A hard course that gave a complete view of plate tectonics. Lectures were informative but could be more dynamic. Labs were somewhat tedious. Reading assigned articles was essential. Graded on a mid-term, final (the worse one of the two was dropped), a presentation, labs and weekly summaries of articles. Only recommended for Earth Science majors.

Cottle presents a lot of information in class, but explains concepts in a clear manner. His real-world examples helped me a lot.

Great class! Lots of lecture material to go through, but he posts all material on Gauchospace.

Great class. Lots of reading, but it bought together a bunch of concepts from other classes. Definitely recommend.

Excellent class and great teacher!

Enjoyed this class a lot. Dives into scientific literature which really helped me to understand how to read and digest papers.

Awesome!

Cottle's class was a great summary of many aspects of Plate Tectonics. Reading journal articles every week really helped understand the main concepts.

Really enjoyed this class!

I really enjoyed this class. Brings together lots of different topics from lower level classes. Learning to read and analyze papers from the scientific literature was a great experience.

Expecting an easy A, take something else. An easy B, and you're in the right place. Lectures are boring powerpoint slides. You need to basically memorize every single slide if you want an A on the midterm and finals. Questions will be literally one fact from one slide. Weekly quiz and lab. He has days that he makes you check in for participation.

I really enjoyed learning more about Antarctica!