Take my review with a grain of a salt because I am by no means a STEM oriented person. That being said, Professor Schauble and my TA Lauren didn't make it easier for me. His lectures were boring and everything's fair game between the lectures, textbook, and labs which made it impossible to determine what would be important on the exam. I feel that his lectures didn't even really pertain to the exams which was annoying. Also, lab was a pain in the ass, wasn't helpful at all and we had to take weekly quizzes which really dragged my grade down. Even though it was take home and I used the lab slides it was hard to get a good score, and the quizzes were only worth a few points so missing any questions brought the score down a lot. I wouldn't take this class again, I'm sure there's better ways to fulfill the science lab requirement.

Professor Schauble is nice and helpful and he made the slides super clear. You can tell he really enjoys his subject.

If you need to take a lab class, I HIGHLY recommend you take it with Professor Schauble. He's very knowledgeable and very passionate about the subject. The class was graded on a curve, but was meant to help everyone rather than hinder. Labs were pretty straight forward, but often did not coincide with the lecture materials that were covered on the tests - but he made us aware of that. You do need to read the book to solidify core concepts, but as long as you put the work in, you'll get a good grade. Tests weren't designed to trick you and questions were straight forward as well. He's a sweet man and also offers many opportunities for extra credit. TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HIM IF YOU CAN!! :)

The lab quizzes are 8 questions worth 4 points each and I kept getting 3.5/4 on like every single one which is like an 88 so I think that's what made me get a B+. So make sure you're preparing well for the lab quizzes which are every week. Study for them by looking at the Lab slides from the previous week, not the lecture slides. You can basically view Lab and Lecture as separate. And for the exams, only study the Lecture slides, not the Labs or the Lab slides. I thought the first exam was so easy, then I got a 90, so I was like oh damn, but my TA graded my free response so hard for no reason. I kind of had a shitty TA. He wasn't very nice (Yufan). He's one of those teachers who gets annoyed when you ask questions saying you should've read the textbook or whatever. It's an easy class that you can get through I just should have studied more. There's no homework except the lab readings and studying for the Lab Quizzes and exams. There were two exams and a final (cumulative). I thought the final was pretty easy. It was 53 multiple choice and 7 free response that were just like drawing wind patterns on a picture of the Earth. I finished it in 50 minutes. I think you definitely need the textbook for this class. There were three chapters that you were on your own for for the final (he didn't lecture on them, you just had to read the textbook, but they were on the final).

This class is terrible. The lectures are boring and the labs are extremely unhelpful. Multiple times I have reached out to Schauble and my TA to clarify topics or to clear up an absence and their quickest reply was 4 days. The exams are manageable, but tough and he only gives like 5-10 practice questions to prepare yourself with

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This class was super cool. I have a total of 3 brain cells, but all this class takes is a bit of reading of the textbook. He bruin casts all the lectures, so it's usually empty. I went to lecture because I can't get myself to stay on top of any work, but I found this class engaging. Professor Drake co-taught the class and she's cool.
Lab is the absolute easiest thing ever. You have a quick quiz at the start based off the last lab, so glance over the slides for like 15 minutes and you'll ace all the quizzes. Then you just get a cool activity packet that you can collaborate on, and you just get participation credit. TA can let you out once you finish, so lab is often times about an hour. It's fun and I looked forward to it.
The midterms and finals were really easy. Mostly multiple choice, some free response. It's all straight forward and not necessarily conceptual. If memorization is your thing, this will be quite easy.
This is an easy GE if you know how to skim a bit and pay attention to lecture.

I fell asleep a lot in this class... If you are looking for a super easy GE, do not take it. It requires a lot of memorization.

For the quarter I took this class, it was taught by both Professor Schauble and Drake. I learned a lot from this class, but during Schauble's lectures it felt kind of boring. Nevertheless he was a helpful professor! Throughout the quarter we had 3 Q&A-style review sessions right before each of the 2 midterms and the final. You can watch ocean-related documentaries and/or attend science seminars for extra credit . Lab-wise, we basically just worked on some paper handouts and only sometimes had hands-on experiments; there was a quiz in the beginning of each lab but as long as you study the previous lab's info you will be fine.

Not as interesting of a GE as I thought it was going to be. I deceived myself by reading Blue Planet in the course title and mistakenly believing that I would be studying material that was covered in the documentary series. Had I paid attention to the rest of the title, I would have realized that the word Oceanography should have tipped me off.

Summary: Easy science GE that comes with lab credit (lab is even more of a joke than the class). Get an A by reading the textbook, spending a day studying for the final (by memorizing some of the stuff from the book), and going to the labs (they take attendance). There's not as much about ocean life as you would hope, and a lot more about seafloor sediment than you knew existed. At least Schauble is funny sometimes.

This is an effort class. If you try, you will get an A. It's not like you'll be struggling to learn the material, it'll just be about whether you're willing to do it.

Professor Schauble gives extra credit for attending related seminars. Do them early since your available free time suddenly goes away very quickly when the end of the quarter approaches, plus there won't be many seminars left by that point.