Project based, only a few assignments that are based on the project and a final essay about the project. This class is as difficult as you make the project, so do an easy one, trust. Professor stopped uploading lecture slides halfway through, so take notes about the types of evidence. Everything she says you should take notes about is irrelevant.

Never responded to either of my two emails. Also, my TA graded really hard and took off points for things that weren't even on the rubrics. Really gross project that takes up the whole quarter. Lectures are really boring but attendance is part of your grade so you have to go. If you don't have to take this class, DON'T. Nobody likes it.

A lot of lecture material seemed very common sense/boring, never rlly did the readings. Prof. was super passionate abt everything though, and you really get as much out of this class as you put in. Chance to develop project of choice was cool, and grading seemed fair (no project rubric though, which sucked). Great intro to ES program.

The material covered in this class was just not very interesting to me. It felt repetitive & similar to other lower div ES classes. Had a lot of freedom on the final project but then was told about a 6 page paper less than a week before it was due during finals. Didn't really need to know the material covered in class for the final

I enjoyed this class, but the TA you get can make or break it. We were assigned a six page paper during finals week with six days to complete, which was sad because I really enjoyed the class. I wish we were able to start the paper a bit earlier or it was shorter because it seemed a bit sudden and forced, especially during all the other finals.

Prof. Martin seems to love what she lectures on, and she tried to make every lecture engaging. Grading consists of lecture and section participation, a project presentation, a project on anything environmentally related, and a final paper. Unfortunate amount of work for a lower division class but grading was lenient (depends on TA though).

Professor Martin is awesome! You can tell she really cares about her students. ES 40 is super conceptual and based fully around your research project. Section was based mostly on the project and lecture was more learning about ES critical thinking. Lecture isn't mandatory. Grade is based on your project, presentation, and final essay.

Professor Martin is probably my favorite prof at UCSB. Kind, caring, empathetic, and accessible. Lectures were always interesting, and you could tell Martin was passionate about the content. This class is project based, so make sure to start the project early enough. Put in the work and you'll get an A. Overall great class.

Amazing professor

Loveee love loved Prof Martin!!! Never been disappointed by UCSB's ES department and she is not an exception! Super cool and very passionate about environmental justice

Very kind professor who cares about her students and takes the time to give positive feedback where it is due. I hope that I can take a class with Prof. Martin again before I graduate.

She speaks so slowly. Her lectures, although somewhat interesting, are incredibly boring. Her TA's lead the mandatory sections and are super helpful but also extremely tough graders. This class is a quarter-long research project where you can get advice from TA's and prof, but otherwise there is not a lot of structure to the project.

Jen Martin is a great professor and ES 40 is an easy class.

Lectures are sometimes repetitive, but interesting. Martin really wants students to do well and is really student oriented. Not a lot of work outside of the final project which is very freeform. I enjoyed this class, but wouldn't take it if I didn't have to for my major.

4 short reading reflections, a film review essay, and a final essay about different anthropocene terms. Attendance was measured by answering in class prompt, but you were allowed to miss a couple. Class is mostly about different alternatives for the Anthropocene, such as the plantationocene, which was kind of silly.

Lovely professor and quite interesting material. Took for pre-major req, highly recommend. easy-breezy. Go to lecture and You'll be good! I did the weekly readings, but might be fine if you don't.

Takes attendance at lectures, midterm and final are papers with clear prompts for every paragraph which was nice. Some lectures were super interesting like the plantationocene one, others were boring in my opinion. It would be a free A accept for the fact that essay scores are curved (I imagine downwards) to a B.

This class was extremely easy, I barely put any effort and did 0 readings until writing papers. As a STEM major a welcome break and the concepts are pretty much common sense so you can simply spend a few hours writing the paper and get an A. Take it for area E!

Not always the most interesting class- overall concepts are interesting but lectures can get a bit boring and repetitive. A good class to add for light work and easy A. No exams and 2 papers that have clear instructions. Section participation is huge and mandatory. Lecture participation is required for about 1/2 of lectures. Passionate professor.

Overall super easy GE. Reading reflections and midterm and final essay were only assignments, but graded pretty hard. My TA was really fun and nice. Class was honestly pretty interesting despite being an engineering major. Lectures not mandatory but did have 10 lecture questions we had to do.

Jen Martin is a great teacher. She cares a lot about her students. Her class can get a little boring at times but overall it's a good class to take. There are no midterms or finals. She only makes you write 2 papers. This class isn't too overbearing tbh. I would definitely recommend taking this class if you are trying to finish some GEs.

In general, the material is very similar to some of the other ES classes, so if you have taken any ES class before there is going to be some overlap which helps with understanding. There is quite a bit of reading that relates to the lecture and going over it in section made everything more clear. The class itself isn't too bad, a lot of writing.

Martin is an excellent professor! The class is super interesting and lectures were posted online due to many covid breakouts in the class. TA Ahn was a super harsh grader so I ended up with a B+ but the assignments themselves are fairly easy. Be ready to write!!!

I loved this class and prof. She was super nice and organized when lecturing. Assignments only include pre-section and post section reflection (400-600 words) four times in the quarter, a midterm essay, and final essay. This was a super easy class that just required minimal effort, but still very interesting. I truly recommend it.