I took this as a GE as a north campus major. I wouldn't really recommend it and there are lots of other GEs out there. This class involves lots of math and there's a lab every week.

For someone who didn't really attend the lectures, this class was pretty easy to get through. The professor is really sweet but his lectures are kinda boring and hard to get through as someone who isn't interested in astronomy. I actually really enjoyed the labs though, my TA was Philip and he was really helpful. Just make sure you join a breakout room with people who talk and help each other out. I got low Bs on the two midterms and an A on the final. The extra credit helps a lot though.

Professor Treu is brilliant! It was genuinely such an honor to be able to be taught by such a well-spoken and interesting professor. I never felt afraid to ask a question if something was unclear and he genuinely made an effort to ensure that he was making sense. My TA (Philip) was equally as helpful and the labs were not too difficult as long as you understood the lectures too. The tests are definitely not a walk in the park, but reading the Kudu textbook and making sure you pay attention during lecture helps. There were also some opportunities to raise your grade because the tests weren’t the only thing going into the gradebook. As for COVID adjustments, the lectures occurred on Zoom but attendance was not mandatory and the lectures were recorded and posted. I loved this class and recommend it highly to anyone willing to put in the work!

Honestly, I liked the content of this class and found astronomy super interesting. As someone who took AP Physics C in HS but did terribly in bio/chem, astronomy was pretty intriguing. The 2 timed, open note midterms were kinda stressful for me. I felt like there weren't enough practice/application problems (he gave out a practice midterm of 20 questions after the first midterm because of some requests) but even those weren't as difficult as the mathematical applications in the actual test. Did decently on both. Didn't study too much for the final but it was a lot easier in my opinion, and with the extra 5% Campuswire EC i got a good grade.
However, I found his lectures to be fairly boring. It just was not engaging, and his slides were organized in a brutally painful way so that they were hard to follow, and the important information wasn't really there 1/4 of the time. Again, just imo. He also didn't explain things too well in my opinion. Of course, super amazing, bright, talented guy but I did not enjoy his lectures at all and ended up watching them recorded and pausing to take notes (you can't really take notes during the lecture because he speeds through the slides).
Also, KUDU is really just watching a PBS video of a guy talking SUPER quickly for 10 minutes (so you have to take notes and process it all). And then reading a ton of stuff that is basically a repeat of lecture, but occasionally there's more you just don't know when it's comin for ya.
Labs are super easy IMO but I know other people struggled. I had Nick F and I loved him.
Again, love Treu but I just felt like this class wasn't worth it. I ended with a good grade so it's not really worth stressing over because of the EC & grade curve, but i personally thought it was mediocre. Learned some INSANE COOL THINGS THOUGH!

This class if very fun if you enjoy astronomy. If you don't, don't take this class as an easy A unless you're good at math/physics. Overall I really liked Treu and he way really helpful. Tests are pretty tough but he ends up giving extra credit and he rounds up your grade, so if you get an 85% in the class, you can get an A if you do the 5% extra credit.

This class was super fun. I really recommend taking this class with Treu. Sometimes I feel like profs here don't really like having to teach classes. However, Treu was always so enthusiastic about astronomy. You could tell that he was a prof who really liked teaching and working with students. As for the class, the grading scheme was 20% Labs, 20% homework on kudu (the online textbook), 20% for midterm 1, 20% for midterm 2, and 20% for the final. Labs were fairly straightforward. Ask for help from your TA and work with your group mates and you should get close to 100% on the labs. Homework was super easy too. All of the tests were pretty difficult. HOWEVER, the class was curved to compensate for the tricky tests. First of all, the grading scale was generous. 95% is an A+, 90% is an A, 85% is an A- etc. You could also earn up to 5% extra credit by participating on campuswire. Just answer student questions and you'll get the extra credit. Overall, the course was extremely interesting. His slides had a lot of pictures and it was cool to see some of the awesome celestial phenomena. If you have an interest in astronomy, I highly recommend taking this class. Treu was awesome, and it's a fairly easy GE.