EPS SCI 15
Blue Planet: Introduction to Oceanography
Description: Lecture, three hours; laboratory, two hours. Not open for credit to students with credit for or currently enrolled in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 25. General introduction to geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes and history of Earth's global ocean system. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
1 of 1
Most Helpful Review
Pros: *Engaging lecturer, really funny *VERY WELL ORGANIZED *Pretty funny *Great at explaining things and connecting them to life. Cons: *Labs are both useless/timewasters and really informative. I don't know how to explain it. *Aurnou doesn't care about you, at all. You will get precisely the grade that you have earned. *The tests are harder than you think they'll be *DO NOT BOTHER buying any textbooks. He doesn't use them, it's a waste of money. *He does not test on anything that is relevant, instead choosing to test on silly facts that only test whether you paid exceptional attention to him.
Pros: *Engaging lecturer, really funny *VERY WELL ORGANIZED *Pretty funny *Great at explaining things and connecting them to life. Cons: *Labs are both useless/timewasters and really informative. I don't know how to explain it. *Aurnou doesn't care about you, at all. You will get precisely the grade that you have earned. *The tests are harder than you think they'll be *DO NOT BOTHER buying any textbooks. He doesn't use them, it's a waste of money. *He does not test on anything that is relevant, instead choosing to test on silly facts that only test whether you paid exceptional attention to him.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - This class serves as a good introduction to oceanography, but lectures were at times boring and unorganized. It was evident that although this was the case, Dr. Drake was passionate about the subject and well-versed on the material. I went to office hours frequently to clarify information that I was confused about and it was helpful. The labs for this class are graded based on completion, but there are quizzes every week that directly relate to the previous lab. It was a bit inconvenient that the answers to the labs were not posted on CCLE, but only in the Geology building. Other than labs, there are three exams total in the class: one midterm, a lab final, and a lecture final. Although the lecture final is not cumulative, the lab final has information from all ten weeks of the course. Overall, this class is not too difficult, and there is an extra credit opportunity that is easy and enjoyable. I recommend taking it if you have an interest in the subject.
Spring 2019 - This class serves as a good introduction to oceanography, but lectures were at times boring and unorganized. It was evident that although this was the case, Dr. Drake was passionate about the subject and well-versed on the material. I went to office hours frequently to clarify information that I was confused about and it was helpful. The labs for this class are graded based on completion, but there are quizzes every week that directly relate to the previous lab. It was a bit inconvenient that the answers to the labs were not posted on CCLE, but only in the Geology building. Other than labs, there are three exams total in the class: one midterm, a lab final, and a lecture final. Although the lecture final is not cumulative, the lab final has information from all ten weeks of the course. Overall, this class is not too difficult, and there is an extra credit opportunity that is easy and enjoyable. I recommend taking it if you have an interest in the subject.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Overall, this class was ok. The way the midterms, final, and quizzes were worded made things very tricky. Also, I felt at times that if I didn't have an environmental science background, I'd be struggling to keep up with his teaching. His prerecorded lectures took a long time but he was very generous in his extra credits (like previous comments it can make or break your grade). That being said, I highly recommend doing every extra credit opportunity possible. I do agree that he probably wasn't going to make accommodations for this class (due to BLM) until he was pressed by ucla to do so. Anyways, keep up with the lectures, know the lab stuff, do the quizzes and extra credits and you should be fine.
