Professor
Noah Garrison
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I thought Professor Garrison was an animated lecturer and clearly very passionate and interested in the material. That was super helpful for me, since I didn't find it as interesting but his energy helped me stay engaged. The lectures were pretty clear and well paced, but the exams were a bit difficult. The course was a bit chaotic because Professor Garrison taught the first four weeks, Professor Smith taught the next four, and the Professor Garrison came back for the last two weeks of the quarter. Because of this we did not get our midterm scores back til a bit later. Professor G gives prelecture quizzes for almost every lecture on the textbook readings, which ask very specific questions but you get unlimited attempts. The labs were easy and the TAs were incredibly kind and genuinely wanted to help students out (they even held a career panel for us where we could ask questions about research, grad school, working, etc.) The only things for our grades were pre-lec quizzes, the labs, the midterm, and the final. The two tests are each 25% so I would study early, and actually read the textbook because its helpful in filling in greater details that we don't have time for in lecture.
Winter 2021 - I thought Professor Garrison was an animated lecturer and clearly very passionate and interested in the material. That was super helpful for me, since I didn't find it as interesting but his energy helped me stay engaged. The lectures were pretty clear and well paced, but the exams were a bit difficult. The course was a bit chaotic because Professor Garrison taught the first four weeks, Professor Smith taught the next four, and the Professor Garrison came back for the last two weeks of the quarter. Because of this we did not get our midterm scores back til a bit later. Professor G gives prelecture quizzes for almost every lecture on the textbook readings, which ask very specific questions but you get unlimited attempts. The labs were easy and the TAs were incredibly kind and genuinely wanted to help students out (they even held a career panel for us where we could ask questions about research, grad school, working, etc.) The only things for our grades were pre-lec quizzes, the labs, the midterm, and the final. The two tests are each 25% so I would study early, and actually read the textbook because its helpful in filling in greater details that we don't have time for in lecture.
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - I took this class online over summer during A session. The class was broken down in the following manner during my term: 20%- Attendance/Short Summaries: You had the option of 1-watching the recorded lectures and writing a short summary about the material, or 2- tuning in to the live lectures. Very easy points. Lectures in general were very fast-paced. Garrison uses slides, which help outline his expanded talking points. 30%- Short Response Papers: There were two 3-page papers, so 15% of the grade each. They were each about a current environmental issue of your choice that related to course concepts. I found it helpful to talk to Garrison about the topics chosen. I also made sure to pick topics that had strong connections to particular legal/policy issues, as it is a governance/politics class. There were three student examples provided. Garrison would also send your papers back to you with commentary after grading, which was super helpful! 40%- Final Policy Memo: This was maximum 6 pages. You could pick a topic/issue of your choice, as well as an administrative body that it is addressed to. It required a decent amount of background research to complete. This was the first policy memo that I ever had to write, but Garrison provided an outline of what he expected, as well as a number of resources for additional assistance. There were also three student examples from previous terms to look at. 10%- Final Presentation: Ranged from 3-5 minutes and covered the issue discussed in the policy memo. It required a powerpoint or some kind of visual aid. This was submitted as a video, so it was pre-recorded. I did mine on zoom, and did multiple takes to get the one I finally submitted. You could choose to have the pre-recorded video presented on the last day of class or not. Textbook: This class had a required text and a reader. I found the textbook extremely easy to read and understand, despite the somewhat-dense material. The two short-response papers required you to cite the class texts, so they were mandatory to have, despite no quizzes/tests on the material. Overall, I feel like the readings complimented the class well and deepened my understanding of the historical context, but took quite a bit of time in comparison to their utility. Professor: Garrison is not an easy grader but not terribly hard either. I feel that he really appreciates in-depth research, so I think it's worth it to spend a bit more time really understanding the legal/environmental contexts of issues when writing about them. Garrison would also provide commentary on your papers and send them back to you, which was super nice. Outside of his grading, I found Garrison to be very approachable and helpful. You could ask questions in class, and he was always receptive to them. You can tell he's very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter. He was also very accommodating during office hours/making time to meet with students. Overall: This was an organized class that was honestly quite enjoyable and engaging, but not the easiest on campus. I never felt terribly stressed in this course, and also felt like I learned something every lecture that was worth my time. I would highly recommend this course if you are remotely interested in the history of the American political system regarding environmental issues.
