Fall 2015

 

I really enjoyed and appreciated Dr. Pianka, If he gets nice reviews they’ll probably be afraid of of confounding reality/ignorance. I learned a lot from this course and think that if more people discovered what Pianka has to say (involving overpopulation, climate change, etc.) the world would be a better place

Awesome class, hard work for a non Stem major but I enjoyed it

The professor is extremely knowledgeable and likable (surprisingly)

Great information that I don’t think I could have learned anywhere else! Pianka is a very interesting man -  really enjoyed this class!

Dr. Pianka is inspiring and I am glad I had a chance to see him teach

I learned a whole lot of things that are applicable to life. I learned many things I wouldn’t have otherwise! Only thing, is that he should make himself a little more available! Other than that I can tell he is very intelligent and more than qualified to teach this course!

Obviously very knowledgeable, please be more upfront about the amount of math knowledge required; it was very difficult without a calculus background.

Lizards are cool.

Talk less about LiZardS


Dr Pianka really knows and enjoys what he teaches and it shows. That is helpful and inspiring to me as a student. 



Great professor, really cares about the subject and taught me a lot. UT needs more instructors like this! 



God bless you Lizard Man. 



I love Pianka's general attitude and I felt he genuinely cares about teaching us biology and general life lessons. I felt that with his dedication and notoriety, he should be honored in some way by the university



The instructor was confusing and difficult to understand during lecture. However, he had extensive knowledge on the subject and I appreciated him providing the textbook for free. 


 

Fall 2016

 

Professor was great and never missed a day. Great Course! 



He was very informed and interested about the course material. I think the students should go easier on him. He's just very opinionated which most people aren't used to. 



Professor Pianka is very knowledgable about this material. I can honestly say I learned a lot but the course was difficult and hard to understand at times. 



The instructor could improve his teaching by using more basic words and definitions for more complicated theories/processes. 



Professor Pianka is knowledgable and loves what he teaches, but he rants so much.



This man is a good dude, he is just a horrible profesor he genuinely cares for the material but just makes no coherent sense. I like him as a person but not as an instructor. 



Difficult but impactful class 



Dr Pianka is very intelligent and well-versed in the subject matter and has numerous stories and bits of trivia. Would be very interesting if this class were more accomodating and less intensively focused on Pianka's own often rambling and dense writings. One of the most difficult aspects to deal with is that all of the information in the course is based on material written by Pianka over the course of his extensive research, thus making his book one of the only sources of study material for assignmanship. Likewise the tests became unmanageable due to the plethora of information much of which was not adequately explained in lecture. Nonetheless I'm glad I was able to experience and survive the terrorist lizard professor. 



I found your class very thoroughly enjoyable. It made me consider the way societies around the world use their resources, and to a lesser extent the mortality of all life on this planet and my own finite existence as a human being, in ways I've never really been brought to face in a classroom setting. I heard you may be on your final years of teaching, and if that's the case, I feel very fortunate to have caught the tail end of such an illustrious career. There is no Plan(et) B, but I hope to have a future in politics, and though I'm well aware of what you think of politicians in general, I sincerely hope to use any power I come in to  make the human race's Plan(et) A a little better. 



I loved this class. The stories were interesting and I was still able to learn the info I needed. He obviously cares about the subject (and finals) 



A project would have been very fun to do! Or a research paper! Class was very interesting though sometimes it was a bit rushed. Some more time preparing for lectures may help. Thank you for everything!! 



I learned a lot of really cool stuff in this class. Thank you! 
 


Spring 2016

If you didn't like this class, you just didn't put enough effort into it. Very hard, but I learned a lot. Thanks for waking me up, Dr. Pianka 



HOLY SHIT PIANKA, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS PLANET?!? Words can't describe how badly I wanted to switch out of this course after the first week. But I stayed in it, and I was challenged and made uncomfortable with the reality of our world, and I think that was really good for me. I even enjoyed reading the texbook, like I didn't like reading it, but you have a clear and interesting writing voice that actually made it interesting. I learned a lot, and I was surprised by how much I learned. I have a lot of respect for you. It's clear you love your work and this planet. even if you're kinda an asshole about some things. Thank you. 



Very dense course, needs something but not an awful class, Dr. Pianka is an interesting teacher. 



Thank you very much! What I took away from this course was how HUGE the Haber-Bosch process was/is. It changed us forever. 



Professor was great and never missed a day. Great Course! 



He was very informed and interested about the course material. I think the students should go easier on him. He's just very opinionated which most people aren't used to. 



Professor Pianka is very knowledegable about this material. I can honestly say I learned a lot but the course was difficult and hard to understand at times. 



Interesting person. 



Good guy. You saved my life. I was standing on the edge but you called me back to life. 



This man is a good dude, he is just a horrible profesor he genuinely cares for the material but just makes no coherent sense. I like him as a person but not as an instructor. 



