EPS SCI 15
Blue Planet: Introduction to Oceanography
Description: Lecture, three hours; laboratory, two hours. Not open for credit to students with credit for or currently enrolled in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 25. General introduction to geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes and history of Earth's global ocean system. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Pros: *Engaging lecturer, really funny *VERY WELL ORGANIZED *Pretty funny *Great at explaining things and connecting them to life. Cons: *Labs are both useless/timewasters and really informative. I don't know how to explain it. *Aurnou doesn't care about you, at all. You will get precisely the grade that you have earned. *The tests are harder than you think they'll be *DO NOT BOTHER buying any textbooks. He doesn't use them, it's a waste of money. *He does not test on anything that is relevant, instead choosing to test on silly facts that only test whether you paid exceptional attention to him.
Pros: *Engaging lecturer, really funny *VERY WELL ORGANIZED *Pretty funny *Great at explaining things and connecting them to life. Cons: *Labs are both useless/timewasters and really informative. I don't know how to explain it. *Aurnou doesn't care about you, at all. You will get precisely the grade that you have earned. *The tests are harder than you think they'll be *DO NOT BOTHER buying any textbooks. He doesn't use them, it's a waste of money. *He does not test on anything that is relevant, instead choosing to test on silly facts that only test whether you paid exceptional attention to him.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - I really enjoyed this class. While the professor's lectures were often times boring and confusing, the subject itself was enjoyable and interesting. The professor uploads all of her slides on CCLE and she includes summaries at the end of each of them which were really helpful when studying for the exams. There are 3 exams: a midterm, a final, and a lab final. Additionally, she offers an incredibly easy extra credit opportunity. Overall, I think this class was fairly easy with minimal workload. (***Selling the books for this class, price negotiable. If interested text me at *************)
Spring 2019 - I really enjoyed this class. While the professor's lectures were often times boring and confusing, the subject itself was enjoyable and interesting. The professor uploads all of her slides on CCLE and she includes summaries at the end of each of them which were really helpful when studying for the exams. There are 3 exams: a midterm, a final, and a lab final. Additionally, she offers an incredibly easy extra credit opportunity. Overall, I think this class was fairly easy with minimal workload. (***Selling the books for this class, price negotiable. If interested text me at *************)
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Overall, this class was ok. The way the midterms, final, and quizzes were worded made things very tricky. Also, I felt at times that if I didn't have an environmental science background, I'd be struggling to keep up with his teaching. His prerecorded lectures took a long time but he was very generous in his extra credits (like previous comments it can make or break your grade). That being said, I highly recommend doing every extra credit opportunity possible. I do agree that he probably wasn't going to make accommodations for this class (due to BLM) until he was pressed by ucla to do so. Anyways, keep up with the lectures, know the lab stuff, do the quizzes and extra credits and you should be fine.
Spring 2020 - Overall, this class was ok. The way the midterms, final, and quizzes were worded made things very tricky. Also, I felt at times that if I didn't have an environmental science background, I'd be struggling to keep up with his teaching. His prerecorded lectures took a long time but he was very generous in his extra credits (like previous comments it can make or break your grade). That being said, I highly recommend doing every extra credit opportunity possible. I do agree that he probably wasn't going to make accommodations for this class (due to BLM) until he was pressed by ucla to do so. Anyways, keep up with the lectures, know the lab stuff, do the quizzes and extra credits and you should be fine.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I don't come from a STEM background nor am I smart, but I still managed to get an A- in this class largely because Professor Schauble is very generous with the grading of this class. First of all, an A- in this class is 88%. He also offers a maximum of 2% extra credit by watching and writing a short report on episodes of Planet Earth or Blue Planet, making an A- in this class basically an 86%. I got a C+ and a B- on the midterms and a B on the final and still got an A- in this class because of how the class was set up. The largest grade booster in this class is the lab section. Lab is a grueling two hours, but it was a necessary evil because the quizzes were really easy and made up a large portion of the grade. Showing up and doing the long worksheet made up another large portion of the grade, further diluting the weight of the exams. There is also a lab final, which is essentially a glorified lab quiz which makes up 10% of the grade. If you study for 15 minutes right before the quizzes, you'll get a 10/10. Therefore, if you study the quizzes that are handed back for about an hour, you should get 100+% (there is extra credit) on the lab final. As for the exams, they're actually somewhat difficult: the multiple choice is easy but the short answers actually require some deeper knowledge of the topics. Other reviewers have mentioned that you should read the textbook and you'll be fine. Although I'm sure it worked for some, but for me, it didn't help too much. The main reason why I did so much better on the final than on the midterms was because I stopped looking at the textbook as my predecessors have recommended and instead focused on the lecture material. All in all, it's a pretty decent class and you don't even need to show up to lecture. The content can be really boring at times, but for a relatively easy A, I'd say its worth it.
