First, Dr. Lew was hilarious. He had a kinda different sense of humor and I often found myself giggling during his lecture.

If you like some Algebra and calculation here and there, then you would probably like this class. It was helpful to skim through the textbook and read through the slides before going to class. There was not much memorization in this class. The class was engaging and involves some participation. He often had us solve problems, which he always provided a full solution for, in class. The amount of homework was just enough for a 4 unit class.

He gave us a full sheet of equations and values that we needed for the "Math" part, except for some that he needed us to memorize The exam questions was fairly similar to the homework and the practice exams which the TAs prepared for us and helped us solve.

Overall, the class was good and fair. You need to have 850/1000 to be in the A range.

Also, Tersi was a great TA.

- Professor Lew came off as monotonic at times. He is very knowledgeable about the subject of air and water pollution, but by teaching off Powerpoint, there were times where topic was interesting, but other times, lectures dragged.

- He provides these lectures in pdf format through the class website for you to print out. He also provides podcasts of lectures so you can listen to them at any time, in case you missed anything or needed clarification over a topic.

- I would definitely recommend the use of the podcasts in any case because when it comes to the homeworks (6 homeworks at 20 points each for 120 points – out of 1000 total points for the class), midterm (285 points) and the final (595 points), he is particular about how you answer short-answer questions (what he SAYS SPECIFCALLY about a topic such as population momentum, for example, rather than what is in shorthand in the Powerpoint or in the textbook). You won’t get all points for the question, and lost points do pile up in your grade.

- In addition, when it comes to numeric problems, he is particular about showing all steps throughout the problems, even if it just to convert measurements or to mention where a figure came from. Points are also lost that way, so be careful of doing everything in your head and not translating it on paper.

- Grade scale: 865-1000 (A), 730-864 (B), 595-729 (C), 460-594 (D). He may seem intimidating at times, but he is approachable for any questions you may have.

- As for Lew’s teaching assistant, I have no idea how much longer Tersi Arias will be the TA, but DO attend her sessions. She is extremely nice and helpful with explaining the topics of the previous lecture and especially with the homework problems. It’s made much more comprehensible, and she even provides examples of problems similar to those of the homework.

I have no idea how Professor Lew came to have such a bad rap for teaching AOS 104. Sure, it's not as easy as his AOS 3 class (which my English major roommate took and got an A by sleeping in class) but it's really not that difficult.

If you're a science major and you find AOS 104 to be very difficult, then I hope that you're never my doctor/engineer/pharmacist or even my dogs veterinarian.

The whole class is really just simple algebra. And some memorizing.

Lew can kind of seem like a hardass, but he's really not. He's a nice guy, you just have to keep talking to him.

It's not like I loved AOS 104, but the material wasn't too difficult or boring and it's really not the worst class I've ever taken.

There is seriously nothing to be afraid of by taking this class.

Don't be mis-led. Those good ratings/evaluations came from lower div classes. When it comes to upper div, it's another story. Look at the grades from AOS104. It was a disaster.

Don't be mis-led. Those good ratings/evaluations came from lower div classes. When it comes to upper div, it's another story. Look at the grades from AOS104. It was a disaster.

BACKGROUND: I had Lew for both AOS 3 and AOS 104, and I did well in both.

In short, AOS 3 was pretty awesome. Whether you're a north or south campus major, as long as you don't yawn and sigh TOO heavily at the idea of learning about clouds and weather, you'll probably find this to be a fairly easy AND interesting physical science GE. Definitely recommended.

Others have pretty much hit the nail on the head regarding the class, so I'll just affirm it. There are several open-book and open-neighbor quizzes, both in lecture and in discussion, and they are nothing to fear. See others' reviews for more on the easy lab add-on, the exams that you should probably actually study a little for by reviewing the class notes, the nice podcasts, not needing to buy the book, reasons to actually go to lecture, etc.

AOS 104, though, is definitely a huge step up in terms of difficulty. The workload is manageable, but there's lots of mathy stuff AND lots of conceptual things, many of which you'll simply have to memorize. I'd estimate that no more than half the course is spent actually studying air and water pollution; the rest is basically a general science class where Lew seems to be trying to cram as much material as he can into as few lectures as he can. You'll get crash courses in chem, energy, and even global climate change. You'll be left wondering what the actual class is supposed to be about.

It IS definitely possible to do well in AOS 104, but it DOES require studying. Like the GE classes, you won't really need to buy the book (though it is actually pretty helpful if you have access to it). If he seems to be emphasizing something in class, even if it seems obscure, KNOW it inside and out. That's my best advice. Oh, yeah, cross your fingers for a good TA; if you get Tersi, she's fabulous.

Now onto Lew himself. A lot of people describe him as awkward. It's true. He's also an extremely picky grader. Learn WHAT he wants, HOW he wants it, and GIVE it to him.
Lastly, let's be honest here: Lew doesn't really seem to care about you. If you're the kind of person who likes to get homework help from the professor, or if you go to office hours to introduce yourself, or if you find the class interesting and want to talk more about it with the professor...don't even try it with him.
IF and ONLY IF you can accept those shortcomings, and simply go to class and listen to him lecture...you will be satisfied.

BOTTOM LINE:
as a professor, he's solid.
as a person, he's...tolerable.
I'd definitely take him once, but not every quarter.

AO104-- he posted his lectures online via podcasts which made going to lectures pointless. in fact, i think listening to the podcasts were actually more helpful than going to class because id just pump up the sound really loud so i had to pay attention.

he was an okay prof. didn't really care about the student's learning but still not a terrible teacher, but had a great TA.

initial enrollment = ~85, final enrollment = 48. Hilarious isn't it? First time he taught an upper div and seemed to drive out like half the class. Harsh grading on the first midterm (i.e. lose major points for computational errors) probably had a lot to do with that. So he seemed cold at first, like other reviews have suggested. He actually ended up being pretty nice. He gave us what I thought was a pretty easy final, probably to help raise our grades (no curve in the class; he had a special scale) and reward those who decided to stick it out.

My friend was actually a couple points short of an A (you needed 890 out of 1000 points total for the class). Lew ended up giving him the A anyways. Thus, at least from my perspective, he ended up being pretty nice, and not so cold as other people think.

OK lecturer. Sorta acts like an oddball/nerdy, but that's alright.