Spring 2020 - Overall, this class was ok. The way the midterms, final, and quizzes were worded made things very tricky. Also, I felt at times that if I didn't have an environmental science background, I'd be struggling to keep up with his teaching. His prerecorded lectures took a long time but he was very generous in his extra credits (like previous comments it can make or break your grade). That being said, I highly recommend doing every extra credit opportunity possible. I do agree that he probably wasn't going to make accommodations for this class (due to BLM) until he was pressed by ucla to do so. Anyways, keep up with the lectures, know the lab stuff, do the quizzes and extra credits and you should be fine.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I don't have a particular interest in science, but this class was an easy GE that fills the lab requirement. Lectures were Bruin-casted and the textbook reading was short and pretty straight forward. Drake co-lectured for half the quarter and I really liked her. The labs were long but easy if you remember to cram last weeks material a few minutes before class. Schauble gives 2% extra credit, which bumped my grade up from A- to an A. The final is easier than the midterms, and you can do well on tests simply from paying attention in lectures and/or reviewing the textbook, but I found lectures more helpful than reading. You only really will do bad if you get lazy: all you have to do is spend a little time to understand the concepts
Fall 2019 - I don't have a particular interest in science, but this class was an easy GE that fills the lab requirement. Lectures were Bruin-casted and the textbook reading was short and pretty straight forward. Drake co-lectured for half the quarter and I really liked her. The labs were long but easy if you remember to cram last weeks material a few minutes before class. Schauble gives 2% extra credit, which bumped my grade up from A- to an A. The final is easier than the midterms, and you can do well on tests simply from paying attention in lectures and/or reviewing the textbook, but I found lectures more helpful than reading. You only really will do bad if you get lazy: all you have to do is spend a little time to understand the concepts
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Although Treude is a petite individual, she manages to make her presence clear. She does have a German accent, but in my opinion, it did not make understanding her any difficult. Her lectures seemed to go by very slowly although her class was an hour and 15 minutes. I mainly feel like that was because she would primarily read off of the slides and it wasn't really until the end of the quarter that she started to add more input towards the powerpoints. Also, I felt that this class would be fun if it wasn't for the lab portion, which is 40% of your grade (30% weekly lab quiz and 10% lab final). The lab quizzes were generally inconsistent as to how they were structured- sometimes they were fairly easy and sometimes they were fairly hard. They do take off the 2 worst scores but I did fairly poorly on the exams even though I studied a day before and studied before the class started. Also, the mid-term was structured in a very basic manner, but I also did not do as I thought I would because I did not know how to study but it's literally just memorizing the powerpoints. The 10% portion of the extra credit is very generous by part of Treude, but it can only help so much. If you do poorly on the labs quizzes and on the lab final, you MUST do good on the both the mid-term and final. I would recommend this class, but it is not one I thoroughly enjoyed since it was highly memory based and not hands-on as I thought it would be.
Winter 2019 - Although Treude is a petite individual, she manages to make her presence clear. She does have a German accent, but in my opinion, it did not make understanding her any difficult. Her lectures seemed to go by very slowly although her class was an hour and 15 minutes. I mainly feel like that was because she would primarily read off of the slides and it wasn't really until the end of the quarter that she started to add more input towards the powerpoints. Also, I felt that this class would be fun if it wasn't for the lab portion, which is 40% of your grade (30% weekly lab quiz and 10% lab final). The lab quizzes were generally inconsistent as to how they were structured- sometimes they were fairly easy and sometimes they were fairly hard. They do take off the 2 worst scores but I did fairly poorly on the exams even though I studied a day before and studied before the class started. Also, the mid-term was structured in a very basic manner, but I also did not do as I thought I would because I did not know how to study but it's literally just memorizing the powerpoints. The 10% portion of the extra credit is very generous by part of Treude, but it can only help so much. If you do poorly on the labs quizzes and on the lab final, you MUST do good on the both the mid-term and final. I would recommend this class, but it is not one I thoroughly enjoyed since it was highly memory based and not hands-on as I thought it would be.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Oh my was this class easy. No tests, quizzes, exams. Just lecture notes that you can copy off the slides, chapter reading notes, a weekly lab assignment, 3 "lecture assignments", and a final video project. The lecture assignments were super easy, which involved either taking notes on a video, or answering a few questions from a large list such as definitions or converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit. This class required very minimal effort and is the easiest A I have gotten since middle school. Do anything you can to take this class.
Winter 2021 - Oh my was this class easy. No tests, quizzes, exams. Just lecture notes that you can copy off the slides, chapter reading notes, a weekly lab assignment, 3 "lecture assignments", and a final video project. The lecture assignments were super easy, which involved either taking notes on a video, or answering a few questions from a large list such as definitions or converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit. This class required very minimal effort and is the easiest A I have gotten since middle school. Do anything you can to take this class.
1 of 1
