A&O SCI 1
Climate Change: From Puzzles to Policy
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Overview of fundamentals of Earth's climate, including greenhouse effect, water and chemical cycles, outstanding features of atmospheric and ocean circulation, and feedback between different system components. Exciting and contentious scientific puzzles of climate system, including causes of ice ages, greenhouse warming, and el niño. Importance of climate science and prediction to society, with emphasis on science's role in identifying, qualifying, and solving environmental problems such as ozone hole and greenhouse warming. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
He was wonderful. Really funny and such. Go to the test bank and pick up past quizzes of his because the ones he give will have the exact same questions. Got a B in it which I could've improved had I not skipped out on one bit about La Nina and stuff, but if you show up and work you'll be perfectly fine.
He was wonderful. Really funny and such. Go to the test bank and pick up past quizzes of his because the ones he give will have the exact same questions. Got a B in it which I could've improved had I not skipped out on one bit about La Nina and stuff, but if you show up and work you'll be perfectly fine.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Neelin is very, very nice. That said, yes, you will struggle mightily to remain awake during his morning lectures. However, if you are north campus and you want to get a low-stress science GE out of the way, I cannot possibly emphasize enough that this class is one of the easiest GEs I have ever taken. There is no textbook, so it saves you money, too. The course materials are limited to powerpoint slides that he posts on the website. The handful of homework assignments are essentially free points if you spend a quality hour or so on them. He won't give you a study guide for his exams, but it's irrelevant, because his exams are impossibly easy. If you memorize all of the information on the lecture slides and take quality notes, there is no reason why you should not be able to pass this class with a very good grade. Speaking as a polysci major, I am normally atrocious at math and science. However, I thought this was a very easy class that covered an interesting topic. Yes, you will need to be learning about scientific information, but it's very general. Plus, the second half of the course mostly covers policymaking aspects of climate change, so it almost feels like a north campus class after the midterm.
Professor Neelin is very, very nice. That said, yes, you will struggle mightily to remain awake during his morning lectures. However, if you are north campus and you want to get a low-stress science GE out of the way, I cannot possibly emphasize enough that this class is one of the easiest GEs I have ever taken. There is no textbook, so it saves you money, too. The course materials are limited to powerpoint slides that he posts on the website. The handful of homework assignments are essentially free points if you spend a quality hour or so on them. He won't give you a study guide for his exams, but it's irrelevant, because his exams are impossibly easy. If you memorize all of the information on the lecture slides and take quality notes, there is no reason why you should not be able to pass this class with a very good grade. Speaking as a polysci major, I am normally atrocious at math and science. However, I thought this was a very easy class that covered an interesting topic. Yes, you will need to be learning about scientific information, but it's very general. Plus, the second half of the course mostly covers policymaking aspects of climate change, so it almost feels like a north campus class after the midterm.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - He doesn't focus on policy; instead, the entire 10 weeks is about the science behind climate change. The class is graded from 4 homeworks, 2 exams, and 2 quizzes. He himself isn't very helpful, so you'll usually be going through your TA. The class got more and more boring as the quarter went on. The homeworks weren't usually too hard, but sometimes the TAs would argue with him about the questions- occasionally he added a question that was either too hard, not taught in class, or just literally impossible to answer. He is passionate about the subject and an overall interesting guy. He was very strict about us taking the final exam, even through all of the coronavirus stuff, which did make me like him a little less. It's unnecessary to go to all of the lectures, as he usually goes to fast to understand the material anyways. The best part of the course was my TA, Marco. It was his first time as a TA, but he was incredibly helpful. I think he was more helpful than what Professor Picazo wanted, as Marco would send us detailed tips on how to get through the homework. My friends with other TAs didn't have the same help. Marco would email us in-detail tips on the homeworks, sometimes going through step by step for problems. Before the exams, he would email us what topics would be on it a lot, and which we didn't need to focus on. It's unnecessary to go to his discussion (except for the first one), as he usually just goes over what was said in class, and he sends out the slides he uses afterwards, anyways. If you need to fill a lab credit, this is defenitely the course to do it. It didn't meet a single time, and just included 4 labs. Once again, Marco emailed people in the lab to give them hints. Overall, it was a decent course that covers an important topic.
Winter 2020 - He doesn't focus on policy; instead, the entire 10 weeks is about the science behind climate change. The class is graded from 4 homeworks, 2 exams, and 2 quizzes. He himself isn't very helpful, so you'll usually be going through your TA. The class got more and more boring as the quarter went on. The homeworks weren't usually too hard, but sometimes the TAs would argue with him about the questions- occasionally he added a question that was either too hard, not taught in class, or just literally impossible to answer. He is passionate about the subject and an overall interesting guy. He was very strict about us taking the final exam, even through all of the coronavirus stuff, which did make me like him a little less. It's unnecessary to go to all of the lectures, as he usually goes to fast to understand the material anyways. The best part of the course was my TA, Marco. It was his first time as a TA, but he was incredibly helpful. I think he was more helpful than what Professor Picazo wanted, as Marco would send us detailed tips on how to get through the homework. My friends with other TAs didn't have the same help. Marco would email us in-detail tips on the homeworks, sometimes going through step by step for problems. Before the exams, he would email us what topics would be on it a lot, and which we didn't need to focus on. It's unnecessary to go to his discussion (except for the first one), as he usually just goes over what was said in class, and he sends out the slides he uses afterwards, anyways. If you need to fill a lab credit, this is defenitely the course to do it. It didn't meet a single time, and just included 4 labs. Once again, Marco emailed people in the lab to give them hints. Overall, it was a decent course that covers an important topic.
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