EVSC 4870

I took this class the first time it was offered. I couldn't recommend Prof. Richardson enough. He's super enthusiastic about the content, and is overall a super reasonable instructor. The course consists of weekly take-home (open note) quizzes on the week's lectures; you should be good as long as you adhere closely to the slides and pay attention to the things emphasized during lecture. All slides are posted and attendance is not mandatory, but I would strongly recommend going to class since some things are more heavily emphasized in lecture, and you have the opportunity to ask questions about sometimes confusing diagrams. The quizzes are reasonable and relate only to the lecture content- Dr. Richardson also provides study sheets for every quiz you can fill out in order to prepare. If you're not strong in chemistry, DO NOT WORRY! I barely passed intro chem at UVA and thought this class was extremely reasonable. It incorporates a lot of other topics in environmental sciences, so if you're an envi-sci major who doesn't love chemistry, you will survive this course. There were no exams- our grades are made up of the quizzes (should be an easy A) and our final project. The final project is creating your own biogeochemical model in MATLAB- if you aren't comfortable with MATLAB, Dr. Richardson gives an introduction to coding from basic principles, so don't worry. He's also always available to help you with your model if you start early. It's a decently large project, but if you start bit by bit a couple weeks in advance it's super do-able. Dr. Richardson is quick to respond to emails regarding quiz questions (since they are taken outside of class) and makes himself available to help you with the content or the project if you need it. He's one of the best professors I've had in the department. Even though I'm not super passionate about the content of this course, I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an elective! Dr. Richardson is a great instructor- he is flexible with deadlines and pays attention to the course load as to not overwhelm his students. He's always willing to work with students who express difficulty with anything involved in the course. If you have the opportunity to take a class with him, do it! I would recommend this course for someone not as strong in chemistry, but he teaches a soil ecotoxicology course as well that I'm sure would be fantastic for more chem-minded envi sci majors!