STS 1500

This class is required for every first-year in E-school, so there isn't a lot I can say on it to influence your opinion, but just recognize that your grade in this course is almost entirely dependent on your group for projects and your TA. There was one TA this semester (I didn't have them, but a friend did) that was horrible and had to regrade because the average they gave was too low. So, just make sure you do stuff on time and hit all the points on the rubrics, and you'll be fine.

(Also, for participation, just give yourself an A. They just give whatever you give yourself, so don't try to be cute and give yourself an A- to be humble.)

Not a hard class, but could be more enjoyable. As long as you do the work and attempt participation, you should get at least a B+. Seriously. Don't put more effort for this class than you need to.

"We have a live syllabus" The instructors will change the rules on you during the semester. You will have to check the syllabus each week for changes.

STS 1500 with Professor Laugelli was very easy as long as you spaced out your work. There were three major assignments, with the last one being a larger group assignment. Leaving assignments until the last minute is doable but not recommended. The weekly reading quizzes and discussion posts don't take very much time. The lectures were fifty-fifty in terms of whether or not they were interesting. My favorite lecture was one about how the crossbow changed dynamics between the nobility and commoners in ancient China. The class also doesn't have a final!

This class wasn't super enjoyable but wasn't terrible; the material was somewhat interesting and the workload was definitely manageable. The first half of the semester consisted of individual assignments, such as the Design Notebook where we had to come up with 15 design ideas, and a Technical Description assignment where we described how an object of our choice worked.
Group assignments made up the second half of the semester, where we pitched an idea from our Design Notebook to the other group members and collectively wrote a Provisional Patent Application (PPA). As long as your STS group is good, the assignments are easy to get in on time. I was lucky to have all of my group members contribute to the PPA and we ended up getting a high score on it. For this class, as long as you do the work, follow the rubrics to a T, and meet deadlines, you'll end up with an A+.

His lectures are more interesting than the other professors for sure. He is enthusiastic and engaging when he speaks. As far as a facilitator of discussion goes he's fine. Overall this is a low pressure class with a good prof.

Fun prof! Definitely recommend

I thought the lecture for STS was kind of pointless, but the labs were enjoyable. I really like Professor Laugelli and every lecture he presented was well articulated and enjoyable. Unfortunately, he isn't the primary lecturer, but it felt like he was in control over most of the course. Very easy course, but still requires attention and participation.

This class is kind of all over the place and I didn't see a point for most of it. You are required to take it as an engineering student and there are a lot of random annoying assignments that didn't make me feel any more prepared for engineering as a whole besides knowing that if my job is like this class I need to start putting out other applications. Lectures were not bad, but also not super interesting. It's a risk to send the attendance link to your friends since it is user-specific and they may or may not be able to determine who sent it out and which students were involved. Just sit through the lectures (you don't really have to take notes) and do the readings and begrudgingly do the assignments.

Ben is a great guy is awesome at explaining exactly what is being asked of you and leads great conversations in class. Really no gripes with him.