You were expected to complete five things each week: reading, lecture videos, discussion posts, lab assignments, and weekly quizzes. The lectures for this class were entirely asynchronous, pre-recorded, in my quarter. The lectures were very concise, resonating with the readings. The weekly quizzes came from both readings and the lectures and were not too hard because it was all open books, open notes. You have two attempts to do the weekly quizzes. For the discussion post, I felt like the first half of the class was a lot heavier than the second half. The discussion posts were graded based on completion. The lab assignments were the heaviest workload of the week. Sometimes I spent 5-7 hours completing them. Overall, you might spend five up to 10 hours for this class a week. This class had such a heavy workload compared to my other class; however, you did not have any midterm or final. You'll have a final paper that is quite long, but you will have three weeks to start constructing and thinking about your paper.

This class has a heavy workload, especially as a GE class. But, the content is very interesting; you'll learn from physical to human geography and their interactions. So, it is very comprehensive if you want to study more in geography; this would be a great beginning course. My TA wasn't very prepared for my discussion session, but it was very chill, just sitting in the class for participation points. My TA graded quite harshly, so hopefully, you get a good TA. Read instructions for the lab assignment carefully, especially the rubric if they have ones if you expect a good grade. Overall, take this class if you are interested in geography. If you do work (read instructions carefully) and complete everything by deadlines, you can expect good grades in this class.

Awesome class. It is fully online unless you sign up for an inperson discussion which I would actually recommend since I found my TA extremely helpful to my learning experience. I really enjoying writing the final paper which was esssentially a free write on whatever environmental science topic you want to do it on. I never got the opportunity to take APES and was very happy I finally got to learn some of the material, plus I think I got more out of taking this class then the high school equivalent. Workload is pretty light besides the labs which take a while to complete so start them early. I learned a lot and would highly recommend Cavanugh as a professor even tho I never met the dude in real life.

I really enjoyed this class. There is a good amount of weekly work (watch the lectures, read a chapter or two from the e-textbook, complete a discussion post, quiz, assignment) but the information is really interesting and valuable, the work is not too difficult and it's easy to get an A. The class is extremely well-organized. You can re-take the quizzes so it's pretty easy to get a 100% on all of them. Prof Cavanaugh is great, really helpful and an engaging, clear lecturer.

Super interesting and easy class. No attendance is taken and it can be done essentially all online besides discussion once a week. If you don't want to you don't have to watch the lectures because the discussion sums up what is learned throughout the week. I would strongly recommend this class.

one of the easiest classes I've taken at ucla so far. I took it online w an in person discussion so idk if that played a difference but it was a breeze. only assignments are reading quizzes and a weekly lab. no midterm or final, just a final research paper (on a topic of your choosing).

my ta was very nice and I had no problems getting good grades on these. content was also super interesting. 10/10 class would highly recommend (esp if u need a lab credit & already have a hard schedule)

as someone who has done mediocre on stem classes in the past, this class was pretty easy for a "stem" class ! every week covered a different topic, such as water scarcity, weather, environmental justice, etc so there is a nice variety of concepts covered. you have to watch lecture videos uploaded by prof. cavanaugh but they're pretty short, complete a discussion response 1 hour before your section, a lab report, and a weekly quiz. discussion response is graded on completion, the quizzes are pretty easy (just ctrl f the textbook, and there's no time limit). the only thing that is a pain is the lab reports. up until week 6, you have to do one every week and it took me about 3-4 hours to do each one since there are lots of tiny requirements you have to meet and you have to gather data on that topic. nonetheless, the topics were pretty interesting to write about and the grading wasn't too harsh. as someone who sucks at stem i highly recommend this class for an easy science/lab ge (im actually considering minoring in geography/environmental studies now). also ta Jennifer badger is really nice, highly recommend :)

This class is a super easy lab GE, that's very similar to APES. There are only labs up to week 6, so you can work on your final paper and presentation after that. The final paper (no final test or midterm) was just about any effect of climate change and we had a two minute presentation in section. The labs are super easy and the instructions tell you exactly what to do to get an A.

This class was great, but I think the workload was a lot for a geography class. I wouldn't say it's an easy A class but it's hard to get your socks blown off since it's asynchronous. I know some people who got lower than A-'s in this class and they put a good amount of work in so don't think this class is free; it depends on your TA. There are 3-4 assignments you have to do each week: lecture videos, discussion posts, quizzes, and labs. Labs were very time-consuming and were done on your own time, not in sections. Once you get past these labs after week 6, the course is a breeze. But for the first 6 weeks, it's rough. I spent an average of 4-6 hours on each lab. Lecture videos didn't take up that much time and the weekly quizzes weren't too bad; as they followed from lecture and the readings. I got a 20/20 on every quiz by using my notes, CTRL-F'ing the book, quizlet, and chat GPT. But I know a lot of people got 18's and 19's so take the quizzes seriously. The discussion post responses are pretty easy and are graded on completion. For discussion section, attendance is mandatory but I'm pretty sure your lowest attendance is dropped. Karina was honestly one of the best TAs I've had at UCLA. She was extremely nice, led great discussion sections, and was a very fair grader. Highly recommend her. There's no midterm for this class but your final is a research paper on an issue related to climate change. It mimicked lab 5, a research paper, and is followed up by a final project presentation.

I took this asynchronous. It was really really easy. There's a quiz and a paper every week that can be done pretty quickly. The questions are all straightforward. The final is just a paper and a presentation that are both graded pretty lightly.

For those trying to get a copy of the book, DO NOT text **********’s post below.

I do NOT have the book for sale; it’s been sold ( I am unable to edit previous posts).

Try finding a copy on Thriftbooks/Amazon ; using the second edition should be just as fine as the most recent (although speak to professor directly to make sure).

Thanks.