Took the course as an elective and enjoyed it. I had no prior knowledge/interest in geography but got an A. It was asynchronous online, but he was very communicative and his lectures were interesting and he was pretty funny imo. 5 modules, 1 short paper assignment, and 2 short essays for the final.

This class was interesting but damn did it suck that it was three hours long, and that 2 classes were cancelled for holidays. The workload was totally fine, and easy. It was also kind of fun to draw plants and take selfies with plants. I am a commuter, so going to the botanical garden was mind-blowing. It was so beautiful there, I am so happy I was able to experience it. It was a crap ton of information, but it was all so damn interesting. I seriously love it. The tests kind of sucked though. I feel like I did so well on both my midterm and final but I guess not haha. I am personally just happy I passed the class. I struggled and stressed, it is so much information in such a limited amount of time. I hope to never take a three hour class again because it was too much. The professor is ABSOLUTELY hilarious though. He really knew the perfect jokes to make at perfect times. It was an enjoyable class, but if you are a procrastinator ehhh it might be too much. It also is just so interesting, it might be worth the risk! good luck haha

This class had interesting content but met only once a week for 3 hours. Hard to stay engaged during lectures with slides. 2 weeks were also not available due to holidays and the final was in week 10. The midterm and exam had a lot of small detail multiple choice questions. Also, many questions tried to trick you or second guess your answer with “all of the above” or “none of the above”. Make sure to study any graphs or charts that are talked about frequently. No study guides were given as well. The first half of the class is more biology of plants and the second half is on biomes. The species report project and botanical gardens sketchbook were the highlights and helped me to get a better grade. I studied moderately and got a 64 on midterm and studied a lot and differently for the final and got an 84. I would recommend forming a study group and going to office hours if possible.

I was pretty skeptical about taking this class as I didn’t think I’d be too interested in the subject matter. But Professor MacDonald made (THREE HOUR) lecture really engaging and it ended up being one of my best classes this quarter. There are two assignments, a report and botanical garden sketchbook that are super manageable and he gives extra credit on the report if you take a picture with the plant you write on. The midterm was fairly easy but I definitely studied a good amount for it. Definitely recommend taking this course. Having the rest of the week off made the 3 hour, late nights on Monday worth it.