Ok its true that Prof Porter does have these nervous ticks while lecturing, like clearing his throat, adjusting his tie and he stutters a bit. And his lectures are a little circular. He uses powerpoint for his lectures and just outlines them for you. His essay questions for the take home midterm this quarter were a little confusing but the ones on the final were quite clear. He is available outside of class for questions and he will clarify anything for you. He is very knowledgeable. He has a very dry sense of humor. It is necessary to go to both lecture and discussion and do all the readings otherwise you'll miss things on the tests. If you are interesting in history of science or just science in general then you should take this class. It's really a north campus class for south campus majors.

Professor Porter is not a good lecturer. He is brilliant, and quite witty, but is boring to be lectured by. If you speak to him outside of class, you will be impressed, but you will find it hard to stay awake in class. He is such a nice guy that it hurts me to write this, but he doesn't get paid to teach, he gets paid to publish and research, so this isn't hurting him professionally. The class I was in consisted of 150 students enrolled with 75 attending lecture regularly. About 2 weeks into the quarter, the professor noted that half the class must have "dropped". The following day he was handing out the essay assignment, and all students were in attendance, and you could see the look of disappointment on his face. The grades are determined by your TA for the most part, and the TA I had was awesome but strict. An 'A' was hard to come by. A 'B' almost guaranteed.

This was the most BORING class I have ever taken in my entire life. Lectures were snooze times and the two essays he gave during the year had extremely vague prompts. Porter is definitely a nice guy and I kinda felt sorry for him due to the fact that more than half the class didn't attend lecture unless they had to turn something in or get an essay prompt. The TA is the most important aspect of this course. And my TA for this class can only be described as Satan's Emissary. She was rude and she talked down to her students. Her name rhymes with Robin. All in all, don't take this class unless you are majoring in history of science.

This class is extremely easy. It is a bit tedious - grade is determined by 2 short in class quizzes (he literally gives you the questions a few days before), 2 four page essays, 4 short one page reading responses, and then class participation in the form of showing up to discussion and lecture for 10% of your grade (attendance is kept with a daily question in lectures). If you can deal with a bit of an annoyance on some of these assignments, then you can get an A with minimal effort. I took a nap every day of class for the last 4 weeks of the quarter (seriously, every day).

This class is easy, but it is not interesting. Dr. Porter's slides and lectures are incoherent and the class had no direction or flow whatsoever. Although material sometimes was interesting, it was so hard to follow.

Super boring class. I could have gotten an A if it wasn't for my TA who gave me a "B" on both of my essays. Keep in mind that each essay is worth 25% and you have to write 2 essays so if you don't get an A on at least one of your essays then you most likely won't end up with an A in the class. I used to pay attention in lecture but realized you don't need to. You don't even have to do the readings, I would just skim over them when I was going to write my essays. Professor also keeps on talking when the class is supposed to end so be prepared to always be let out 5 minutes later. Lecture is mandatory because he has a daily question you have to answer and turn in at the end of each class. You can easily look up the question online. Workload is extremely easy, and this class is a GPA booster.

Very easy class. All there is is 2 short quizzes which he gives you the questions to, 2 short essays, and a few reading responses. If you do the bare minimum you can get an A.
However, the lecture is quite boring. I really did not pay attention to any of his lectures, I would just go online during the entire time.
You should take this if you want an easy GPA booster and do not care about having a boring lecture.

Overall good class and pretty easy. You have to show up to every lecture, but there are only two short (3-4 page) essays and two very easy in-class quizzes which count for 10% of your grade. I liked my TA and thought the material in the class was interesting, but I can see why people wouldn’t like it if they get a bad TA. Porter is a really nice guy, but pretty tough to listen to at times and can be awkward. Pretty easy class to do well in if you put in some effort, would recommend for a GE.

I regretted taking this class and my love for philosophy by the end of the seminars (the last part made me truly give up), but I’d like to give Ted some credit. Yes he has the very boring old white guy accent where all the words get mixed up and it’s very hard to follow, and the material only gets good by the last week and then they decide NOT to focus on michel foucault as much as everyone else, but he is so sweet. He truly tried to help everyone in the ways he could and for that I am thankful. My TA was amazing which definitely contributed to me liking this quarter better. I also think porter’s quarter may have gotten rid of the B+ participation grade cap Dienstag’s quarter had which made people’s grades better.

(Taken in Spring 2021, online) This class was an easy A and not much else. I love the idea of this class - history of science - but feels like it was not executed very well. Dr Porter is passionate and knowledgeable but I found his lectures absolutely impossible to sit through. He is clearly a better writer than lecturer - he rambles and never seems to get to the point. His slides are also so disorganized, and at the end I always felt like I retained nothing from listening to him and/or reading the slides. Doing the readings alone is enough (and better). My TA was alright but she definitely wasn't interested in the topic. However, I do love the writing portion of this class. The investigations are quick, easy, and super interesting. The final essay is quite open-ended which made them very fun and interesting.

During COVID-19, most of this class is reliant on the TA and how you do in discussions/papers. The lectures were great but dense, so looking at the slides he presents is key to doing well. The content however is very interesting and I enjoyed it greatly, which made the class very easy to excel in. Really what they are looking for is that you are engaged with the material and enjoy it, and are putting in thoughtful effort towards the assignments. Very possible to get an A in, as long as you enjoy what you are learning.