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!

Antarctica was a fun class. Would definitely recommend.

Excellent class! Would highly recommend as a GE for those interested in learning about science in Antarctica

Just took Cottle's class in Winter quarter. I enjoyed the class and learned a lot about Antarctica. He posts all of the lecture slides online which helps. No textbook.

Good class and dives into different aspects of Antarctica. Labs are worth a lot of the grade, so make sure you go, and you'll do well.

Cottle talks often in circles and doesn't know how to start on topic. Mumbles often and is hard to comprehend. Take a more interesting GE

Cottle will often talk in circles, but makes it clear what material you need to know. Likes to have random attendance 'quizzes', so make sure you attend lecture. Many people end up zoning out or going on their phones, as slides are posted to GauchoSpace. Labs make up 30% of your grade. Easy class as long as you pay attention and take good notes.

If you can't follow long lectures that require note taking, don't take this class. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this course and believe that Prof. Cottle truly is passionate about teaching and it shows in his lectures. The weekly quizzes are not difficult; the midterm is (detailed). Overall, you do need to take notes and study but not a hard class

I took Antarctica last quarter and he really loves his job, but he talks for a very long time about the same thing. He repeats himself too much and sometimes half of the lecture is exactly the same as the lecture before. The class covers a lot of material in one quarter, but if you're interested you'll pass easily.

Prof Cottle is hilarious, accomodating, and definitely doesn't expect too much, which is nice because prob 99% of the people who took this class took it for a GE. There are two 400 word article reviews, midterm and final, and pop quizzes that are worth somewhere around 0.5% of your grade. He goes through slides really fast, so keep up! No textbook!

I am currently in Antarctica and it is an interesting class. It dives into more than just about Antarctica and Professor Cottle makes the content very easy to understand and is a good lecturer. He posts his lectures on Gauchospace so you can get away with skipping class occasionally but be careful because he has small pop quizzes here and there.