took 9 Solar System and Planets. great professor and easy test. selling textbook for the class. Text me **********

Overall I really enjoyed the class, I took it for fun since I am a STEM major and my scientific inquiry GE's were satisfied. The class is split up into two halves, half of the lectures are taught by Prof. Margot and are more astrophysics and physical science based, and the other half are taught by Prof. Treude and are microbiology and life science based. There is very little homework, one online quiz a week that is nearly all multiple choice. There is one multiple choice take home midterm and one multiple choice/drop down choice take home final. The microbiology section is much easier to understand, but Prof. Margot sometimes would go a little fast on the astrophysics side. He is very passionate about the subject and makes a lot of jokes and fun demonstrations, but because he likes it so much he will put a lot of information in one lecture, even if all of it isn't totally relevant. That is balanced out by the discussions, which are optional, where the TA's go over exactly what was relevant during the lecture and cover the harder material that might have been glossed over. All of the lectures are in person and on zoom/recorded and are optional. The class was fun and was on the mildly more challenging level of GE's but is very interesting and not too difficult considering the material.

Overall this is an easy GE that I recommend taking. There are weekly homework assignments, one midterm, and a final. The class is taught by two professors. Professor Margot covers the astronomy content, and Professor Treude covers the biology content. The class is easy to understand if you have basic knowledge of physics and biology. Both professors use slides and the content is recorded with bruincast.

Overall, an interesting class and GE if you want to learn more about life on and outside our planet!

Both professors, Margot and Treude were easy-going professors. The material taught in lecture wasn't really hard and discussions helped plenty. However, it's the grade distribution and random material that really affects grades. Homework is worth 40% and the midterm and final are both worth 30%. Each week there is homework, overall there are 8 homeworks in total. If you score let's say 7/10 on the homeworks, that drastically brings your grade down. It's important to try and do well on the homeworks because missing just one point can affect your overall grade. At the end of the course, they will drop the two lowest homework scores but it won't do much if you didn't do well on the other homeworks. Another thing was random material. The material taught by both professors was straight-forward, however, at times there was material on the homework that wasn't even on the slides, lectures, nor textbook. This also happened on the mid-term and final. Some material came out of nowhere and it was difficult to answer. The way questions were worded at times were also confusing but following context clues definitely helps. Just make sure to do well on the homeworks, they are more important than you think.

I would say the older reviews are accurate for the most part. The class isn't that hard, and most of the information needed for the midterm and the final are on the slides. However, don't slack off on the tests because they aren't as easy as some reviews make them out to be. I highly recommend that you watch Margot's (astro) lecture recordings before each test. The biology part that Treude teaches is usually straight from the slides, so watching her lectures isn't too important, but some of the astro questions can be tricky. Also, make sure you scan all of the slides before the test so you can search through them quickly.

The first few homeworks are straightforward but the later ones are very annoying. Usually there is at least one question that is vague and/or involves doing extensive google searching because it is not in the slides or lecture. The homework is weighted really heavily (40%) so don't get caught lacking there.

The extra credit only gives you < 1% so don't rely on it. It is helpful though.

Dr. Margot is enticing and his course is relatively easy. If you are searching for a GE to take I would highly recommend this course as it is what inspired me to intern for aerospace organizations. However, make sure you take advantage of his extra credit opportunity. The only reason I ended with a B+ opposed to an A- was because I missed one problem on the final and I had not done the EC opportunity.

Personally, I wasn't very interested in astronomy, but if I had to learn in from someone, I'm glad it was from Margot. His lectures are extremely organized and clear-cut, posted the night before so you can print them out. There is textbook reading, but its not too bad. The first half of the class is more reading-intensive but it lessens as time goes by. Grading is divided into quizzes, homework, midterm, and final. You get to drop you 2 lowest quiz scores and 2 lowest homework assignments, so an A in the class is definitely attainable. Overall, Margot is a fair professor, who's clearly passionate about astronomy and tries to help all his students understand the subject well.

TAKE THE PROFESSOR!
GRADE INFLATION RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!

I took ESS 9 Winter 2013 and ended up with final grade of 96. I got 59% on first midterm and 50% on final exam. (Both below the mean) .But I did the extra credit which is computed as (End grade +20)/120. Although the midterm was discouraging, the guy hands out 99% of the time. No matter what, he will make sure you fail. But in bare minimum work and you should still come out with an A-.

Both TA's are really helpful and will help you understand the material.
The HW and quizes are very simple and you can do them in group. Really 95% of the class got at least 95% on both of these. (Super easy).

Took ESS9

Super easy GE, easy A. Ended up with an A+ put little work into the class. Selling textbook for the course, new and no marks on it.

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This is a good professor and a good class to take for an easy GE.
if you're at all interested in astronomy or space, or even if you're not, this is a fairly interesting class.
Prof Margot is very fun and enthusiastic about his teaching and loves questions. His 1 midterm and final were challenging but fair and there is a generous curve.
He posts his slides from lecture online and no other study tools, but this is OK because these are all you need.
You do NOT need to buy or even read the textbook, although it could help some (and the readings are reasonably short). If you do choose to buy the textbook, he allows you to buy even very old versions of it, which you can find online for under $10.
My grade in this class was an A+