Fall 2019 - I don't come from a STEM background nor am I smart, but I still managed to get an A- in this class largely because Professor Schauble is very generous with the grading of this class. First of all, an A- in this class is 88%. He also offers a maximum of 2% extra credit by watching and writing a short report on episodes of Planet Earth or Blue Planet, making an A- in this class basically an 86%. I got a C+ and a B- on the midterms and a B on the final and still got an A- in this class because of how the class was set up. The largest grade booster in this class is the lab section. Lab is a grueling two hours, but it was a necessary evil because the quizzes were really easy and made up a large portion of the grade. Showing up and doing the long worksheet made up another large portion of the grade, further diluting the weight of the exams. There is also a lab final, which is essentially a glorified lab quiz which makes up 10% of the grade. If you study for 15 minutes right before the quizzes, you'll get a 10/10. Therefore, if you study the quizzes that are handed back for about an hour, you should get 100+% (there is extra credit) on the lab final. As for the exams, they're actually somewhat difficult: the multiple choice is easy but the short answers actually require some deeper knowledge of the topics. Other reviewers have mentioned that you should read the textbook and you'll be fine. Although I'm sure it worked for some, but for me, it didn't help too much. The main reason why I did so much better on the final than on the midterms was because I stopped looking at the textbook as my predecessors have recommended and instead focused on the lecture material. All in all, it's a pretty decent class and you don't even need to show up to lecture. The content can be really boring at times, but for a relatively easy A, I'd say its worth it.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Workload: Extremely light, there are 8 homework quizzes and the two lowest scores get dropped. The weekly quizzes took 10 minutes and there are 6-12 questions straight from lab slides and readings. You have from Friday-Friday to complete them. There are recommended readings but I never read them. Lecture: Not mandatory. She reads straight from the slides. I went to three of them. It was not necessary. Plus they are recorded. Lab: Time consuming and a bit challenging. Lab worksheets are based on completion, not correctness. Midterm/Final: Online and open note. Extremely easy and straight from lecture slides. Lab Quiz: Very challenging but its only worth 10% and your extra credit covers it if you bomb it. Extra credit: 5% is a survey and the other 5% is an aquarium visit. DO THE EXTRA CREDIT!!! Final note: Easy A. Boring class. If you don't mind being bored for an hour and 50 minutes once a week, take the class.
Winter 2024 - Workload: Extremely light, there are 8 homework quizzes and the two lowest scores get dropped. The weekly quizzes took 10 minutes and there are 6-12 questions straight from lab slides and readings. You have from Friday-Friday to complete them. There are recommended readings but I never read them. Lecture: Not mandatory. She reads straight from the slides. I went to three of them. It was not necessary. Plus they are recorded. Lab: Time consuming and a bit challenging. Lab worksheets are based on completion, not correctness. Midterm/Final: Online and open note. Extremely easy and straight from lecture slides. Lab Quiz: Very challenging but its only worth 10% and your extra credit covers it if you bomb it. Extra credit: 5% is a survey and the other 5% is an aquarium visit. DO THE EXTRA CREDIT!!! Final note: Easy A. Boring class. If you don't mind being bored for an hour and 50 minutes once a week, take the class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Oh my was this class easy. No tests, quizzes, exams. Just lecture notes that you can copy off the slides, chapter reading notes, a weekly lab assignment, 3 "lecture assignments", and a final video project. The lecture assignments were super easy, which involved either taking notes on a video, or answering a few questions from a large list such as definitions or converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit. This class required very minimal effort and is the easiest A I have gotten since middle school. Do anything you can to take this class.
Winter 2021 - Oh my was this class easy. No tests, quizzes, exams. Just lecture notes that you can copy off the slides, chapter reading notes, a weekly lab assignment, 3 "lecture assignments", and a final video project. The lecture assignments were super easy, which involved either taking notes on a video, or answering a few questions from a large list such as definitions or converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit. This class required very minimal effort and is the easiest A I have gotten since middle school. Do anything you can to take this class.
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