Way too much work for a class that the majority of students will take as a gen ed. There is homework due every week, each lecture has participation questions via PollEv that are graded based on accuracy (so it's not a great idea to skip lectures), you must do an out-of-class telescope observation lab or constellation lab at the McCormick Observatory (which I think is a requirement of all ASTR classes at UVA, but still), and there is a two-part semester-long project, which I think other reviewers have mentioned. One thing they didn't mention is that in addition to submitting an individual exoplanet card, you must create a poster and film a 10-minute video explaining said poster and how it "fits the rubric" of the class. I didn't hate this class, and it's not necessarily difficult (all exams are take-home and open-note), but it had a lot of busy work that frustrated me because it felt like a lot of work for an intro class, and even more so given that I was taking it to fulfill a gen ed requirement I wish I didn't have to fulfill in order to graduate.

This was a great intro astronomy class. Professor Zhou was clearly very passionate about the subject and always tried to make lecture engaging. There was a group project at the end where you present with a group on exoplanets which was pretty enjoyable. At the end of the presentations, the class voted on their favorite group and they won astronomy posters. Professor Zhou is very understanding and is open to suggestions to his class.

#tCFS24