I really liked this course with Coffey! Coffey is clearly very passionate about geology and earth science and very knowledgeable. Lectures were engaging and informative. All information on exams comes from the lectures. He explains everything pretty well and I definitely came out of this class knowing more than I did before. Even made me want to take more EPS courses! There are weekly labs which could be hard and time-consuming. Also, sometimes the lab directions were not clear which made them very confusing. However, Coffey answers emails and is very willing to help out during office hours. There was a course-long project during lab sections in which you read a popscience earth space-related book and make a presentation about it. If you spread out your reading and spend some time on the presentation, it's pretty easy. The hardest part about this class was definitely the grading. My TA was a tough grader and I got points marked off on almost every lab. The exams are also graded harshly. But, if you really know the information, you will do fine. Overall, I would recommend EPS 1 with Coffey for a science GE or just for anyone who wants to take a stimulating and interesting course. Not an easy A but not too hard either.

I liked Professor Coffey. He was always very enthusiastic and funny in an endearingly awkward kind of way, and his lectures were laden with under-appreciated jokes. That being said I was not a huge fan of this class by the end of it. Overall workload was manageable, but some of the labs and HW assignments were just so tedious, especially those where you had to ID a bunch different kinds of rocks. I guess this is to be expected in a geology course, but still. Tests were entirely based on goals provided in each lecture, and in spite of doing nothing but study the goals prior to each exam I still got Bs on both midterms and the final. He does not curve any of the exams, so I feel like you need to study quite a bit to get a good grade in the class.

Coffey is a really great professor I enjoyed this class a lot!! Despite things being online he tried his best to make it engaging for us and you can tell that he’s really passionate about the material. The two midterms and final were fairly easy as long as you studied the ‘goals for this unit’ that he posted with every slide show. I recommend answering them after every lecture so you don’t fall behind and that way before the exams you can study them rather than have to rewatch every lecture searching for the answers. Lab got pretty boring and tedious, but on the bright side you got to work with other students and most of the time you can finish the work in the lab time. My TA was Marina and she was really nice and organized, plus she was always willing to help if you asked. Overall, I would definitely recommend this class, workload is pretty light and the material was fun :)

Kevin is an excellent lecturer, and his engaging teaching style made this class highly enjoyable. His enthusiasm and expertise significantly enhanced the learning experience. However, there are several structural aspects of the course that could be improved to enhance student understanding and retention of the material.

Firstly, the course is structured in a way that begins with the present day and moves backward in time. While this unconventional approach initially seems intriguing and aligns well with the field trip (which was incredibly fun and educational), it ultimately proves to be confusing. The backward progression is counterintuitive because cause and effect naturally move forward in time. As a result, the sequence of historical and geological events becomes jumbled, making it difficult to form a coherent understanding of the material.

Another issue is the heavy reliance on student presentations. While peer-led presentations can be valuable, the quality and effectiveness of these presentations vary widely. Some students deliver excellent presentations that enhance understanding, but many others fall short, leading to gaps in knowledge and a fragmented grasp of the sequence of events. This inconsistency makes it challenging to develop a comprehensive understanding of historical and regional geology.

To address these issues, I believe the course would benefit greatly from Kevin taking on a more central role in lecturing. If Kevin delivered the majority of the content, the course would be far more cohesive and structured, significantly enhancing our grasp of the material. Additionally, if student presentations remain a component of the course, it would be beneficial for Kevin to meet with each student a week or two before their presentation. This quality control step would ensure that the presentations meet a certain standard and are effective in conveying the necessary information.

Overall, I still enjoyed this class and would recommend it. Learnt a lot of cool things but I really wish I had learnt more.

Though this class was a major requirement (so I really had no choice), if I could go back, I'd take it again and again. Kevin is an extremely passionate, outgoing person and both of these attributes made his lectures extremely entertaining.

The workload of the course was extremely light: There were weekly lab assignments for the first 7 weeks which often only took 1 hour out of the 2 hour lab time to complete; 4 total homework assignments which often only involved looking at Google Earth, watching short videos, and answering multiple-choice questions; a quarter-long project in which you chose a popular science book to read and present to your lab section in the final week; and of course two midterms and a final exam (all of which were entirely MCQ).

The course content was, in my opinion, very fascinating as we sruveyed numerous earth-science related subjects without getting bogged down in the nitty gritty.

If you have the oppurtunity to take this class with Kevin, I would HIGHLY recommend!

I took this class kind of for fun becasue I heard that you get to spend two weekends out in the desert. As someone who loves the outdoors, I was like why not! Turned out to be a good decision overall because I learnt so much about Geology through this class. For this class, even though EPS SCI 1 is a pre-req, Kevin taught it assuming you did not know anything which was great becasue that was my situation. Kevin is such an engaging lecturer and definitely one of the best teachers I have ever had in my life. You can just feel his passion for the subject matter and he is so approachable. He will always make time for you to answer any questions you may have. The field trips were also incredibly fun and everything kind of just clicked after that. The objective of the trips was to create a geologic map (hence the title) so be warned that it is not that easy and does take a lot of effort on your part. The tests were relatively straightforward and goal based so it was easy to study for them. There were also weekly labs which were challenging but are essential for you to be able to make the map again. A very rewarding expereince and definitely something I will take away as a great memory from college.

As a STEM major who took this class as a GE I don't think there is a better lab-credit science class available to take. You are given the guidelines to study for every test and the questions are not hard. If you watch the lectures or memorize the information the class will be very easy for you. Kevin does a great job of making introductory geology about as interesting as it can be. For the labs you just fill out essentially a google form each week and the TAs will go question by question with you to check the right answer. Any homework/project assignment can be bs-ed as long as it looks like you put effort in. Great GE, good professor, and a good class to take if you are feeling imposter syndrome because some kids in this class are dumb as rocks (no pun intended).

I love this class, he made studying so simple and easy through "goals" and each goal is clearly stated and explained and always align with questions on the exams. Tests are only 50% of the grade, the rest is lab quizzes which are pretty simple especially if you ask a ta for help, a presentation and homework. He is really helpful and very passionate about what he does and what he is teaching, his lectures are recorded and he hosts review sessions before tests where he goes over most of the goals and questions people ask. Would highly recommend this class as a ge and lab credit.

Kevin Coffey is one of the best professors I've ever had! He's very helpful and cares about his students! The workload isn't too bad and is very manageable! There's a lot of content to take in but the class itself isn't hard and the exams aren't hard at all as long as you study the goals he gives during his lectures. Also, if you ever get stuck on something wether it be a lab or homework assignment, please use make use of office hours with him! He's super nice and welcoming and even offers tea as you talk about whatever questions you have! He's truly a great professor!

This is a good, fairly easy science GE. Professor Coffey was extremely helpful and was very on top of answering emails, holding review sessions, and making sure students felt prepared for the midterms and the final. He was also very accommodating with the TA strike, and I did not feel like my grade was jeopardized at any point. Lectures were also not as dry as I expected (coming from a humanities major), and if you pay attention you will be fine. The workload was also manageable, and we were given a very reasonable amount of time to complete homework and labs. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone looking for a pretty easy lab credit.