I did not like this class at all. The homework was all online through the text book and Fitzgerald was incredibly boring. He also flagged me for plagiarism since one of my answers was similar to a quizlet he found online and I had to fight it through the dean. Would not recommend this class to anyone. The midterm and final were difficult and all multiple choice.

Fun class, professor is very knowledgeable in the course material and happy to answer any questions during lecture. Our first midterm was Week 3 so you definitely have to be on top the weekly reading material and class content. Overall recommend!

I was scared of this class at first but I actually ended up really enjoying it. Prof Fitzgerald definitely knows what he's talking about and I thought that all the lectures were well thought out and helpful. You do have to buy Mastering Astronomy (I think it was like $80 for inclusive access) but I thought it was really helpful for the midterm and final. There's weekly assignments and sometimes they took a while (I also read each chapter before lecture) but it helps you get extra credit. Labs were fine; they're run by the TAs and I thought mine was helpful. I didn't think any of the assessments were that hard and at the end, all the grades were curved and mine went up 1/3 letter grade. Overall, it's a solid lab science GE and I highly recommend!

Overall, I felt like Prof Fitzgerald was pretty good and, as someone who is not as strong in science, I really enjoyed Astro 3 and felt like it was a very doable GE. It definitely is a lot of reading each week and the lectures, especially towards the end, were packed full of information, so the ability to memorize a lot of information and have a consistent study schedule was key. Prof Fitzgerald was extremely nice and helpful in his office hours and the actual information itself was pretty easy to understand, just a little dense at times in the textbook. Fitzgerald opens up all of the online questions you could possibly need in order to study alongside more conceptual short answer questions, so if those are done and studied effectively, you pretty much have all of the information you need for the exams. In addition, some questions show up on the exams more than once, so going to Fitzgerald's office hours and looking over what you got wrong is also pretty key so you don't get those questions wrong again. All in all, I really enjoyed the class and found the information interesting, even if the workload was a little bit more. The labs were very doable and could be finished early depending on the day.

I really liked this class overall. I liked learning about the material, the professor was kind and helpful with answering questions, and the tests weren't too hard. However, if you want to do well in this class you have to put in the work. I outlined each chapter before going to the lecture, which was time consuming but it helped me understand and remember the information. If you don't outline beforehand, I believe it would be difficult to keep up with the lecture. Also, he assigns homework for each chapter (there are a total of 19 chapters) which does get annoying, but each assignment is easy and usually has extra credit and you can just go to the book to get the answers. You do need to buy the text book.

this class had interesting content, but the lectures were very fast paced and information packed. the slides were posted online, so I often had to spend another hour or so outside of lectures going back and taking notes on everything I missed in class. attendance wasn't mandatory for lectures, but it was for the labs. the labs weren't too difficult, and you could leave class early if you finished before two hours, which is pretty easy to do. the course gets harder as the quarter progresses; I did very well on the first midterm (there are 2) and did much worse on the final. I had to buy the textbook and access to online materials.

This class is textbook heavy and you must do the readings to complete the weekly homework due on Sunday nights. Not an easy GE. Can't say lectures were engaging. Tests are really difficult but multiple choice. Labs are a bit difficult if you are not a science person -- make sure you pick good lab partners. You usually get out of labs early.

Easy class since the midterms and final were based off the mastering astronomy practice questions, some are just straight copied. He posted every practice question available before the final so I just did them all (there were like 500+) and I pretty much had answers for half the final. The labs were just busy work and you could often finish early. Pretty chill guy and would recommend this class if you are good at memorization.

I was advised to take this class for a science GE since I am not a South Campus major. These were some of the most daunting lectures I have ever sat in. Additionally, sitting in the dreary hall of Kinsey made the class even worse. Fitzgerald simply went over too much information to the point where you could not enjoy the material you were learning. His assignments on top of the labs were a bunch of busy work that took hours each week to complete. We would go over about 2-3 chapters per week which would be correlated with heavy homework. The good thing about him is that he does want to help you but is a bit socially awkward when you do speak with him. I would recommend you take this class as a whole, just with a different professor if you truly want it to be a breeze.

This was a decent GE. The material was not difficult, but there was a lot of it. It kind of seemed like the professor was trying to pack in a little more material than what is appropriate for this class. Labs are pretty easy, but I found the in class mid terms to be a little tricky. But if you use the study guides and pay attention in class it's not too difficult. I am personally not very interested in the subject but there were still some things in lecture that fascinated me from time to time.