Introductory survey of issues and methods in environmental ethics. Topics include anthropocentrism and ecocentrism; individualistic vs. holistic approaches; animal rights and liberation; ecofeminism; perspectives from ecological and evolutionary science; environmental justice and obligations to future generations; climate change and geoengineering; ecological theology and nature religion.
5
UnitsOptional
Grading1
PasstimeNone
Level LimitLetters and science
CollegeDoesn't seem super inspired, maybe because of online classes. Lectures are async and boring. Homework on webwork 2x a week. Expects you to do problems in textbook for no credit. Tests are on gradescope and are difficult, every two weeks. He does make some interesting/funny questions for the tests though.
Took this class during COVID, his grading policy was reasonable. 30% HW with unlimited attempts so it's easy to get 100 and 70% Tests and he drops 1 of the 5 tests. His lectures were slow and his explanations weren't the best. TA's, CLAS, and Khan Academy are grade savers in this class. Tests are reasonable.
The material was not that bad. He talked really slow over his videos. Had to put it to 1.5 or 2x speed. He does not explain well, so used outside sources. the TA section help, and the textbook was really helpful. I never used Kahn Academy that often but I did for his class. He also drops the lowest of the test scores, at least for the online class.
His lectures are really slow and boring and it's honestly better to just look up videos online on how to do calculus. But his tests are ridiculously easy and a basic understanding of the course material is good enough though.
Professor Sideris has clear grading criteria and his exams are not too difficult. He does post a lot of lectures per week and is a fairly slow talker, but he prepares you for the exams. He was very accessible during office hours and responded to emails quickly.
Online lectures are disorganized, hard to understand, and unclear. He seems like a nice person and communicates fairly quickly by email but besides that, his lectures are very boring. I normally don't write reviews but until we have in class teaching again, I don't recommend this class.