ASTR 5
Life in Universe
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: prior introduction to astronomy. Life on Earth and prospects for life elsewhere in context of evolution of universe from simple to complex. Course material primarily from astronomy and biology but includes some chemistry, geology, and physics. Selected topics treated in some depth, but with little or no formal mathematics. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - If you need an easy science GE to balance a tough class load or need a GPA booster, take this class! Dr. McLean is a great professor because not only does he give a majority the class an A, but he is really passionate about the subject and strives for students to gain the same appreciation. Meaning he is always very helpful and breaks down astronomy to make it clear and concise. The class was graded on online quizzes, one 50q midterm, 1 90q final, and discussion participation. The homework quizzes are straight from the lecture slides. The exams are verbatim his exam reviews and the quiz questions. You get discussion participation for showing up. It is extremely easy to do well and I encourage students to go to lectures because it is honestly awesome stuff to hear about. Protect Dr. McLean at all costs!!!!
Winter 2019 - If you need an easy science GE to balance a tough class load or need a GPA booster, take this class! Dr. McLean is a great professor because not only does he give a majority the class an A, but he is really passionate about the subject and strives for students to gain the same appreciation. Meaning he is always very helpful and breaks down astronomy to make it clear and concise. The class was graded on online quizzes, one 50q midterm, 1 90q final, and discussion participation. The homework quizzes are straight from the lecture slides. The exams are verbatim his exam reviews and the quiz questions. You get discussion participation for showing up. It is extremely easy to do well and I encourage students to go to lectures because it is honestly awesome stuff to hear about. Protect Dr. McLean at all costs!!!!
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - A decent class and Prof. Morris is a nice guy and very knowledgable. The lectures are all BruinCast and the sections are optional reviews. If you know the material on the lecture slides (also online) you can do a passable job in this class. The info is interesting, but Prof. Morris loses his train of thought sometimes. Overall a solid and relatively easy GE, not life-changing but no complaints
Spring 2018 - A decent class and Prof. Morris is a nice guy and very knowledgable. The lectures are all BruinCast and the sections are optional reviews. If you know the material on the lecture slides (also online) you can do a passable job in this class. The info is interesting, but Prof. Morris loses his train of thought sometimes. Overall a solid and relatively easy GE, not life-changing but no complaints
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - As a GE, it's a perfectly fine, easy class, but I was not a fan, mostly because I wasn't interested. Treu is a cute prof, in that old guy passionate-about-astronomy type of way. However, he has the tendency to be really wishy-washy during lecture, so it's a little hard to stay engaged, particularly if you aren't already into the material. His slides were pretty disorganized and it's hard to really know what's the most important stuff to know for exams. He is very passionate about the material and open to student questions, so if you're really into astronomy, unlike me, he's a fun prof to have. Exams are open note and therefore, weren't too bad in terms of difficulty. The questions were sometimes confusingly worded and it wasn't always clear what they were asking. Final was actually trickier than anticipated because the questions weren't clear and I ended up using the entire 3 hours LOL. The most helpful materials were definitely worksheets that were done during TA discussions that covered much of the mathematical computations that would be on the exams. As long as you have some prior understanding of the topics (especially the math!) and where everything is at in your notes, you'll be fine. I will say, however, that I HATED Kudu, the online textbook we were required to pay for. If you're familiar with the LS7 series and Launchpad, it's pretty much a budget version of it. Super buggy, often changes answers to your quizzes, and a lot of the texts and videos are available for free online so I wasn't sure why I was required to pay 50 dollars just to watch Crashcourse Astronomy and have my quizzes graded wrong because the program changed my responses post submission. It was easy to get your credit back, though, by emailing the Kudu administrators to get it corrected. But still, if you're paying for a service, you'd think that it would work properly. Most people didn't go to lecture from what I saw, so that's up to you, but I do recommend attending discussions! He also had an extra credit opportunity that was fairly easy and only took like two hours of my time. Overall, fairly easy GE if you don't totally drop the ball on it.
Fall 2019 - As a GE, it's a perfectly fine, easy class, but I was not a fan, mostly because I wasn't interested. Treu is a cute prof, in that old guy passionate-about-astronomy type of way. However, he has the tendency to be really wishy-washy during lecture, so it's a little hard to stay engaged, particularly if you aren't already into the material. His slides were pretty disorganized and it's hard to really know what's the most important stuff to know for exams. He is very passionate about the material and open to student questions, so if you're really into astronomy, unlike me, he's a fun prof to have. Exams are open note and therefore, weren't too bad in terms of difficulty. The questions were sometimes confusingly worded and it wasn't always clear what they were asking. Final was actually trickier than anticipated because the questions weren't clear and I ended up using the entire 3 hours LOL. The most helpful materials were definitely worksheets that were done during TA discussions that covered much of the mathematical computations that would be on the exams. As long as you have some prior understanding of the topics (especially the math!) and where everything is at in your notes, you'll be fine. I will say, however, that I HATED Kudu, the online textbook we were required to pay for. If you're familiar with the LS7 series and Launchpad, it's pretty much a budget version of it. Super buggy, often changes answers to your quizzes, and a lot of the texts and videos are available for free online so I wasn't sure why I was required to pay 50 dollars just to watch Crashcourse Astronomy and have my quizzes graded wrong because the program changed my responses post submission. It was easy to get your credit back, though, by emailing the Kudu administrators to get it corrected. But still, if you're paying for a service, you'd think that it would work properly. Most people didn't go to lecture from what I saw, so that's up to you, but I do recommend attending discussions! He also had an extra credit opportunity that was fairly easy and only took like two hours of my time. Overall, fairly easy GE if you don't totally drop the ball on it.
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