Peter Ryan

I found this course to be valuable mostly for students who intend to be ES majors/ minors and/or are wanting an easy science attribution. The lab section was very hands on which made it a lot more enjoyable than the lectures but professors in both sections are very understanding and explain concepts very well.

Professor Ryan is a very smart lecturer and can explain the specifics of any given environmental subject, especially geochemistry, his specialty. However lectures were often slow paced and a lot of talking about the same subject. I found it hard to focus over 75 minutes. Readings were essentially optional as we never discussed them, they were supplemental to lecture material. There were 3 homeworks of about 10 questions each that were easy as long as you paid some attention in lecture. there were 2 responses to an article/hearing that were a page long. There was one group project that was aimed for 20 minutes. LAB was the enjoyable part of this class. I had Professor Pryzperhart and she made the labs very interesting. Almost every day we spent off campus, wading in the swamp, walking in the woods discussing carbon storage, or learning at local farms. The 3 lab reports were meaningful and reported what we learned in the field. Approximately 3 pages of writing and several pages of Excel graphs. LAB and lecture were essentially independent classes. Overall I learned a lot and looked forward to lab and attended lecture with less enthusiasm.

Professor Ryan is a very smart lecturer and can explain the specifics of any given environmental subject, especially geochemistry, his specialty. However lectures were often slow paced and a lot of talking about the same subject. I found it hard to focus over 75 minutes. Readings were essentially optional as we never discussed them, …Read more

Because it is an intro course, there is a ton of basic material to cover. It has a lot of the same themes as AP Environmental Science and Eco Evo, so it is relatively familiar content. Lectures can be a tad boring, especially if the information is familiar to you, but Prof. Ryan is clearly a very smart Professor and teaches this course well.