Brix is such a cool professor, I'm a IDS major and I hate science but I actually got a good grade in this class thanks to his teaching. His lectures are great, pod cast, slides online, and he's very approachable. He has a way of teaching things in a way anyone can understand, and doesn't make you feel dumb if it takes you awhile. My TA wasn't the greatest mostly just because he was shy and a bad public speaker, but Brix even came to one of my sections so he was always there to ask. His grading is fair and you can take a sheet of whatever you want into the final! Take him!

I took A&O 3 (not 5) with him this quarter and I didn't do as well as I thought. He is a decent lecturer, but the homework is much harder than you would think. The T.A's are horrible and don't prepare you for the midterm or the final exam. Study the graphs because half of the 8 questions he asks are based on graphs. He lets you bring a cheat sheet though. I suggest printing it up and writing everything small, although you hardly use it. Also, expect two random pop quizzes (one each half of the quarter). He gave it out 4th and 8th week (this time), so don't worry too much about coming to class all the time. For those of you who disagree and think I'm being to hard on him I'll have you know that I took the class pass/no pass but still tried to do better than i usually do in these classes. I still ended up doing only C average. I'm also not that great in the sciences so perhaps that has something to do with it. Anyways, on the positive side he does lecture well, and he posts the lecture slides online. The book is also really simple to read. I don't recommend it for most people. It's super boring, and his slight accent gets annoying at times. Overall I found it to be a waste of time. Good luck!

I've never met a professor so concerned about his students actually doing well in the class... Professor Brix pulled out all the stops and went out of his way just so every student had a fighting chance to get a high grade in his class. This included letting us use cheat sheets on all tests, and even talk to the people around us to get help during the quizzes! He posts all of his lectures online as well as his slides and has virtual office hours as well as many opportunities during the week to see him. He explains all of the material clearly and concisely and only goes over material that will be essential for us to know in general about atmospheric science and for the tests. I would probably never have taken a science class at ucla if I didn't need to, but I thoroughly enjoyed this class and learned A LOT. You learn a lot of practical knowledge in this class about weather that you probably have wondered about in real life, like how different kinds of storms form and how and why certain weather phenomena occur.

he really wants everyone to get an A for this class. But I ended up getting a B+, but i had never studied for A&O1, but even the final. I copied down the notes from his lecture slides.... I will take him again if I have a chance. Nice prof

summer 2010 aos 103

professor brix is a pretty laid back professor. he really wants you to understand the concepts he goes over and will thoroughly try and explain/answer any questions you have during the lecture. His lectures were all power points and were available online before the day so you could print it out and not have to scribble furiously to write everything he says.
he also knows how much books costs so he didn't require us to buy any books but rather it was all online. awesome!
homeworks are much harder than the test questions. the homework goes over things that are more math/equation based and the exams are more for evaluating whether or not we understood the material. his exams were a few multiple choice in the beginning and then some figures we had to draw or label, then a few short answer questions.
overall he is a nice professor and easy to talk to if you have any problems. unlike some professors, he will respond to your emails real quickly if you have any questions on the homework or material.
definitely would try and get him again for another class if possible.

I took A&O Sci 1 as well as the lab component with Dr. Brix. He was GREAT. Honestly, the material was boring. Brix himself admitted that climate science is very complex and sometimes speculative, so as a result, he ended up telling us to disregard some of his more confusing slides and graphs as we prepared for the midterm and final. This kind of annoyed me, because I felt like I finished the class without a clear sense of what causes global warming. Then again, it wasn't such a bad thing that he skimmed over the tough stuff considering it's only a GE and it made the exams a lot easier. If you're a science person, the course definitely gives you a taste of A&O sciences and can help someone figure out if he or she wants to pursue that area of study. If you dislike science (more importantly if you suck at math-like me), you can still get an A if you put in a little bit of effort. It's easy to accumulate points if you do all your homework and if you do a good job on your oral presentation (don't freak out- it's just a 5-minute powerpoint during discussion section). Also, if you're taking the "lab", it's important to know that it's not really a lab in the traditional sense..all it means is that you have four extra (really simple) homework assignments.

Anyways, more about Dr. Brix..again, he is awesome. Really nice guy, tries to make lecture interesting despite the dullness of the material he has to present. Classic German accent kept me awake too. Also, he's great about setting up appointments with students if they can't make his weekly office hours..although it's a pain to find his office in Schlicter Hall..give yourself like an hour to find it. I really recommend going to office hours, though. He was way more helpful than my TA when I had questions about homework or just general conceptual questions...speaking of TA's, if you can sign up for Rosaleen Gilmore. I could tell my TA, Yifan Yu, knew his stuff, but he could care less about helping you out. I ended up emailing Rosaleen more than I emailed him.

Most ridiculous/best part of this class: THERE IS A DOUBLE-SIDED CHEAT SHEET FOR BOTH THE MIDTERM AND THE FINAL. I felt like I was in 6th grade again- basically crammed all my notes onto the sheet by shrinking the font to 6 points. it was great. BUT that's not to say you don't have to study for the test. There are some tricky questions that are based only loosely on the lecture notes, so you need to actually understand what you have written down.

Finally, there's a very generous curve. Based on a traditional grading scale I would've gotten a flat B on my midterm, but I got a solid A on the curve. Also, a 63% is a C- with Brix's curve...not hard to pass this class.

*Note: THERE IS SOME "MATH"..equations that you plug numbers into. Simple stuff.

Brix is great!
I'm not that all interested in climate change, but he made lectures pretty enjoyable.
And I found him to be hiiilarious.
The homework can kinda be a pain, but just seek help if you need it.
i would highly recommend going to office hours; he is extremely helpful and nice to talk to.
Regarding the midterm and final, the 8.5x11 cheat sheet definitely helps. However, the questions can be pretty conceptual so you still have to make sure you have a good understanding of the material.
I also did the lab (just an additional 4 assignments) and even though they were kind of annoying, it ended up being a grade boost.
Discussions are long and useless. At some point you have to do a presentation, but it's not hard at all.

I received an A, and I would definitely take another class with him.