As an Engineering major, let me preface this review by saying that I wanted to avoid humanities as MUCH as possible. So I saw this class, and I was like, "Ooh it says science lmao ok." This class was definitely not what I expected, however, but not in a bad way at all. Basically, you go through the history of science starting from the philosophy of Aristotle, and only ending at Newton. So basically, you're not gonna be learning about like modern science past Newton. It's literally the origins and BEGINNING of how science actually came to be.

And it wasn't bad at all, really. I thought that it was moderately interesting, albeit I was basically falling asleep in the lectures, but that's because I was just tired and it was a 2pm class. The lectures are pretty easy to get the concepts though, so even with minimal paying attention, you can still learn the stuff. You do have to keep up with taking notes though, there can be quite a bit of information. One thing that was great about this class was that there are NO essays at all, only a midterm and a final. Also, there are weekly readings and one question about them that you gotta write about half a page about. It's not that bad.

Alexander can oftentimes go off on tangents that are not important to the class material, but those are good times to kinda catch up on typing notes, or to take a little break and just listen to him. They can be interesting. The midterm and final are essays and definitions, and are pretty easy, just reviewing notes is enough to study for it.

I wouldn't choose to take the class again, but as a GE I would take it again if I had to take a GE.

This class was pretty laid back in the online format. One reading response per week and three essays in total comprise your whole grade. I'd recommend it for someone who has an otherwise heavy course load, or if you are interested in the Scientific Revolution in general. The readings are a mixed bag in my opinion. Some explain the information really well, but some are really banal and not really necessary to understand what is going on. That especially goes for many of the assigned primary sources readings. Thankfully, the book I rented already had key ideas highlighted. It made my work so much easier.

Lectures were pretty interesting, but the slides has basically no words on it, so you may need to review the lecture recording more than once. Prof is a pretty good speaker and tries his best to make the content interesting. I found the content itself to be somewhat interesting, but nothing special. There were weekly readings, with a single paragraph response every week. The readings themselves were really dry and kind of hard to understand (mostly the primary source readings). This definitely was my least favorite part of the class, but it was bearable. Midterm was a single 3-4 page essay due over 1 week, and final was two 2-3 page essays due over 1 week. Both had several topics to choose from, which were pretty easy to write on (the prompts provided a lot of questions, so the essays were basically guided for you). Overall, the class was not bad, with the main complaint being the really shitty weekly readings.

Super easy GE. Never watched a lecture, just skimmed the readings each week which was more than enough for the weekly responses (like 150 words) and the papers (3-4 page midterm and two 2-3 page papers for final). TAs grade everything so talk in discussion and get them to like you.

This class was a fairly easy GE. Just two papers and ten reading responses in total make up all of the work in this class. The reading responses are fairly straightforward. Just use evidence from the readings and you should be able to get an A on most of them. They usually turn out to be like 3/4 of a page. Overall, the material was hit or miss. Some weeks had very interesting topics, while others were so painstakingly boring. The class sometimes felt like we were analyzing the readings through a philosophical lens, comparing and contrasting the methods that natural philosophers used to acquire knowledge. I just do not find that sort of thing interesting. The readings themselves were about 40-50 pages per week. They were just a handful of secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources were often straightforward while primary sources were often confusing. Lectures are not needed to get a good grade. I never watched most of them because they were posted after we had already submitted the week's reading response. I waited for the midterm/final paper to watch some of the lectures (specifically the lectures that pertained to the essay question). Overall, an easy GE with some interesting material. Prof Alexander seems like a really great prof. However, the class was asynchronous.

Great professor! Very considerate and caring to his students. Readings and in-class discussions super interesting and engaging. Would recommend to anyone who needs to take an honors collegium.

amazing class. I learned so much, super easy GE. definitely take it if you can. I think you write 2 papers and a final, not hard. asynchronous bc of covid but mandatory discussion sections. if you're a south campus major this will be very interesting to you and worth it!

The workload is minimal. A breeze in my busy quarter. Three hours of discussions each week, one final paper, and a 20 minutes presentation. Recommend it to anyone who is looking for an easy honors collegium to satisfy a GE requirement and honors requirement simultaneously.

This class covers very interesting material, although, the readings (and some lectures) could be rather dense at times. I think Professor Alexander is a great lecturer and genuinely cares about his students—even in a remote, asynchronous class. Professor Alexander is a great guy and wants to talk to you during office hours, so go visit him. Overall, this class was not hard nor was it really THAT easy. The essays for the midterm and final were a bother to write, but if you put in all the work (i.e. get 100s on the weekly, one-page reading papers and write thoughtful, structured midterm and final essays citing the textbook) then you should get an A/A-.

Great professor, really cares about the subject and is always enthusiastic in lecture. Readings could be tedious but on the whole pretty interesting and engaging. No big papers, only weekly reading responses that were super easy.