For the quarter I took this class, it was taught by both Professor Schauble and Drake. I learned a lot from this class, but during Schauble's lectures it felt kind of boring. Nevertheless he was a helpful professor! Throughout the quarter we had 3 Q&A-style review sessions right before each of the 2 midterms and the final. You can watch ocean-related documentaries and/or attend science seminars for extra credit . Lab-wise, we basically just worked on some paper handouts and only sometimes had hands-on experiments; there was a quiz in the beginning of each lab but as long as you study the previous lab's info you will be fine.

Not as interesting of a GE as I thought it was going to be. I deceived myself by reading Blue Planet in the course title and mistakenly believing that I would be studying material that was covered in the documentary series. Had I paid attention to the rest of the title, I would have realized that the word Oceanography should have tipped me off.

Summary: Easy science GE that comes with lab credit (lab is even more of a joke than the class). Get an A by reading the textbook, spending a day studying for the final (by memorizing some of the stuff from the book), and going to the labs (they take attendance). There's not as much about ocean life as you would hope, and a lot more about seafloor sediment than you knew existed. At least Schauble is funny sometimes.

This is an effort class. If you try, you will get an A. It's not like you'll be struggling to learn the material, it'll just be about whether you're willing to do it.

Professor Schauble gives extra credit for attending related seminars. Do them early since your available free time suddenly goes away very quickly when the end of the quarter approaches, plus there won't be many seminars left by that point.

This class is certainly not an easy GE. The topics could be interesting, but the lectures are just not that engaging. Lectures are online, so it's basically not worth going to class. Reading the textbook is CRUCIAL though. The lab quizzes are harder than they should be, but the lab packets don't take the full period, so that's nice.

This was a very interesting class! Teacher was fine and pretty helpful, but nothing special. Most of the work is in the lab for this class. The tests are very easy!

Can't stress this enough: read the book. During the first half of the quarter, I'd read the chapters before lecture and take notes, so the lectures were like review sessions. I found this to be very effective. The second half of the quarter, however, was a crash course because the professor was falling behind with the lectures. That is probably the only bad thing I have to say about this class. Tests are really easy as long as you READ THE BOOK. As for the labs... I didn't like the exercises and found them somewhat pointless. Study the lab slides/readings and you'll do great on the weekly quizzes (take these seriously).

As for the professor himself, he's funny and very knowledgeable. I'm sure everyone in my class liked him. He can be boring at times, though (I nearly fell asleep a couple of times).

If you are looking to take Oceanography as an easy GE, do not take it with Professor Schauble. He is a very smart and nice guy, but his midterms and final were very specific on topics that were addressed quite broadly. Paying attention for an hour in that class seemed impossible, and the course material was either obvious or incredibly difficult to grasp. It may just be my opinion but this was not an easy GE.

Professor Schauble's lectures we pretty painfully boring. He's a nice dude and knows a lot about his field and explains things clearly but it could be so hard to pay attention during lecture. His lectures are bruincasted and slides are posted. He assigns the whole textbook to read, but I got away with reading the chapter summaries and looking at the graphics. 2 Midterms (avg. B-) , a Lecture final (avg. B-) and a Lab final (Avg. B). He grades with a pretty generous curve that can't hurt your grade. Labs have a 10 point quiz on the previous labs material. Go to lab, podcast lectures, give the textbook a light read and you'll be good.

This class was very interesting indeed! I thoroughly enjoyed the extra credit videos the professor showed us - documentaries about the deep sea and marine life. Also, although the class is curved only to benefit, so the curve cannot harm your grade - which is a huge plus!

It might be tough for people who have never taken a science class before, because it covers topics from all the sciences: Biology, Physics, Chemistry and even some Astronomy, Geography and Geology. However, I know many north campus majors who took the class who found it quite manageable.

Tests are generally very straight forward and there are no tricky / difficult questions - you either know the material and the concepts or you don't. A large portion of the test ~70% is multiple-choice while the other ~30% is short-answer or diagram-based questions.

All of the questions are very manageable as long as you read the textbook, go through lecture slides and internalize all the necessary concepts. There is a bit of a memory work necessary when it comes to the names of certain plankton, but the labs do help a lot in drilling these in!

The only thing you have to watch out for are those lab quizzes, which can be difficult you don't go through the previous lab results often enough. Definitely go to office hours to clarify things that are covered in lab that you don''t quite understand because there may not always be enough time for the TA to explain everything. Lab final is so easy, it's a complete joke so don't even worry about that!

If you put it enough effort, you'll have no problem getting an A+/A grade like I did!

Sold ↓↓↓

Solid GE class to take with a solid professor. Schauble is very caring about his students, and his office hours are great! All lectures are podcasted so attending lecture isn't terribly necessary. Alex Grannan was my TA for Fall '15 and I highly recommend switching into his lab section if you can. He is a helpful, patient TA and grades very fairly. This class isn't the EASIEST GE out there to take for a lab requirement (if you want an A) but if you're okay with a B to A-, definitely take this class.

Selling 11th Edition of "Essentials of Oceanography" Trujillo. Email *************.