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.
Matt cares a lot about his students and genuinely wants to help us succeed. I didn't find him to be a particularly exciting lecturer, but I'm also not an Earth science major. Overall, this class covered a lot of important core concepts in an easily digestible way, and as long as you do the labs in a timely manner, you'll do great.
Best lecturer Ive had at ucsb. His slides are honestly structured really well so note taking is easy important because tests are open book so GOOD NOTESNO STUDY. The 2 rock sample-based labs are super poorly designed but all other labs are straight forward and can be done in 1 hr. One lab was a beach walk :)
Super easy GE, barely any work and pretty simple geological concepts. The tests are just based on his lectures and are really easy. To get a good grade do the labs early and you'll be fine.
I am NOT a Stem person, but this class made me love geology! The lectures are so interesting and easy to follow. His testing reflects the material covered in lecture, so as long as you keep up you are all set. The grading and course is very straightforward, and overall it is a very fun and peaceful class that will make you discover geology.
I'm not sure if I'm the only person in class, but his exams are rough. The mid is free-response, and I believe the final will be the same. I felt under-prepared compared to my peers as in I wish we had more information on what to focus on for free-response. Quizzes are ok but they can take multiple hours to study plus the long labs that never end.
Cares about his students and work, great professor even though I'm not interested in geology. Definitely a fun and easy course
Really great prof, super kind and really cares about what he teaches. Lectures are mandatory and get a bit boring, but are helpful. Grading is easy, just do well on weekly 5 Q quizzes, and DO LABS EARLY for an A. Def recommend taking this class.
Professor Rioux is amazing. I had never taken anything in the earths sciences and needed an extra class and I actually ended up loving the material. Professor Rioux makes the lectures interesting and he is so so nice. All his TA's especially for earth 2 are dope too. Not that difficult just take notes in lecture. Highly recommend him and Earth 2!
Definitely my favorite prof in the Earth department. I've taken both 104A and 115 with him online, labs are very difficult in both classes but important for the courses. Start them early and go to office hours for help. He is very approachable, always answers emails in a good amount of time and seems like he really wants to help. 10/10 recommend!
He's such a sweet, helpful guy who made me genuinely interested in Earth Science! Lab sections often tricky but just ask the TA for help & be detailed in your answers. Lecture slides, your main study method, are uploaded after class but you might need to look up some definitions. iClicker partially graded on correctness so be alert during lecture!
Such a sweet guy! Clear on what's expected, uses iclickers, but they're easy points. Used the textbook maybe twice, definitely not necessary if you take good notes during lecture. Midterm and final multiple choice/one word answers, not hard. He actually made ma care abt geology and you can tell hes enthusiastic, and cares you understand
The labs take forever, the midterm is so long and free response, he doesn't even release the midterm key after students have taken it, he doesn't upload any lectures online, he writes all his lectures out on the board. HE IS TERRIBLE / TOUGH, this should be a 5 unit class with the way he teaches it. DO NOT TAKE HIM
Geomaterials is a very difficult class and the labs are unnecessarily long, however, Matt is the hardest professor to teach this class. He tests you every week on chemical formulas (not that bad but he pulls formulas from week 1 in week 8), the labs are so long and the TAs grade very hard, and the midterm was 5 pages of free response! AVOID
Matt Rioux is one of Earth Science's real gems. He is so caring and in the field he really wants you to learn and helps along the way. (He even climbed behind me as we scaled a mountain to make me feel safe). You learn so much from him and he really cares about his job and students. Also, he climbs mountains like no other, in Matt we trust.
Matt is the most caring professor I've ever had the pleasure of learning from. He knows when the class isn't understanding a concept and is willing to re-explain until we get it. His exams are fair and he is willing to answer all of your questions during the lecture and if not, then after class. ALL Earth Science students love Matt!!!