Difficult but impactful class 



Dr Pianka is very intelligent and well-versed in the subject matter and has numerous stories and bits of trivia. Would be very interesting if this class were more accomodating and less intensively focused on Pianka's own often rambling and dense writings. One of the most difficult aspects to deal with is that all of the information in the course is based on material written by Pianka over the course of his extensive research, thus making his book one of the only sources of study material for assignmanship. Likewise the tests became unmanageable due to the plethora of information much of which was not adequately explained in lecture. Nonetheless I'm glad I was able to experience and survive the terrorist lizard professor. 



I found your class very thoroughly enjoyable. It made me consider the way societies around the world use their resources, and to a lesser extent the mortality of all life on this planet and my own finite existence as a human being, in ways I've never really been brought to face in a classroom setting. I heard you may be on your final years of teaching, and if that's the case, I feel very fortunate to have caught the tail end of such an illustrious career. There is no Plan(et) B, but I hope to have a future in politics, and though I'm well aware of what you think of politicians in general, I sincerely hope to use any power I come in to make the human race's Plan(et) A a little better. 



I loved this class. The stories were interesting and I was still able to learn the info I needed. He obviously cares about the subject (and finals) 



A project would have been very fun to do! Or a research paper! Class was very interesting though sometimes it was a bit rushed. Some more time preparing for lectures may help. Thank you for everything!! 



I learned a lot of really cool stuff in this class. Thank you! 
 


 

Fall 2017


Professor Pianka was extremely knowledegable. I believe I learned quite a bit in this class and think the way it was organized helped with my learning. 



Lad, taught me a lot and makes me want to be a more responsible human 



One of the most interesting professors I have ever taken a class with. Hard class but it was worth it. 



Sometimes the lectures are a little slow or off track but the content itself is fascinating.


Professor Pianka was a generous professor who knows his stuff about animals and biology. Because he lectures lots about animals that he observed most of his life and explained well about animal life, parasites, bacteria, etc. 



I loved all of Pianka's stories. As long as you come to class and do the readings you'll get a good grade. It's not a difficult class, you just have to be an engaged student. Pianka really knows what he's talking about and his passion for the subject is engaging. His ideas on global warming and human impact on the Earth is something that I believe everyone should learn. We are killing our planet and there's a war on facts and science right now. Pianka and other scientists are fighting an uphill battle. I really hope that everyone else in the class learned as much as I did and will be able to take these ideas and apply them to life and the world. We need to protect our spaceship earth, it's the only home we have. 



I really enjoyed this course as I am a freshman at UT and I think it has prepared me a great deal for what college classes are really like and how to become an independent student. I appreciate how personable and knowledgable Professor Pianka is on the subject matter and how applicable he makes the class to daily life. I find myself becoming a lot more conscious of mine and other's impact on the environment, and appreciate how Professor Pianka was able to bring these issues to light. I also love how Professor Pianka included personal stories to relate the information to and overall cannot get over how extremely brilliant Professor Pianka is. He truly has changed my view on the world and I am very grateful to have participated in his class. 



Lectures consist of a lot of off topic rants and focus on lizards and personal stories about friends who study lizards. 



Pianka was encouraging and informative, although I did find it a bit hard to follow his lectures. Nevertheless, it was a good course and I enjoyed the class. 



I thoroughly enjoyed this course! I appreciate the helpful tips that you gave in our last lecture, and will apply them as civilization dies out due to climate change and stupidity. I'd like to think that my survival rate will be higher as a result of this course and for that I thank you. 



I thought Dr. Pianka's lectures were quite interesting, though they could sometimes be a bit depressing, but overall very informative. I learned a lot from his teaching, and my only issues arose from the presentation of complex graphs, which I felt weren't properly explained, however a thorough explanation of those concepts would likely take a long time, and we weren't graded on it anyway, so I don't think any harm was done. I think the takeaways and information provided in the course are very important for anybody to know, and I generally found Dr. Pianka's lectures enjoyable to observe and think about.


 

Fall 2017

Professor Pianka was extremely knowledgable. I believe I learned quite a bit in this class and think the way it was organized helped with my learning. 



Lad, taught me a lot and makes me want to be a more responsible human 



One of the most interesting professors I have ever taken a class with. Hard class but it was worth it. 



Sometimes the lectures are a little slow or off track but the content itself is fascinating. 


Professor Pianka was a generous professor who knows his stuff about animals and biology. Because he lectures lots about animals that he observed most of his life and explained well about animal life, parasites, bacteria, etc. 



I loved all of Pianka's stories. As long as you come to class and do the readings you'll get a good grade. It's not a difficult class, you just have to be an engaged student. Pianka really knows what he's talking about and his passion for the subject is engaging. His ideas on global warming and human impact on the Earth is something that I believe everyone should learn. We are killing our planet and there's a war on facts and science right now. Pianka and other scientists are fighting an uphill battle. I really hope that everyone else in the class learned as much as I did and will be able to take these ideas and apply them to life and the world. We need to protect our spaceship earth, it's the only home we have. 



