This class is so difficult. I thought it would be fairly easy and decided to take it as a GE and it is the hardest GE, if not hardest class, I've taken. I took the asynchronous version of the class and the lectures do not align with the readings and are long and often tangential. You can not tell what the professor is just adding as additional information and things that you need to commit to memory. The midterm and final each make up 20% of the grade. The material itself is not very hard but there is SO MUCH of it and the professor does not test on conceptual understanding. The midterm and final questions come from the book and are extremely niche. Sections of the book that you'd assume are just throw away examples and information actually appear on the tests. I'm not sure if he changed the structure of the class but I would recommend not taking it unless you are majoring in something related to Earth Science or have an extreme interest in this topic.

a lot of cool content to cover, and a self-paced environment that let students tackle the content at their own speed
Professor did not communicate much about his exams, TA's did not know about the content on the exams, no study guide provided for midterm or final

I wanted to give a more balanced review on this class after reading a lot of people's opinions. I loved this class. The content was fascinating, and I came into the class relatively uninterested in soil. I left wanting to learn more and satisfied with the amount I was able to learn during the quarter. I can understand the negative reviews, but it is about making it work - each class is different, each professor is different, and there are certain things you are expected to do. To be fair, I relied HEAVILY on the textbook. That is representative of the level of depth you are expected to understand and it is necessary to read to do well. The TA review sessions were also a lot clearer and more organized than the lectures (one of my complaints), so go to them! I think it also helps that I have a decent background in chemistry, so all of the chemistry involved in this class (and there is a substantial amount, fair warning) was intuitive. For taxonomy MAKE FLASHCARDS. Okin is wonderful. I did notice that his lectures, however, were hard to follow. There was a lot of skipping back and forth, little organization, and lots of points were not clear at all. I really like his no technology policy personally (I do not own an iPad and always take hand written notes anyways). This class is very, very chemistry and taxonomy centered. I WISH we talked more about the environment and soil on a larger scale but we barely did, maybe a little at the end of the quarter, which was disappointing and contributed to how dense the material felt. I also do not love the grading scheme of like the entire grade (other than ta section participation) being determined by the midterm and final, a bit sad to me. Overall, his class takes extra work to understand the material. It is super interesting but I wish it was better organized.
Simple Notes To Consider:
- No technology policy
- Had to go in person to review midterm exam
- No homework other than readings (necessary to do well IMO)
- Lots of memorization of chemistry and taxonomy
- Unhelpful lecture slides, often confusing/minimal
- Recordings only show slides, cannot see anything written on white board
- Dense content