This is not an easy A class but it is 100% manageable if you put in a bit of work. The homework assignments may seem hard at first but most of the answers and formulas needed are on the slides that he posts. If you want an A in the class just do the HW problems over and over again until you understand how to do them. The midterm and final are literally based on the HW so if you know how to do the problems you will be completely fine on the exams. Also the field trip was fun!

This was overall a really easy class that was also interesting. Professor Bianchi is passionate about the topics and makes lectures interesting. For the most part, there is minimal lectures on policy, and it is not a big overall topic of the class.

OKAY YEAH NO! This class was such a hard GE. I would never take this class ever again. Professor was really sweet and seemed to really care about the subject he was teaching... BUT this class was so hard for no reason. His accent was thick sometimes so I wasn't able to understand him. This though wasn't the problem. All these concepts they tried to fit in the first 5 weeks were not manageable. Literally the homework was never explained so if I didn't ask my TA you weren't able to do it. Paige was the best TA! Sadly I believe this is her last year doing it so that sucks. If I had to take this class again I would with her. I studied so hard for the midterm and got a big fat F! Professor made the midterm the night before and even said that this midterm was TOO HARD. The class average was like a D. And the other half of the course was definitely easier to understand but I felt burnt out after the midterm. They promised the final to be easier but I still think it was still a bit hard. The iClicker was only 3 extra credit and our explainer vid. Im just happy I barley passed but still... I would not reccomend this class!

I really enjoyed professor Bianchi. He definitely seemed into the material and wanted us to learn. He went quite fast at times, so I usually sat and listened versus scrambling to take notes. He was funny so I enjoyed going to lecture. Attendance is required with two weeks/four lectures not counting. The chem required for the class is no more difficult than chem 20b... we did basic unit conversions, acid base chem, redox problems and nothing else too difficult. The problem sets are prob 60/40 math to written responses. Don't wait till the last day since they usually take a few hours to complete. The material for the course kinda goes all over the place... you learn ocean chemistry, some physics and a little bit of biological oceanography. Although the slides go quite in depth you never really need to know every specific detail... know how to solve the problems on the HW sets and you'll do fine on the exams. Field trip was pretty fun too. Got an A on final but midterm grade kept my final grade down so don't slack off for it like me.