Matt is amazing and anyone at UCSB is lucky to be in one of his classes, genuinely such an understanding and kind person. Material in his class is difficult put he does his best to make everything digestible/accessible. 10/10

Lectures are boring, but if you pay attention and take notes you'll be good. Tests are extremely straight-forward. Labs are long and some are hard, ask your TA for help or guidance and you'll be fine. Labs make up most the grade, so engage with ur TA. Weekly quizzes w/ 5 Qs. 1 in person MC Midterm. 1 in person MC Final. 8 Labs. Iclicker each lect.

He puts whatever is on his slides on the tests. If you just go to lectures and write the notes about the lectures you will pass. Labs are pretty difficult but TAs are there to help. Nothing he didn't talk about in class will be on the midterm/final. Overall a super great teacher and will explain in detail anything you missed if you have questions

Great at office hours, kind person, flexible and responsive via email. Great lecturer and well-structured slides. Fair grader and moderately difficult exams. However, easily the most course work I have ever had for a class. He's the heavy weight of the department for sure.

An especially kind professor I thought. Lectures are well structured and clearly thought out.

you definitely have to pay attention in lecture to be able to do well in this class as well as the labs. the grade was based on your labs as well as the midterm and final. tests are easy if you pay attention in class but definitely difficult if you dozed off or did not show up. some labs do take a long time so prep yourself for that.

The most tedious thing about this class was completing a couple pages for our "lab" which could be done before section and submit it to leave early. Besides that, notes were posted online (although they were blank), and the tests were open note! I loved coming to class and found the material super interesting.

Professor Rioux is super great and passionate about what he's teaching! The lectures are a little dense, and there's lot of material that you have to memorize if you want to do well on the midterm and final. Other than that, the labs are very interesting and the class is relatively easy/manageable and pretty cool!

Such a great professor. I had him for 104A and 114 as well, and he made the class very fun and clear even though the material can be confusing at times. I enjoyed learning with Matt! Definitely take one of his classes if you have a chance.

He is a super nice professor who really cares about his students. This class is just ALOT of work and they are tough graders. You have two classes a week, a 6-hour field trip then probably 10 hours of homework and lab to complete on your own each week, due EACH week. Also a 2-day camping trip. So it is a lot of work and a very hard class.

Matt is an amazing professor. He really cares about his students, is so kind and always willing to help clarify any material or help you in any way. He is very inspiring, but also his courses require an immense ammount of work as Earth 115 labs would take me like 15 hours a week.

Tough grader. Good feedback. Challenging class and the way it's being taught. Boring and confusing. unclear directions on labs. 30+ pages of labs (because we are Ph.D. or graduate students, apparently). I am annoyed because all my UD labs aren't that long.