which he leaves to the TA and it feels disconnected at times.

Very accessible for non-STEM majors. Prof very helpful&knowledgeable. Lectures were sometimes interesting, sometimes less so. Goes off on tangents occasionally but they were usually interesting. Tests are okay and he makes it clear what you need to know but studying is needed if non-Bot major. Posts lectures and reading online. Overall, good class.

Bot 400 should at least be another credit for the amount of work that was needed. Plant collections were hard to create and judged harder. Lab tests were basically taxonomy names from lists of 50ish plants each test. Lec tests were DAY AFTER LAB TESTS. Like I said, way too much work to be worth only 4 credits. Kens a nice guy, but not worth taking.

Nicest Professor ever. When you go see him in office hours, he's always willing to help. His slides has a lot of visual, which helps a lot. Learned a great deal from this class! I recommend it.

Very good professor, teaches you the most important aspects of plant identification. Has amazing powerpoints, if you go over them many times if you can basically put a family name to any plant you see. Lectures are interesting but not necessary.

I went into this class not actually knowing what plant systematics was, and was very disappointed when I learned the class was mostly taxonomy... but Ken is a fantastic professor! He makes it somewhat interesting, and the class is an easy A. I went to less than 1/4 of the lectures (his powerpoints are posted online) and kept up easily.

great class, fun, tests on material presented, lectures could be a little more spunky but thats ok

Awesome! Fun class, great lectures.

a nice guy, straightforward tests.. my only complaint is that even though he is really smart on the subject matter he is not the greatest lecturer

Very well prepared for lecture and intersting pictures. Tons to memorize, almost too much to be of any use in the long run, but still a great class. Would recommend.

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Awesome class. Go to lecture, its fun just looking at all his slides of cool flowers, plus he will give hints for extra credit on the exams. Exams arent bad at all if you study for them (will have to do some memorization of plant families) and theyre graded pretty easily. Lab is a breeze, and the plant collection isn't too bad either. def recom'd!