STS 1500

I genuinely did not like this class. The lectures were painfully boring (even if Carlson did his best to be entertaining) and the labs were even worse. The grading by the TAs is pretty inconsistent, making it difficult to do well on the bigger writing assignments. The assigned readings are basically directly copied onto the lectures slides, making it unnecessary to do both. This is simply a class you have to buckle down and get through. There's no way I would have taken this if it wasn't a requirement.

This class sucks. Carlson sucks. Makes it impossible to get an A, and he doesn't teach. He demands respect but doesn't guve it

Since there is generally only one STS 1500 course offered a semester/year, you probably won't take this class as a choice. However, if you have ANY choice, I would highly recommend staying away from it. The exams test your knowledge of extremely specific details while the lectures are focused on broad themes and the readings are often lengthy and for the most part essentially unrelated. The grading of papers is arbitrary, and I would say just pay attention in lab as much as you can to do better on these. Overall, I found this class extremely boring and useless, but it is an engineering school requirement so there was really no way out of it

Carlson is just the worst. Far and away the worst class I've ever taken. I wanted to switch out of this class after the first 20 minutes of the first lecture, but couldn't because it is a first year requirement. The assignments seemed to be graded on a random scale and the rubric/lab "discussions" don't do much to help you with them. The readings are generally pretty boring and are regurgitated onto Carlson's lecture slides every week. Carlson's lectures reminded me of a high school student giving a presentation that he/she had just put together at the last minute before class. I have to admit that he is a pretty good writer, but it is easy to tell that he's a terrible professor. If you can figure out any way whatsoever to avoid taking this class (e.g. take a similar class during the summer at another university, find something similar you took in high school, etc.), do not hesitate to do so. That being said: if you do take this class, dedicate ample time to the few assignments, and keep up with your idea notebook and it's pretty easy to get a B+ or A-.

A required class that manages to sneak in more of one man's ego than I ever thought possible.
The lectures (on the off chance they happen) are decent enough, although quite boring and pointless in most cases - they prep one for the tests and the tests are walks in the park if one goes over the slides and skims the readings.
The "labs" are basically times to prep for groupwork and associated writing assignments, which are graded arbitrarily by TAs who know very little of the actual subjects in question besides that they love their man Carlson - they never waste an opportunity to refer to "Dr. Carlson's opinion". Preparation for the writing assignments constitutes the majority of the time spent dealing with this course.
Speaking of which, that opinion is overzealous and sometimes quite noticeably inaccurate. The professor somehow manages to draw simple yet absurdly overreaching conclusions about how things turned out the way they did, chalking up the causes behind the complexities of history to the simple decisions of a few. He knows very little about how much of this technology he discusses actually works and how it impacts the lives we live today.
What he does somewhat know is business, and the lectures/videos that incorporate those principles are far and away the most enjoyable and rewarding.
Keep your idea notebook neat and up to date.

Professor Carlson may be the strangest professor I have ever had. The fact that he quotes himself in his required readings, and assigns lecture videos of himself turned me off. I would not have taken this class if it wasn't required. The content can be interesting, just not the way that Carlson teaches it. Neither the midterm nor the final are particularly challenging, but do the readings when assigned if you want an A. The patent application project is not that bad, but stay on top of due dates and little nitpicky rules that are in the syllabus.

This course. Unfortunately, it's required for all first-year engineering majors. If you do not have to take this class...then don't. There's a reading every week (a few of which are actually written by him where he also cites his own work). Some are really long while others are manageable. You only need to read the readings for the exams. His lectures are basically the readings themselves. Make sure you read the readings though. The midterm & final both ask a lot of specific and nitpicky questions on the readings. As a warning, he is probably the most narcissistic professor ever. He makes you read articles written by him, some of the articles he actually cites himself, all of his lectures are basically based on his opinions, the TAs quote him on a daily basis, and the exams revolve around the lectures and readings. Make sure you closely follow all the directions when turning work in! Good luck...you'll need it.

By far the stupidest class I've ever taken. The fact that this class is required for engineers makes me want to transfer to Tech. Carlson is so full of himself. The class isn't designed to teach you about universal material like math, history, or sciences..... this class literally teaches you Carlson's own opinions. The structure of the class is extremely stupid and the grading is horribly unfair. It's nearly impossible to get a good grade, but at the same time, it's difficult to fail as well. (that's why the avg. gpa is skewed) I have not learned anything in this class. Most of it is common sense in addition to Carlson's stupid opinions. Nobody has time for all the readings and work he assigns. Some of the assignments like the Idea Notebook and PPA sound good, but end up being horrible. Idea Notebooks are meant to be kept for IDEAS, but Carlson forces you to write an 'idea' or two EVERYDAY. That defeats the purpose of an idea notebook because you're forcing yourself to spit out stupid thoughts. The Patent Application sounds cool and useful, but they literally teach you nothing. You have to figure everything out by yourself. I don't need to pay $30,000 a year for this.... I can fucking figure out how to write a patent application myself.
Overall, completely useless class. Avoid at all costs. If you're an engineer and you're required to take this class, my advice is that you treat this class as a joke and focus on your other classes like Chem, Physics, or CS. As I said, it's difficult to do poorly in this class.... so you can easily sit around and get a B or B+. The amount of work to get an A- is unreal. Getting an A is impossible. Less than 1% of the class finishes with an A. Engineers love to calculate. Calculate the most efficient way to use your time. You'll find that in order to maximize your overall GPA, you should focus on classes like Chem, Physics, or CS so you can see results in your grade and knowledge.

Studying for this class makes you dumber.

What a terrible course. It's just one of the classes you have to take as an engineer, and unfortunately there's only one professor to take it with. Lectures are boring; labs have nothing to do with lectures. Two midterms, one technical description, one groupwork patent, and an idea notebook is all the class is, but the grading is poor and seems subjective to what the professor thinks. Overall a bad class, but do the assignments and you can come out with an A-.

As all the other reviews have said, Carlson is narcissistic and this class pretty much revolves around his own opinions/interpretations on historical events and inventions. He will have quotes of himself on his own lecture slides, and you will be tested on his opinions as well.

Albeit a bad lecturer (he's boring as hell), Carlson presents some interesting arguments that are at the very least worth considering. The class definitely has good intentions and can be kind of valuable - it teaches engineers how technologies impact societies, and this contextualization of engineering is supposed to give you a broader outlook. The major assignments - idea notebook, PPA and technical description - are useless but shouldn't be too time-consuming depending on your group members and your grader. I would HIGHLY recommend keeping up with the idea notebook (1 journal entry every day for the semester); coming up with a 100 bullshit ideas during the last week of the semester is an absolute nightmare, trust me, I've been there and so has most of the E-school. Even though they specifically tell you the tests aren't designed to trick you, the midterm and final are pretty much all trick questions. Despite that, they still aren't bad if you thoroughly study the notes and videos a few days beforehand.

Honestly, it's just something all first-year engineers have to go through - so try to keep an open mind as you approach the class. Don't buy in to everything Carlson says, but since there's really no way to get out of taking the class, you might as well try to get the most out of it. It's also MUCH less stressful than the other first-year E-school subjects like Chem and Calc, so I wouldn't really complain about it. As long as you keep up with the work, it shouldn't be difficult to get a B or B+, and if you put in some extra effort, an A- is definitely achievable.