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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.