Student Feedback From Fall 2020 – Thermodynamics Star Wars

COMPLETE STUDENT FEEDBACK FROM EGN 3343 FOR MY THEMED THERMODYNAMICS CLASS. This semester, Star Wars was the theme, complete with a commemorative T-Shirt! (If pre-ordered, pick-up is available Starting January 4th in the DfX lab in ENB.) Feedback is here presented completely unabridged with only personal identifying information or other instructor’s names redacted, if necessary.

Instructor Comment:

Could not give any better feedback. I learned so much in this class and it became one of my favorite subjects. He made the class exciting and interesting. He treated us like we were students and not colleagues, which helps so much when learning foreign topics. He really knows how to teach the class to people who have zero knowledge about the topic and makes them experts by the end of the semester.

One of the best professors I’ve had at USF. Topics I’ve never understood before in previous physics classes make a lot more sense now, and I’ve never felt discouraged about the material like I have in other physics courses. He’s also very understanding about everything and all of us have felt very listened to this whole semester.

He is a wonderful instructor that I would recommend to everyone. The way he taught was really effective and entertaining.

I like how you make the course interesting and have a theme to it. However, I suggest reviewing the exams before giving them to students as the errors we find in the middle of exam throw me off and shift my focus for a bit. I like the booster videos as well they were helpful for me to solve the problems.

The best this semester !! He is so good !! explains everything step by step. So friendly and fun !

Best professor!! But so much effort into the class. Made the class fun. Also went out of his way and made us flashcards, homework videos to succeed in his class.

Professor Celestin has been one of if not my favorite professor at USF in my 3 years. He brings so much energy, enthusiasm and fun to thermodynamics. His teaching style makes it so easy to understand the many concepts in the class. He can use many different examples for us to grasp the concepts, he brings different instruments and gadgets to class as like a show n tell for our class related to what are learning and it helps give a physical understanding of the principles we are learning. He is very caring for his students and seems that he would be willing to help a student in anyway and does not put down any students for wrong answers. He is very accessible outside of class, he responded within 30 minutes of my email, while he was in the middle of grading our exams.

I don’t think there are many professors on his level or anywhere close. Not only is he a great professor, but a genuinely fun person.

If requested to evaluate Professor Celestin in one word I would simply say excellent. Truly one of the best instructors I have ever had. He was able to make a very difficult class enjoyable. Due to the circumstances of this year this was the only class that was required to be on campus for and I am very glad that Professor Celestin was the instructor. He was engaging and entertaining. I couldn’t say enough great things about the way he taught this class. 10/10 would take again!

Absolutely great professor. Makes the coursework engaging and tangible.

I thought Professor Celestin went above and beyond the call of duty to offer a multi-faceted and stimulating course which made the material easier to understand and connect with. I tended to lose a lot of points to rather nitpicky details, which added a lot of difficulty to the course, but I thought that the grading system was more than fair to accommodate those expectations. Professor should cosplay as a better Sith though, Kylo Ren is kind of weak sauce. 😉

Dr. Celestin really gets into the students’ shoes when explaining the material and teaches us in a way that makes it easy to understand. He is very funny and friendly, helps a lot outside of class as he has office hours almost everyday. Dr. Celestin also answers his email and texts very quick, and I know that he puts a lot of effort to help students. He does all of that not because he has all the time in the world, I know he is extremely busy actually, but he does that because he truly cares about his students. He also makes “homework booster” videos to help us understand the homework, which I find very useful. I honestly have never seen a professor like Dr. Celestin, and I am sad that I am not able to take any more classes with him.

Professor Celestin it is a great and funny instructor. He is tough, but explains the subject clearly and worries about his students. I had fun and I am leaving this class knowing that I learned what I was supposed to learn.

Amazing instructor. He loves the class and his students. Goes beyond to ensure he is available outside of class time and provides supplemental content to help us out with homework and quizzes. Highly recommend.

Dr. Celestin is perhaps the most engaging, enthusiastic, and entertaining professors I have encountered so far in my two and a half years at USF. The extra miles he goes to in order to ensure that the class is fun and unique from other sections do not go unnoticed. I found myself wanting to go to every class, just because he made the lectures interesting and I was excited to see what new topics we would learn. His additional touches are not just for show either: I genuinely learned thermodynamics and I feel like I have a strong grasp on the topics we discussed. I don’t have a single bad thing to say about Dr. Celestin, and I wish I could take a course taught by him again.

It’s evident that you enjoy what you teach and make the most of it (if the whole Star Wars theme wasn’t evident of that enough). You broke down the concepts very well and tied everything together with how previous concepts tied into current concepts. The in-class examples/demonstrations were also very helpful and usually entertaining. 10/10 IGN Would recommend.

Absolutely loved this class. The beginning was very tough but after reaching out for help, I was able to understand what I needed to do in order to pass this class. I started with a 52 and now I am at an 82, which is really exciting. The way Dr. Celestin taught made the homework enjoyable and one can see how much he cares for his students. He always made homework booster videos and answered emails/text very fast. I’m going to miss this class.

Dr. Celestin not only shows that he knows and understands what he teaches but he also knows how to communicate his ideas. He looks for feedback and criticism so that he can grow and work out what needs to be fixed. He constantly provides us with answers that help learn effectively and easily. He also provides thorough explanations of the material being presented without just dumping the information at us. He walks us through the steps and then allows us to work at our own pace and gives us optimal time for learning. I would highly recommend him to teach again.

Dr. Celestin is one of the few teachers I have had that actually cares about the subject and their students.

Videos were very helpful. Escape rooms seemed like an occasional second quiz, it would have been nice if they were open note more like a homework assignment.

