I loved this class! I learned a lot more about how to communicate effectively, and I really liked that a large part of this class was self directed group work with people with the same interests. Jon is very nice and obviously so so so passionate about his work. He plays a music video pertaining to the environment before every class, and he let's you have a regrade on the paper that is the most heavily graded.

I definitely found that there was a lot of reading for quizzes. Take it if you have a lighter courseload or if you like to write, you should take this class. No idea why this class is rated so low, definitely one of my favorite classes at UCLA!

I really enjoyed the guest speakers and learning from guest speakers, however, the class was centered around the LA River and executing a communication plan at the end of the quarter. While Jon emphasized not to stress because he would take into account feasibility, I along with many of my classmates freaked out. There are bi-weekly pop up quizzes that are for the most part fair - just do the readings and rely on your short-term memory. There was also a book report, which I found stressful. Lastly, the final group project which really stressed me out. If I were to take this class I would hope the professor did not focus solely on the LA River.

This class was OK, it was really boring but really easy, so, worth. I didn't like the professor because he was kind of rude, spoke very monotone, and was boring, but not in a way that I would be like, avoid this class, it was just boring. The class is structures around a group project where you write a communications campaign for a sustainability project in a Los Angeles City Council District. My group had 9 members. There are a couple of individual assignments too. The Professor's syllabus is extremely unhelpful, so I recommend going to his office hours to run through all of the assignments to make sure you're doing the right things. He kind of just assumes everyone will know what they're doing/know what he's talking about, which is not always the case. Overall the class was pretty easy, though. I never did any of the reading.

Professor Christiansen went to Stanford and is a journalist. He loves questions. Lecture is not required but we had intermittent discussion sections with the TA (mine was Sebastian who is great) like 5 times through the quarter I think. These were mostly to discuss our group project. I do recommend going to lecture just to stay updated on what's going on, even though it's boring. Homework assignments were really easy.

Sebastian was a great TA. Graded well and always helpful.

Definitely a great class if you’re looking for a lighter workload or to learn exclusively about the LA River. It is not the most engaging class and definitely fell short in some areas, but overall solid course. Here is the grading breakdown:

30%: Individual assignments (intro bio, personal essay, other small writing assignments, etc)
25%: Nonfiction story/Op-Ed
15%: Quizzes
20%: Group Project
10%: Participation in weekly meetings w/TA about group project

The assignments are pretty easy and as long as you go to lecture you’ll be good for the quizzes! The textbooks I didn’t find to be super necessary sine the lectured covered 90% of what was on the quizzes, and the readings you do need can be easily found online.

LECTURES
He definitely cares a lot about the LA River but each class felt like 60 minutes of rambling about a concept that could have been explained in 15 minutes. I did not feel intellectually challenged or pushed to embrace other viewpoints on issues.

GROUP PROJECT
I think this was the best part of this class. I really enjoyed working with my peers to develop a project that was uniquely our own. I wish there had been more clear instruction on what deliverables this project was expected to produce, however overall it was very satisfying see how each group in our class approached this topic so differently, no two projects were quite the same. Almost all of the true value I got out of this class was from the discussions I had with my classmates, not necessarily the content I was consuming in the readings or during lecture.

- Class is so, so chill and easy. I'm pretty sure everyone in the class got an A
- No midterm, no final, just extremely easy take-home quizzes
- EC is given
- Assignments are all straight forward and easy to grade
- There is a quarter long project, but there are many mandatory checkpoints in between so you will never fall behind -- pretty straightforward and your TA/Professor guides you well.
- I do recommend taking this class!

One of my favorite classes at UCLA. Very light courseload but material is very engaging and tests are very lenient and open-ended, applying and defining concepts in your own words as opposed to rigid, standardized test.

One of my favorite classes I've taken at UCLA! Such an interesting class, I really felt like I learned a lot.

Just wish ENV 150 was about more than the LA River and the fact that Jon makes documentaries