Dear person who submitted on February 27, 2020:

Why are you so pressed? The average midterm grade was a D. So? Multiple times he said that a 19 was a good score, and not to worry too much about midterm grades. There was also 22% worth of extra credit offered, which is miles above what any other class at UCLA will offer any student. That is literally 1/5 of your grade. You could skip the midterm entirely and still end up with at least an A-. Addressing the fact that you were "appalled" by some of the lecture material, what are you, 80 years old?? He tries to keep lectures fun and interesting for his students, and is super funny. Sorry he didn't pass out permission slips for the in-class videos. He also extended the dates for all the extra credits and tried his very best to make the most of a bad situation. What else did you want him to do? Discover the Kuiper Belt? Oh, wait! He did that already :/

I logged in for the first to just to disagree with the negative comment below.

The course was alright. We were given about 22% of extra credit assignments to complete, so despite being tested on material that we didn't actually learn in class (Basic geometry formulas from high school), the grade distribution of the entire class is very likely to be mostly A+, A, A-'s.

Jewitt is a highly logical thinker; his class is organized in a way that is very clear and to the point. He likes cracking sarcastic jokes in almost every lecture, so in general taking this class with him was pretty amusing.

I sent him a picture of his mailbox angled in way to capture the label on the other side of the wall to make sure my assignments landed in the right place. He responded by saying this was the best picture of his mail box every taken, which I then responded by saying I was deeply honored. That's the kind of guy he is like - creative and humorous despite being a scientist.

Every assignment is about his personal research so look out for an entry-level narcissism.

Jewitt is seriously a legend, I loved taking this class with him so much. He makes lecture so fun, clearly is an absolute expert on the topics he talks about, and is just overall an incredible person; I feel so lucky as non-science major to have even been able to take a class with him. My TA, Haotian Xu was also amazing, super kind and helpful when it came to completing labs. If you are at all interested in planets I highly recommend this class as a GE and GPA booster. Jewitt offers so much extra credit it's impossible to do bad. However, his tests are HARD. I thoroughly studied for the midterm and still only got a C (which was actually a lot better than my friends rip). I can't speak on the final's difficulty because this was the quarter UCLA abruptly transitioned to online finals bc of covid-19 and Jewitt, being the legend he is, thought that this was unfair to us (and he knew most people would likely cheat), so he cancelled it altogether! I'm genuinely sad covid-19 cut my time in this class short, as I heard the last lecture is supposed to be epic. Overall, this class is a great GE, and I would absolutely love to take another class with Jewitt in the future, he's the type of professor that makes me proud to go to UCLA.

Disclaimer: this is not about the overall grade I got. I haven't even finished the class yet.

I understand that this man made amazing progress for scientific research, but some of the things he did throughout this course was unacceptable. I don't really care how intelligent this man is: he was not an effective teacher nor did he respect the students. When he denied us a study guide for the midterm, I reached out asking questions about the material and he refused to answer them. When he finally came around, he gave me the most disrespectful, unhelpful answers. And then! The average midterm grade.. was a D (18/29). But most frustrating were a couple videos he showed at the start of class. One was a ridiculous heavy metal performance by two young girls. He said nothing afterwards. At a later date, he showed a video of a woman getting robotically possessed and then physically abused: she got stabbed in the eye, thrown into a wall, and her dress was lifted to reveal her undergarments. I was appalled. Afterwards, he said, "So what's all that about? Well I'm not going to tell you. Let's talk about Gas Giants."
So with all of that being said, take this class if you want, but just prepare yourself for some extremely frustrating moments. He is a clear reminder that being a brilliant person does not equate to being a successful teacher.

Pretty easy and fun class. Prof gives a ton of extra credit which I took advantage of all to get an A+ in the class.

Professor Jewitt is a super cool guy, super passionate about space and is extremely well known among scientists for his work/discoveries. Because he is so passionate, he doesn't want to see anyone do poorly and focus on their grades but rather stress less and actually try to enjoy the content. His midterm and finals were extremely difficult, but it didn't matter because he gave so many extra credit opportunities. I cannot even remember my horrible test grades because the extra credits boosted me so high over an A+. The key is to do the extra credit work, however, it can be heavy at times so plan accordingly.

Difficult class, extremely hard midterm, do the EC and you will end up with a good grade

I took EPS15 with Jewitt and immediately signed up for EPS9 the following quarter when I found out he would be teaching it. One of the best professors at UCLA. Jewitt is very talented at teaching complicated science in a very basic and interesting way that leaves you more knowledgable about the natural world. I'm in humanities and always thought I'd hate science but after taking classes with Jewitt I have such a great appreciation for it. If you have any interest in the earth/environment/ocean take this class!

Fun class. Definitely take it. Super easy since there's a crazy amount of extra credit. You'll do poor on the midterms but there's so much extra credit that it won't matter. Jewitt is kind of a troll which makes the class funny. Maybe don't take it when you're a freshman. You'll probably be turned off by his style. But if you're a tired senior like me, then it's a really great time. It was funny time.

Best science Professor ever. Take this class even not require. Easy, fun, interested.