Great professor, he always gave a ton of effort.

Amazing teacher! This is how it is done! A+ world-class professor. My favorite professor at USF. Knows how to explain the concepts clearly. Makes the effort to make it more interesting and entertaining.

Great Professor/comedian. Teaches everything that we need while making the class enjoyable and funny. The demonstrations he does are very helpful and interesting

Great professor. Keeps the class entertained.

Dr. Celestin has a fun personality and doesn’t like to see students do poorly. I appreciate his welcoming attitude to questions. I think the homework assignments were helpful, but in a course like this one, I found it imperative to have solutions to enhance our learning. Thermodynamic problems have so many pieces to them so it’s hard to identify your mistakes if when you’re learning the material. I was discouraged easily by this sort of “dead end.” Studying seemed impossible and so did earning better grades. Dr. Celestin sometimes simplified items too much, so I found myself trying to remember patterns in example problems as opposed to understanding why the steps were followed. Also, my problem-solving techniques were different to his: I start solving with the broadest equations/ statements in mind then investigate the unknowns as they appear, while Celestin starts with what he has and goes outwards. For example, students learning Spanish are not given the conjugated verb and asked to provide the infinitive verb. Instead they start with the general form then adjust the suffix given the context of the problem. I feel like my method is more helpful for students who are learning. I appreciate the curved grading scale.

I’ve been in school for 6 years and I can honestly say professor Celestin is by far my favorite teacher of all time !! I really enjoyed the course !

Dr. Celestin is an incredible professor, the way we teaches allows us to learn not for the exam, but for life. The constant quizzes every week get a little annoying, but it’s honestly the only way to keep up with the class and truly understand the material. Dr. Celestin was also very easy to get in contact with and was always willing to help/answer any questions we had either in class, over email or during office hours. The way he cares for his students, and the effort he puts into this class make it enjoyable to attend lectures. Without doubt one of the best professor at USF

Honestly one of the best professors I’ve had for Chem Engineering. Made me cringe sometimes with the star wars but honestly made the class more interesting. Now I can’t solve a Thermo problem without thinking about Star Wars. He is also a very FAIR instructor. Gives credit where credit is due.

Puts a lot of effort into his lecture and quizzes with the addition of lots of story which shows his love for Star wars. Also a very entertaining instructor who does manage to keep students focused on the lecture and what’s important for test and quizzes by providing good examples through lecture and homework.

Dr. Celestin is one of the best teacher I have had at USF. He goes above and beyond out of his way to make sure we are learning and understanding the material. He’s super interactive and fun. He listens and cares for his students. Everything about the way he teaches is amazing, even while taking it online. I would 110% recommend him to anyone. Please allow Dr. Celestin to branch out his services in other classes such as Material Engineering, I think students would learn so much more and get a better understanding if he was given the opportunity.

One of the best professors at USF. He made the class so much fun, he’s very understanding and he was always available to help.

great teacher, ty for the help sessions

You are the best, you really are! Minor suggestions: no need to make separate Teams meetings before each lecture and send out invitation emails; you could just set up reoccurring meetings. Also, could you make lecture recordings to record only your screen and not 3 others? It’s hard to see. Thanks!!

Professor Celestin excels at taking a difficult and often dry subject and making it much easier to learn. It’s clear that he goes above and beyond to make the subject more interesting to his students with his various in-class demonstrations as well as the Star Wars test storylines and escape room quizzes.

Course Comment:

Super interesting class. I do not think there is anything that could be recommended

I wouldn’t change anything about the content of this course.

Thermodynamics has been a very fun and educational class. It has taught so much about machines and how they function. Lots of the machines that we would use in an engineering career can be applied to the models we studied in class. This class is really a building block for machines, we learn how to improve upon their designs and we learned a whole new aspect to think about when designing products. If we made a machine but did not consider the thermodynamics of it, the machine would not last very long.

Very challenging class. As stated above Professor Celestin made the class interesting and I looked forward to listening to his lectures. I learned a lot of useful information in this course.

As a second time student of this class, I am having a much easier time learning the material with Dr. Celestin

This material is about right. Synthesizes a lot of needed scientific understanding. I don’t know how I would really subtract anything. Maybe more practical examples of real life carnot and rankine cycle using systems?

Great class!

thermodynamics it is not a easy subject, it is the second time I am taking it. Last time I did not adapted with my other instructor and with the pandemic, I was forced to drop before getting a bad grade. I enjoyed this class this time.

The course is fairly structured, with the points divided between quizzes, exams, escape rooms, and the assignment. I don’t have any qualms with the grading or the difficulty of the course evaluations: they were all fair and Dr. Celestin was always clear about the topics that each evaluation would cover. The course was transparent and straightforward in terms of expectations from start to finish, and I had a good experience. I would definitely take this course again in the future just because of how enriching I found the class.

If you take thermodynamics, take it with Dr. Celestin. You will not be disappointed. If you study hard, everything will become easier and doable. He makes class fun with funny remarks and jokes. Best teacher ever. #thankyou

A very good class to take if done correctly by a good professor. This class was not too difficult but it was not too easy as well. A large amount of studying is required to not only understand the material but to also pass this class as well.

After taking this class, there is a right way to teach and a wrong way. This is a hard course and makes it harder if the professor isn’t giving you the tools to succeed (Dr. Celestin was the exception to this).

Great class, a lot of interesting concepts.

Second times the charm? I took this course last semester and experienced the same intimidation this semester as I did then. Very overwhelming. I did enjoy the puzzle/ problem solving aspect of this course.

Really enjoyed this class and it was very interesting