ASTR 3
Nature of the Universe
Description: Lecture, three hours; laboratory, two hours. Not open to students with credit for or currently enrolled in course 81 or 82. No special mathematical preparation required beyond that necessary for admission to UCLA in freshman standing. Course for general UCLA students, normally not intending to major in physical sciences. Introduction to vast range of cosmic phenomena including planets in our solar system and beyond, stars, supernova explosions, black holes, galaxies, and universe as whole. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Overall I would say that this class was an easy GE. The material is super engaging - it covers the mind-boggling distances and masses, such as the distance from our galaxy to the nearest galaxy being some millions of light years and the mass of our sun being compressed into areas the size of LA etc. Prof. Consiglio was also very enthusiastic about the lecture material and made a good effort to convey her love of astronomy to the class, as her slides were interesting. Also, the homework was all online on Kudu - an online textbook/quiz site for $50. The homework was mainly based on the videos included on the website, from Crash Course Astronomy - these videos were very interesting and watching them didn't feel like studying. The labs were very easy and I usually finished a good time before they ended. The exams were also pretty easy - all multiple choice, based mainly on homework stuff along with a bit of lecture material. Practice exams were extremely useful as some questions were even re-used on the actual exams. Also, 3% extra credit was possible - 2% for going to Griffith observatory and 1% for something else, however I didn't avail this. Now for the donwsides - it is not very easy to take notes in the class as Prof. Consiglio moves along pretty quick and sometimes she skips slides altogether. Unless you have a laptop and can type reasonably fast (~50 wpm), note taking won't be worth it. All the lectures were available on CCLE afterwards anyway however they're usually about. 60% fluff 40% material. Also, the online textbook Kudu was a bit irritating as I don't usually like to watch videos and I found it very difficult to answer the homework questions with just the text as the questions usually asked for very specific facts only mentioned in the video. The exams were easy however sometimes they would ask very specific facts (such as the orbital period of the moon) which was annoying - for the first midterm we were told that it would focus more on concepts than facts but this was not the case. Overall I would recommend this class if you want an easy GE (especially if its P/NP like me). It can be a bit hard to study for the class but it's so easy that it doesn't matter anyway. As long as you have a decent memory for random things like the rough temperature of the surface of the sun, you should have no problem getting an A.
Winter 2019 - Overall I would say that this class was an easy GE. The material is super engaging - it covers the mind-boggling distances and masses, such as the distance from our galaxy to the nearest galaxy being some millions of light years and the mass of our sun being compressed into areas the size of LA etc. Prof. Consiglio was also very enthusiastic about the lecture material and made a good effort to convey her love of astronomy to the class, as her slides were interesting. Also, the homework was all online on Kudu - an online textbook/quiz site for $50. The homework was mainly based on the videos included on the website, from Crash Course Astronomy - these videos were very interesting and watching them didn't feel like studying. The labs were very easy and I usually finished a good time before they ended. The exams were also pretty easy - all multiple choice, based mainly on homework stuff along with a bit of lecture material. Practice exams were extremely useful as some questions were even re-used on the actual exams. Also, 3% extra credit was possible - 2% for going to Griffith observatory and 1% for something else, however I didn't avail this. Now for the donwsides - it is not very easy to take notes in the class as Prof. Consiglio moves along pretty quick and sometimes she skips slides altogether. Unless you have a laptop and can type reasonably fast (~50 wpm), note taking won't be worth it. All the lectures were available on CCLE afterwards anyway however they're usually about. 60% fluff 40% material. Also, the online textbook Kudu was a bit irritating as I don't usually like to watch videos and I found it very difficult to answer the homework questions with just the text as the questions usually asked for very specific facts only mentioned in the video. The exams were easy however sometimes they would ask very specific facts (such as the orbital period of the moon) which was annoying - for the first midterm we were told that it would focus more on concepts than facts but this was not the case. Overall I would recommend this class if you want an easy GE (especially if its P/NP like me). It can be a bit hard to study for the class but it's so easy that it doesn't matter anyway. As long as you have a decent memory for random things like the rough temperature of the surface of the sun, you should have no problem getting an A.
Most Helpful Review
He was great for Astro 3. Very excited and interesting in lecture. I never fell asleep. He uses lots of slides to keep the class interesting and teaches the class very straightforwardly. You can tell he really cares about the subject matter and his students. I really enjoyed Astro 3 because of him.
He was great for Astro 3. Very excited and interesting in lecture. I never fell asleep. He uses lots of slides to keep the class interesting and teaches the class very straightforwardly. You can tell he really cares about the subject matter and his students. I really enjoyed Astro 3 because of him.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - Professor Fitzgerald is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and obviously finds the topics he covers incredibly interesting, but it doesn’t quite translate to the lectures which are a drag to go through. They essentially just consist of him talking for 75 minutes straight on a slide deck with little to no text. The class had 3 midterms and a final, which meant that the class moved very quickly, as there were only around 3-4 lectures between midterms. The midterms were around 60 questions each, with 10 fill in the blank and the remaining being multiple choice. The questions however ranged from being elementary school level (what’s the order of the planets), to a fair bit of study level (questions about more specific parts of the solar system), to borderline trivia that you wouldn’t think you needed to know for the class since it’s science not history (who was the first person to use the telescope). The midterm average was surprisingly low, being a 66% usually, and he’d always have a small lecture about it by saying that “this is an opportunity to reflect on your study habits” before going on to say that we should be studying for 10 hours a week on this class, which is a ludicrous amount of time to spend on a GE. I did like this class more than most though, personally. I think a lot of the reviews were a bit harsh on professor Fitzgerald and he’s a very interesting and kind professor if you get to speak to him.
Winter 2025 - Professor Fitzgerald is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and obviously finds the topics he covers incredibly interesting, but it doesn’t quite translate to the lectures which are a drag to go through. They essentially just consist of him talking for 75 minutes straight on a slide deck with little to no text. The class had 3 midterms and a final, which meant that the class moved very quickly, as there were only around 3-4 lectures between midterms. The midterms were around 60 questions each, with 10 fill in the blank and the remaining being multiple choice. The questions however ranged from being elementary school level (what’s the order of the planets), to a fair bit of study level (questions about more specific parts of the solar system), to borderline trivia that you wouldn’t think you needed to know for the class since it’s science not history (who was the first person to use the telescope). The midterm average was surprisingly low, being a 66% usually, and he’d always have a small lecture about it by saying that “this is an opportunity to reflect on your study habits” before going on to say that we should be studying for 10 hours a week on this class, which is a ludicrous amount of time to spend on a GE. I did like this class more than most though, personally. I think a lot of the reviews were a bit harsh on professor Fitzgerald and he’s a very interesting and kind professor if you get to speak to him.
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