Western Kentucky University / C / Michael Carini

BEST TEACHER EVER!! I am horrible at science but this man truly cares about his students. He won't fail you as long as you try and show effort and try.

Dr. Carini is a great professor. He is very helpful whenever you need it. There are 4 exams and a cumulative final. Th tests are pretty difficult, but if you study the power points then you will be fine. He posts the notes on his website right before class, so that way you have them during class. You do an observatory notebook for lab, which is just taking pictures of objects that he wants, easy as long as you keep up. Attendance is not mandatory, but it helps if you goes. The grading on assignments he does is fairly easy. Overall, a good professor, and not a bad class.

Dr. Carini is an excellent teacher. I am not a science major, nor am I really all that interested in Astronomy, but he is my favorite professor at Western. He really explains things well, and he is very helpful. Although the notes and lectures are often over my head, after a few explanations and diagrams, I can grasp the concepts. If you are going to take Astronomy, I would highly recommend you take it with Dr. Carini, as he is very understanding of non-science majors and their questions. He grades very easily - everything but the exams are graded based mainly on participation and effort.

This turned out to be a very enjoyable class for me. Carini is an awesome professor who's hilarious and makes this class as interesting as possible. In all honesty, not too many people care about the moons of Neptune and he knows this. He cracks jokes (some are so lame they're funny) and uses pictures and concise notes to make the material more appealing. He mixes in some labs that are easy, but you have to be there to do them. He also tries to schedule some observing sessions at the end of the year, but if you can't make it, don't worry, the makeup assignment is really easy. His tests are really easy if you use the best study tool ever invented: THE CROSSWORD! Seriously, he gives you a crossword that pretty much covers everything on the test and is worth about 3-5 points on the test if you complete it. Just study that and I can guarantee you'll make a B (if you have all the notes). Just remember that this class is what you make of it, and if you try to have a good time, you will! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Dr. Carini is a fantastic professor. I scrounged around to see if I could find a second class he is teaching next semester just so I could have him to knock out my last science class. You take a lot of notes in this class but they don't seem like overkill. The history phase at the beginning of the semester can be somewhat daunting, but just make sure you study all the Greek astronomers carefully and you'll be fine. He curved our class average on the first test and offered reasonable extra credit on the others. He says attendance is mandatory, but he oftentimes is late to class and just jumps right into lecture. So it's an abstract sort of attendance. Show up consistently, be enthusiastic and you'll be fine if you miss occasionally.

Modern Physics was a course that was hard for me to wrap my head around. Dr Carini did not do a very good job of teaching the material. Sure he could write out all the equations from the book, but if you ask him a question about it one of two things will happen. He will tell you something else that you do not understand, with the intention of shutting you up, or he will dismiss your question entirely. He skips steps while working out the problems in class, making it more difficult to follow the homework. He doesn't really appear to understand the material, or at least cannot express it to anyone else.

If you are going to take Modern Physics 2 (as I am) you will be in for a big surprise. Yes, I got an A in Carini's Modern Physics class, but I did not learn anything in the class due to his teaching style. The Modern 2 teacher has had to go back and reteach a lot of Carini's stuff, since he did so poor a job.

There are a lot of notes. I wouldn't say it was overkill, because most of it is necessary for the tests, so you don't get a whole lot of extraneous and unneeded information. Before the tests he hands out study guides that have the major topics that will be on the test and works out example problems. Tests are mostly multiple choice with a few short answers and several problems to work out. Not a difficult class, if you work on it. I said the text book wasn't required, because the one we used wasn't very helpful and I and others managed just fine without it.

He expects more out of the class than most 200 level teachers do. He's tough but grades pretty nicely.

Dr. Carini is not a bad teacher. He teaches straight from the book, though. He tries to be evil, which is stupid. If everyone is doing well, he will make the tests super hard, which is also stupid. Just study hard, do your homework, and be nice to him.

Dr. Carini was ok, he does have some what of a sense of humor, yet he gets less laughs than i think he hoped for. His jokes are kind of corny. his class was ok, i sat up front to avoid falling asleep (didnt help) We hardly ever used the textbook and if we did it was because we did really bad on a test and he wanted us to look over the material again by giving us an assignment in the book. his test i found were kind of difficult. tricky questions, you just gotta look at every aspect of the things he goes over.

You'll be studying the heavens -n- going through hell. The first test is so hard, there is no possible way to get an A on it except for the fact that our class's average was so low he had to give a 10 POINT Curve!!! The other two tests are much easier. There is a comprehensive final, too. The material is way over most peoples heads & we had a lot withdraw for this reason. Take good notes & don't worry about buying a book (unless you want it as a reference) I didn't like the class, but Dr. Carini is a very nice man and will meet with his students anytime. He is very willing to help out those students who actually care.

good teacher, he answers all questions and may even curve test grades. notes/material is not difficult to understand at all as long as you come to class.

OK professor, but hard class. Seemed like astro physics. Not what I expected.