Simply put, take this class for easy upper division credit in what is possibly the easiest chemistry course you will ever take at UCLA.

Professor Gimzewski is a really nice professor, however, the hardest part of his class was actually showing up. The lectures are dry and boring. Gimzewski reads off 100-page powerpoints about the most simple topics like the water cycle or rock formation. Toward the end of the class I would literally set a timer to see how long I could go before picking up my phone and at best I could last around 10 minutes before giving up. The sad news is that participation is about 10% of your grade and a sign-in sheet is passed around to take attendance.

Aside from the class atmosphere the grade breakdown is pretty simple. There are weekly blogs, 4 quizzes, a midterm, final, and a "special" blog. The weekly blogs only take a couple hours to complete on the high end, and the majority of the grade is based off correct formatting. All the testing (quizzes, midterm, and final) are all super easy short answer style questions. The TA's tell you exactly what to study for so there are no surprises and there is usually extra credit that you can get for each test. I am by no means an A-student, but I was frequently able to pull off a 50+/50 on the quizzes. I studied for the midterm the day of the exam for about two hours and was able to get 192/200. Lastly, the special blog is assigned during Week 7 and you are given until the end of the class to complete it. It is the equivalent of 3 blog posts in length and requires 10 references, 6 of which must come from scientific journals. It is graded in a very similar style to the blog posts. If you format correctly and follow the directions you should get full credit. All if all, if I can do well in this class, anyone can!

*One last note: This profile picture is not of Professor Gimzewski. He is a bald older gentleman with glasses, a white goatee, and a lovely Scottish accent :).

Not sure why I’m writing a review, the other ones are pretty accurate. Just want to reiterate again that Jim is an absolute delight. Just a truly delightful human being. I genuinely looked forward to lecture and I smiled every time I heard him speak. He is definitely a famous galaxy-brained scientist, but you can also tell he’s a genuinely nice human, too. I took this during COVID; my sanity was hanging on by a thread, and this class was that thread.

The only con of this class was that lectures were kind of a snooze, I suppose. But that’s what the 2x button is for. The slides are pretty dense. Discussions were unrelated to lecture so sometimes it felt like a lot of information thrown at you in a short amount of time. Also, I personally hate writing so the blogs took a lot of energy out of me, but you really don’t have to put that much effort into them to get full credit. Honestly, kinda wondering why they made this class so easy, but I’m certainly not complaining...

If you ever have the opportunity and privilege of having Jim as your professor and Chris as your TA, count your blessings. Another reviewer said they paid $100 for this class...at first I laughed, but honestly, these two are worth it. They genuinely cared about our well-being and making things less stressful. They constantly asked for feedback and made adjustments after listening to student concerns. They really just wanted to educate us about environmental issues and make sure that we actually left the class having learned something. And I have never seen a TA put so much time and effort into teaching and running a class...I mean, wow. He practically took the place of the professor at times. Truly bummed that I didn’t get to experience this class in-person and I would take it again if I could.

I took this class online during Spring 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Gimzewski was very accommodating in the midst of this pandemic; he and the TA (Chris) really cared about the students, and he constantly empathized with the difficulties we were facing. At the end of the quarter, he even made both the final and the special blog optional because of all the protests going on in/events in the country. I really appreciated how much he took the time to address these social issues and not be ignorant of them.
In terms of the class itself, it was pretty easy, especially in the online format. We were given a lot of time to do the quizzes/midterm (and final if you took it). Questions were pretty straightforward, and since it was open notes/book/etc, you didn't have to study too much.
The material of the class itself was alright. I honestly got kind of bored of the material towards the middle of the class, but the topics that Prof. Gimzewski covers are pretty relevant - things like climate change, fossil fuels, etc.
Overall, I would recommend this class, but just prepared that lectures can be kind of tiring at times.

Disclaimer: Took during COVID

I paid $100 to get into this class. Absolutely worth every penny. For staters, this guy has been knighted in Scotland for his academic contributions, so you know he's the real deal. Class is as easy as everyone says it is, especially cause this was online, open note. Literally no reason not be getting 100% on everything.

Take this class, though, because he is the sweetest human being in all of human existence. Sweeter than all the grandpas out there, if he needs a grandson I'll come running. Day 1 of Covid his concern and his passion for our wellbeing as students literally almost brought me to tears. And then with the George Floyd tragedy he almost made an impassioned lecture(? idk was really more of him just talking about it) that again showed that this man deserves everything good in this world.

I never write reviews, but he deserves it. I will also be writing an amazing course review for him as well. Even if I got a shitty grade, I would still recommend this class to anyone even considering taking it. You get real woke too about the environment so some real world learning out here taking class too.

Dr Gimzewski is THE MOST GENUINE AND KIND professor I have encountered in my life. I am taking this class during the most unprecedented times and he's one of the few professors willing to show understanding of the situation. You can also feel comfortable to email him, talk to him, ask questions during lecture. He was very open to make necessary adjustments to allow students succeed in this class and not worry too much about their grades. Seriously if you do your weekly blogs and quizzes you're set for the course. The course covers a very wide range of topics, so it's interesting to learn a little bit of everything. My recommendation: take this class.

The review below mine is very accurate. This is an easy class and you can learn a lot. It is very fair and clear and all you have to do is show up and do the work. Although the class is very easy, I do really like how you learn a lot about the environment as well in a chill mature setting. Get someone to sign in for you and take the quiz before you and tell you the answers if you are really short on time.

This class is really easy and interesting. Although his lectures may be boring, the topics that he introduces are very interesting. I learned a lot about the environment and how humans have a huge contribution in global warming.

This class requires weekly blogs about various environmental issues. The blogs are easy to do and you learn a lot from completing them. This class also has 4 quizzes which are given during discussion. The TA Chris is awesome. He will tell you which slides to focus on for the quizzes. In addition, there is one midterm and one final. There was extra credit given on the midterm. If you study the material on the study guide that Chris sends out, you will do well on the midterm. The final covered material taught after the midterm. Overall, this was an awesome class and would recommend taking it if you are a biochemistry major who needs a chemistry elective course to fulfill.