ASTR 1270

Excellent class, great teacher! Expand your mind and your viewpoint of the universe.

I felt that we wasted tremendous amounts of time in this course. If we added up all the time Professor Johnson took to lament our lack of time we'd probably have an entire extra class or two. If we added up all the time spent on Mondays or Fridays watching the Colbert Report or The Daily Show we'd probably have an entire extra week. The real damage from starting 2/3 of classes with a video was that we wouldn't get through the planned topics and would then have to spend more time recapping them at the beginning of the next class so we could cover the last 5-10 minutes of material before moving onto the actual first topic of that day ~20-25 minutes into our 50 minute class.

If I had the choice to take this class again I wouldn't. I would get a $50 subscription to a science magazine instead. I would probably learn more and would never be forced to watch comedy central when I expected to learn astronomy or physics. Also it would be about a thousand dollars cheaper.

You will also be asked in this course to do 'daily questions' which usually are some variant of saying what you don't understand from that day. If you have some prior knowledge of the topic or you do understand it from the lecture and you say this, you will usually lose points.

Fascinating, fun, and easy course with an awesome professor. The course material ranges from science to philosophy to religion, and really stimulates students to think about the larger universe. Kelsey is a cool and approachable professor who understands her students' desires and needs, keeping the work to a minimum and the fun to a maximum. Lectures are slowly-paced and easy to follow, with some classroom demonstrations and some YouTube videos thrown in for good measure. Some daily assignments, some weekly assignments, a few quizzes and a final exam. Also loads of interesting, fun, and easy extra credit. This class is an easy A-, though might require a little effort for an A. For any student who is looking for a killer course to take for their science requirement, look no further.

Prof. Johnson has changed the course slightly, so I want to touch on that. There are no longer reading questionnaires. My semester, we had a daily question and plentiful extra credit. Now, I think she does blog posts, but no matter what, the exams are not hard if you go to class, and the reading is definitely not hard, but it is interesting! I easily got an A+ because I did the extra credit. If you have taken any Calc or above math or any astronomy class, this should be a piece of cake. Even not, if you're not science-y, but you're willing to go to class, then you'll be fine. She gives out prizes and is really focused on how the class can apply to your life, since it is designed for non-science majors. I can't recommend Kelsey enough. She's the best professor I've had.

I really hate science and only took this class to fill a requirement, but it ended up being a pretty decent class, although not as easy as I expected. Professor Johnson is really fun and nice, and makes the class really entertaining. There is a lot of (in my opinion) busy work, like weekly blog posts about the reading, which you then have to comment on other classmates posts. There is a fair amount of group work throughout the semester, as well as a take-home, open note midterm and final. The one great thing about this class is that there is a ton of extra credit, so it's really easy to get an A, even if you don't do well on the exams. This is definitely a good course to take if you're like me and need the least science-y class to fill your college requirements.

Ok, a lot of people loved this class, but I felt differently. I would have enjoyed it but the content didn't interest me at all (but for most people it was a really cool class). However, it was really easy and there was an abundance of extra credit, if you decided to do it. There were about 10 reading quizzes on collab that I aced all of, but it was only 4 questions and if you got 1 wrong you lost .25 points (example: if you got 3/4 you would get a 1.25/2). Blogs were 15% of your grade and an easy 100% to achieve. midterm was take-home open notes but with a time limit. group evaluations 15% of your grade so showing your group you care is important. The final is yet to come but will likely be similar to the midterm. All in all this is a must take to fulfill a math science requirement, but I personally didn't think the content was all that exciting because there is literally an answer to nothing.

I LOVE KELSEY JOHNSON. Seriously. She is the best. Unfortunately, she is not teaching this course again for a while (she's the new director of the echols program!!!!!) so I cannot really offer any useful insights into the way it will be without her. However, with Kelsey I would definitely recommend it. Readings are not too complicated, she explains hard concepts so well in class, the grading scale is so easy (an A is a 90 or above), she offers a ton of extra credit, and the exams are fair.

Do yourself a favor and TAKE THIS CLASS! Professor Johnson is amazing and is a wonderful professor. The class is so interesting and mind-boggling! Sometimes it makes your brain hurt, but in a very good way. You learn so much from the class and Professor J accomplishes her goal of trying to reinstill curiosity in her students. Unlike many professors, she actually cares about your learning and is wonderful at making you think. She can be hilarious and condescending too which makes her lectures fun. Get used to being called out, that's what she does. And I'd recommend taking this course only if you're ok with "We don't know" as an answer to a lot of things. It's Unsolved Mysteries-- the title is appropriate.

Course Work:

I'm recording what work we had to do for my class. I don't know what she will do in future classes.
-blog post every Friday that consisted of 3 questions we still had, favorite quotes from the reading, and the most interesting fact we learned in class.
-regular reading to do from 4 different books and had reading quizzes
-group work (Professor J loves group work) If you're not a fan of group work (like me), don't sweat it. It's not that bad at all
-1 midterm, 1 final
-she gives A LOT of extra credit. Take every extra credit opportunity she gives you. Trust me. It can do wonders for your grade.

Take this course (with Professor J only) and you will be glad you did.