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Deborah Lawrence's enthusiasm and passion for the material makes the class so much more enjoyable! The beginning of the class was a lot of climate physics and calculations, which I was not expecting. It wasn't too difficult, as Lawrence and her TA's are extremely helpful during office hours. The lecture hall is so full, so definitely take advantage of one on one time during office hours. The grade is comprised of two weekly quizzes, learning catalytics participation, a blog project, and exams. The exams make up about 50-60% of your grade, and the other aspects are entirely in your hands. It is not hard to get 100s on everything other than the exams; if you get a 50% overall on the quizzes, she counts it as 100%. The blog was simple as well! I really did learn a lot about climate change, I just wish we talked more about what we as a generation can do for the future rather than spending half the class just proving its legitimacy through physics. #tCFfall2021

As someone planning to major in env sci, I found this course very enjoyable. It has a little bit more math than I was planning, but nothing that isn't explicitly shown in class. The course has 4 exams that make up a little more than 50% of the grade, a blog post that is around 17% of the final grade, in class questions that make up 13% and pre-call questions that make up 13%. The tests are pretty detailed which can be a little annoying - best advice is the read the textbook chapter before the lecture so you can focus on what she is saying. In class questions should be an easy 100 if you show up because they are for completion. You have to get half the pre-class questions right to get a 100 in that category. Those together with the fairly easy blog post should make 30ish percent of your grade near a 100. I averaged an 85ish on the tests and ended with an A in the class. The lecture can drag on sometimes but it's definitely worth your time to go. Professor Lawrence is a first-hand expert on the subject so if you have any interest in climate change and don't mind a little math then I recommend. Easy A- or B+, have to do the readngs and study for an A.

Professor Lawrence is incredibly organized and well prepared for lectures, as well as a very engaging lecturer. The textbook is excellent and very clear. I found it helpful to highlight the textbook while reading the first time and go back and review it again after lectures when I had more clarity about the content. Professor Lawrence was a great teacher and always put in a lot of effort to make the material more understandable. She was also very helpful in office hours. There are four exams throughout the semester (not cumulative) and quizzes/questions due before class and participation questions during class that are graded generously. There was also one 250 word written assignment with peer reviewing. Overall, not very much to do outside of class besides studying for exams. Everything was very reasonable, and the material learned in class always felt very valuable and meaningful. The exams were often a little harder than I expected, but with all of the other grades being more lenient I got an A in the end without a problem. I definitely recommend this course for everyone!

This class is really insightful and pretty much teaches everything you need to know about climate change. I took this class as an easy A, but I actually grew to pay attention and love the class. So much of the material has actually stuck with me because it is so important and informational about the real world. With that said, although this was supposed to be an easy A for me, I kind of struggled on the tests. The materials was actually really easy to grasp but the tests seemed more about your test taking skills and there were always a few odd questions that seemed to draw from the textbook rather than lectures. I thought I could never get an A after my second test (I got a 75) but she added a bonus opportunity for 10 points and then she dropped the A cutoff to 92.5. So then I realized I could get it and studied super hard and got a 100% on the final. Take this class if it is available. And study tip if you need a 100% - read the textbook chapter highlighting all important things that stick out to you, and then go through her slides on that chapter. I noticed that there were never many differences between her slides and the textbook, but that when her slides had something the textbook didn't... it showed up on the test.

Prof Lawrence's passion for climate change really shines through in this class! I felt like I learned SO much about cliate change, how to combat it, etc. The class is graded pretty fairly as 44% of our grade comes from participation (learning catalytics where you answer questions in class), textbook mini quizzes, and the blog. 56% of the grade comes from the non-cumulative 4 exams (14% each). The 1st and 4th exams I thought were pretty straight forward and easy, whereas the 2nd and 3rd were more tricky. Prof Lawrence is super understanding though and willing to adapt as we all did pretty poorly on the 2nd exam, so she offered us up to 10 points of extra credit. I'd definitely recommend this class!!

Definitely recommend this class if you're looking for an easy and interesting gen ed requirement. As a politics student, science is not my cup of tea, but this was a relatively easy and engaging class. The grading is based on exams, learning catalytics questions during class, open note quizzes before class, and a blog assignment. Easy to do well if you put in a little bit of effort and the content is very important for anyone. If you're looking to be able to actually talk intelligently about climate change when arguing with people, this is the class for you.

Lots of busy work (weekly online quizzes, but super easy), and you have to attend lecture because there's clicker questions, but it really helps to boost your grade in the end (I got a 76 on my first exam, but still wound up with an A). There's four exams, none of them cumulative. However, they're really oddly specific and detail-oriented, which makes them more difficult than you expect, even though the content is pretty easy. I found lecture kind of boring, and preferred the latter half of the semester's content, but overall, it's a pretty easy way to knock out a science credit. Lawrence is super available, knowledgable, and passionate. Really hated the tests though.

I think this is a class that everyone should take in their time at UVA. It is an intro course so it does cover a lot of material but Professor Lawrence does a really great job covering the material. It is lecture style so sometimes towards the end it is a little tough to get through but Professor Lawrence is engaging and keeps it interesting. The tests were the toughest part of the class, but they only made up a little over half the grade so your grade is not just dependent on those which took a little pressure off. Get the textbook, there are chapter readings and 5 question reading quizzes due before most classes and the reading quizzes came right from the material in the textbook (also the reading quizzes were partially completion so as long as you got more than half of the questions correct you got all the points). Even if you are not planning on doing an environmental related major, it is still a really valuable class. This was definitely one of my favorite classes this semester!