Summer 2020 - I took this class online over summer during A session. The class was broken down in the following manner during my term: 20%- Attendance/Short Summaries: You had the option of 1-watching the recorded lectures and writing a short summary about the material, or 2- tuning in to the live lectures. Very easy points. Lectures in general were very fast-paced. Garrison uses slides, which help outline his expanded talking points. 30%- Short Response Papers: There were two 3-page papers, so 15% of the grade each. They were each about a current environmental issue of your choice that related to course concepts. I found it helpful to talk to Garrison about the topics chosen. I also made sure to pick topics that had strong connections to particular legal/policy issues, as it is a governance/politics class. There were three student examples provided. Garrison would also send your papers back to you with commentary after grading, which was super helpful! 40%- Final Policy Memo: This was maximum 6 pages. You could pick a topic/issue of your choice, as well as an administrative body that it is addressed to. It required a decent amount of background research to complete. This was the first policy memo that I ever had to write, but Garrison provided an outline of what he expected, as well as a number of resources for additional assistance. There were also three student examples from previous terms to look at. 10%- Final Presentation: Ranged from 3-5 minutes and covered the issue discussed in the policy memo. It required a powerpoint or some kind of visual aid. This was submitted as a video, so it was pre-recorded. I did mine on zoom, and did multiple takes to get the one I finally submitted. You could choose to have the pre-recorded video presented on the last day of class or not. Textbook: This class had a required text and a reader. I found the textbook extremely easy to read and understand, despite the somewhat-dense material. The two short-response papers required you to cite the class texts, so they were mandatory to have, despite no quizzes/tests on the material. Overall, I feel like the readings complimented the class well and deepened my understanding of the historical context, but took quite a bit of time in comparison to their utility. Professor: Garrison is not an easy grader but not terribly hard either. I feel that he really appreciates in-depth research, so I think it's worth it to spend a bit more time really understanding the legal/environmental contexts of issues when writing about them. Garrison would also provide commentary on your papers and send them back to you, which was super nice. Outside of his grading, I found Garrison to be very approachable and helpful. You could ask questions in class, and he was always receptive to them. You can tell he's very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter. He was also very accommodating during office hours/making time to meet with students. Overall: This was an organized class that was honestly quite enjoyable and engaging, but not the easiest on campus. I never felt terribly stressed in this course, and also felt like I learned something every lecture that was worth my time. I would highly recommend this course if you are remotely interested in the history of the American political system regarding environmental issues.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I generally felt like this class was decent, but I wasn't a big fan of the grading distribution and structure of the class. 25% of your grade is participation, which involved attendance, a discussion section presentation, and answering questions in lecture. No attendance was taken after I think week 2, so basically everyone got all the points here if they did the presentation (which was easy, and while we never got grades for it, I'm pretty sure it was graded very easily). 20% of your grade is from two quizzes, which were of middling difficulty. These were on week 3 and week 5. Most people I talked to got decent grades on them, but not good ones. They are timed, multiple choice and short answer quizzes based off of lecture. Because the lectures cover so much information, the quizzes can be a little difficult. It is open note, but again you have a time limit that really prevents you from fully looking up questions. After week 5, there are no more exams, so you can basically check out and not pay attention to lectures anymore. The rest of the grading is on projects where you do your own research, so while lectures can help, they aren't particularly important going forwards. 20% of your grade is from two short assignments, which was a memo (3 page short essay) and a 2 minute speech/testimony. You worked with a partner. Both assignments were on the same topic. I thought the grading was mostly fair, but you had to work for an A on these assignments. 35% of your grade was the final project, where you worked with a group of 5-7 people. 25% was for the final paper and 10% was for the final presentation. The final paper was 20 pages max and was a super detailed research paper about a given topic. You have a good amount of time to work on it, and the large group made it manageable. He gave you feedback on your outline and then your draft. He really wants citations and numbers, so you have to do a large amount of research. I think our paper had almost 10 pages of double spaced citations by the time we finished. The final presentation was 10 min long, and it was difficult to condense all of the info in the 20 page paper into a 10 min presentation. Time limits were strictly enforced. I never got my grade back for the paper and the presentation, but given my final grade and my grades on the other assignments, I think I did decently well. I think that the grading is probably strict but generally fair given how much time and feedback you receive before the final draft is due. I found lectures to be somewhat dense and not helpful at all after week 5, and discussion sections didn't even meet half of the time. There were also a lot of weekly readings, but I didn't think they were important and didn't do them. I thought the class was interesting enough, but the second part of the class was stressful due to all of the projects. I think it's a decent class to take if it fills a requirement for your major/minor.
Fall 2021 - I generally felt like this class was decent, but I wasn't a big fan of the grading distribution and structure of the class. 25% of your grade is participation, which involved attendance, a discussion section presentation, and answering questions in lecture. No attendance was taken after I think week 2, so basically everyone got all the points here if they did the presentation (which was easy, and while we never got grades for it, I'm pretty sure it was graded very easily). 20% of your grade is from two quizzes, which were of middling difficulty. These were on week 3 and week 5. Most people I talked to got decent grades on them, but not good ones. They are timed, multiple choice and short answer quizzes based off of lecture. Because the lectures cover so much information, the quizzes can be a little difficult. It is open note, but again you have a time limit that really prevents you from fully looking up questions. After week 5, there are no more exams, so you can basically check out and not pay attention to lectures anymore. The rest of the grading is on projects where you do your own research, so while lectures can help, they aren't particularly important going forwards. 20% of your grade is from two short assignments, which was a memo (3 page short essay) and a 2 minute speech/testimony. You worked with a partner. Both assignments were on the same topic. I thought the grading was mostly fair, but you had to work for an A on these assignments. 35% of your grade was the final project, where you worked with a group of 5-7 people. 25% was for the final paper and 10% was for the final presentation. The final paper was 20 pages max and was a super detailed research paper about a given topic. You have a good amount of time to work on it, and the large group made it manageable. He gave you feedback on your outline and then your draft. He really wants citations and numbers, so you have to do a large amount of research. I think our paper had almost 10 pages of double spaced citations by the time we finished. The final presentation was 10 min long, and it was difficult to condense all of the info in the 20 page paper into a 10 min presentation. Time limits were strictly enforced. I never got my grade back for the paper and the presentation, but given my final grade and my grades on the other assignments, I think I did decently well. I think that the grading is probably strict but generally fair given how much time and feedback you receive before the final draft is due. I found lectures to be somewhat dense and not helpful at all after week 5, and discussion sections didn't even meet half of the time. There were also a lot of weekly readings, but I didn't think they were important and didn't do them. I thought the class was interesting enough, but the second part of the class was stressful due to all of the projects. I think it's a decent class to take if it fills a requirement for your major/minor.
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