I really enjoyed this course as I am a freshman at UT and I think it has prepared me a great deal for what college classes are really like and how to become an independent student. I appreciate how personable and knowledgable Professor Pianka is on the subject matter and how applicable he makes the class to daily life. I find myself becoming a lot more conscious of mine and other's impact on the environment, and appreciate how Professor Pianka was able to bring these issues to light. I also love how Professor Pianka included personal stories to relate the information to and overall cannot get over how extremely brilliant Professor Pianka is. He truly has changed my view on the world and I am very grateful to have participated in his class. 



Lectures consist of a lot of off topic rants and focus on lizards and personal stories about friends who study lizards. 



Pianka was encouraging and informative, although I did find it a bit hard to follow his lectures. Nevertheless, it was a good course and I enjoyed the class. 



I thoroughly enjoyed this course! I appreciate the helpful tips that you gave in our last lecture, and will apply them as civilization dies out due to climate change and stupidity. I'd like to think that my survival rate will be higher as a result of this course and for that I thank you. 



I thought Dr. Pianka's lectures were quite interesting, though they could sometimes be a bit depressing, but overall very informative. I learned a lot from his teaching, and my only issues arose from the presentation of complex graphs, which I felt weren't properly explained, however a thorough explanation of those concepts would likely take a long time, and we weren't graded on it anyway, so I don't think any harm was done. I think the takeaways and information provided in the course are very important for anybody to know, and I generally found Dr. Pianka's lectures enjoyable to observe and think about.
 


 

Spring 2018

This class was not what I expected from a biology course. However, this class has been one of my favorite, and most interesting classes that I have taken.  The professor evoked critical thinking about the world we live in and how we live our lives. The majority of the population does not seem to realize their impact on our environment, and should have to learn about the topics and issues discussed in this course, Though this was not what I would think of a typical biology course, I think it has helped me open my mind and become a more aware and informed member of society.


Although I found some of the more difficult concepts, such as equilibrium and the equations difficult to follow, I really enjoyed this class. I liked learning about the various forms of research in marine ecology and my favorite was the research on migratory species  since I really enjoy studying migration patterns. I told my friends about your work, we think it is very important!


The instructor is knowledgeable in the field. I learned much from his material. Lectures can be more engaging and its connection to discussion can be stronger


Dr. Pianka’s class is very engaging and insightful. I learned a great deal in this class concerning dire and controversial issues. Overall it was very eye-opening.


This class can be alittle dry at times and the readings long and tedious, Bur overall you get out what you put in,



I believe a statue should be erected of Prof Pianka holding a lizard in Patterson. He's taught for over 50 years & is a world famous scientist. 



Great professor with a lot of knowledge and a lot of important things to say. I'm glad I took his course. If I had any suggestions it would be to update some of the slide shows 



Give him a bronze statue! 


 

 

Spring 2019


Dr Pianka really knows and enjoys what he teaches and it shows. That is helpful and inspiring to me as a student. 



Great professor, really cares about the subject and taught me a lot. UT needs more instructors like this! 




God bless you Lizard Man. 



Pianka knows more about ecology than anyone, is an amazing professor and deserving a golden statue of him holding a lizard titled "The Lizard Man." 



I feel that Dr. Pianka should have a life-size bronze statue of himself at UT. 



Professor should get a statue to commemorate his work 




I love Pianka's general attitude and I felt he genuinely cares about teaching us biology and general life lessons. I felt that with his dedication and notariety, he should be honored in some way by the university 



This man deserves a life size bronze statue for all of his work and dedication to his field and this school. 



He was a very unique man. learned quite a lot. He asks for a simple bronze statue of himself holding a lizard as tribute to his work here at UT 



Please build a life-sized bronze statue of Dr. Pianka in commemoration of his work here. Great class! 



The instructor was confusing and difficult to understand during lecture. However, he had extensive knowledge on the subject and I appreciated him providing the textbook for free. 



I believe a statue should be erected of Prof Pianka holding a lizard in Patterson. He's taught for over 50 years & is a world famous scientist. 



Great professor with a lot of knowledge and a lot of important things to say. I'm glad I took his course. If I had any suggestions it would be to update some of the slide shows 



Give him a bronze statue! 



 

 

Fall 2019


Dr. Pianka is incredibly knowledgable about the topics he teaches on, and is a major contributor to the greater science community. 



The class was not engaging, however the professor was cool. He said he wanted a statue made of him 



I loved learning from Dr. Pianka. Man is a legend in biology/ecology 



This course is a challenge, but University is supposed to be a challenge. Unfortunately, many students will complain because of this. PIANKA is a fascinating old unique character, but certainly a good teacher! 



Pianka is one of the wackiest profs I've had and I loved his anecdotes

He is a good man. Would take this class again.