Professor Gillespie is ranked as the best professor at UCLA on Bruinwalk for a reason. He is super funny and engaging and really tries to make his classes as interesting as possible. This class consisted of about 30-45 minutes of lecture each meeting followed by a field trip around campus where he would point out all of the tree families around campus we should know for the midterm and final. The tests are easy as long as you study the lecture material and read only the chapter he tells you will be on the test. I loved this class so much I made sure I took Gillespie again in the Fall for 113. Great guy and a great course.

Hands down one of the best professors at UCLA!!! As a bio major I had so much fun taking class this quarter and would definitely take another class with Gillespie if I had the chance. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! :)

Gillespie is by far my favorite professor at UCLA. Every time he teaches a class I try to enroll in it. He is so passionate about not only the topics, but the students. I never went to office hours, but he knew my name and asked me about my europe trip over a year later. He hands out study guides for midterm and final. a memorization based test. and a group project at the end (group of 10)

I took him for geog 111 and geog 5. I plan to take as many classes with him as possible while I am here at UCLA. He is an inspiration. He is so passionate about these topics. A class based mainly on memorization and identifying trees some how became fun and interesting. 10/10 suggest taking his class!

He is easy for the lower-divs, but impossibly difficult for the upper-divs. The hardest upper div he teaches is Geog 111. He only gives out 10% As!!! I thought he was easy, but he turned out not to be! Watch out, don't take this class. There are easier upper divs than this! My GPA got ruined :(

OMG....IT IS ONE OF THE EASIEST CLASSES AT UCLA!! This class was sooo easy compared to bio classes....made me want to switch over to geography after taking this class! He is one of the best professors here! One midterm, 2 group projects, and a final. Final only took like 40 minutes (during 10th week). Missed like 4 lectures, got the notes and still ended up with an A

I can't imagine where you could go wrong in taking a class with Gillespie. He is a GREAT professor. I took Geog 111 with him (Forest Ecosystems) and he can take a seemingly boring topic and make it SO interesting. If this class were taught by any other professor, I assure you it would probably be the most boring class ever. Gillespie's passion for the material is very obvious in his teaching, and he literally is so excited about everything, even the most boring plant in CA that you can think of.
This energy was very contagious. It made me excited to learn, with confidence, the family and scientific names of native California trees. He is absolutely hilarious as well, and his passion makes the material genuinely easy to learn.
The midterm was a tad bit harder than the final, but both tests were extremely fair. He gives you a study guide before each and nothing is on the test that is not on the study guide. The final was relatively easy, but only because he made the students genuinely learn the material, which is a great attribute for a professor.
The group project was fun to do and easy.
I not only recommend taking Professor Gillespie in any Geography class, but I also think your learning experience at UCLA will lack the greatness it would have had you learned from this awesome professor.

TAKE HIM!

Gillespie is an inspiration. I wish all of my professors were like him. I took his Geography 111 course and he got me excited about forests and tree genuses. I am now taking his Geography 169 class and he's got me excited about remote sensing and satellite imagery. My interest wasn't too strong in those subjects before, but he is a phenomenal teacher and made those my favorite classes at UCLA. He is very energetic, passionate, enthusiastic, funny, and outrageous. He tells tons of jokes in class, says crazy and controversial things just to get your attention, and even swears quite often during class! He also tries really hard to give real-world examples of the applications of what you're learning. As someone else mentioned, he tends to put exclamation points after words he writes on the board - that pretty much sums up his lecture style. I would highly recommend any of his classes to anyone. The classes have material that is just challenging enough to be interesting, but not difficult in my opinion. There is also little to no homework and reading. He also gives awesome comprehensive study guides that clearly list everything you need to know for the midterm and final.

The best professor I've had at UCLA!!! Gillespie is so funny and entertaining that I always looked forward to going to class. I was expecting to find the subject material to be dry but his passion & energy makes it very interesting. The group project he assigns is very easy and straightforward, same with the midterm & final. TAKE A CLASS WITH HIM--you'll love it!

So heres the deal with the class. There is no book, so you need to go to lecture. His lectures are clear most of the time. The only hard part of this class was the project. He broke us up into small groups, and we had to identify the genus and species of all the trees in a certain area. This was hard as a mofo. It took us DAYS so finish it. At the end, everybody got good grades on it. The lowest grade on the project was a B+. With regards to the final, you're gonna have to identify a bunch of tree samples. Overall a very doable and good class.

Also, hes REALLY cool