[bobsingh]

Took this course with Dr. Waddington in Winter 2016. The breakdown was:

20% Group project (10% Op-Ed, 10% Presentation)
10% OPTIONAL Midterm
30% OPTIONAL Assignments
40% Final Exam

This course focuses on ecosystem impacts and climate change, specifically talking about forests, peatlands, wildfires, carbon flux and feedback loops. Dr. Waddington is an enthusiastic prof who relates to the students a lot, making lectures as fun as possible with dry topics! There is no textbook and he doesn't always post his notes so attending class is crucial! As for the assessments, part of the course is optional and attempting the midterm or assessments will not go against your mark (it can only bring it up if you do it). The assignments were okay but most were hard and not doable (especially for a life sci student) without help from the TAs and classmates in the envir sci program. It's also required for APGO so if you don't need it for APGO, look somewhere else for a course as students in this course are competitive to get a high mark for that certification. The group project was fair and people did well across the board but the midterm had to be bell curved from a 52% to a 75% Class Average. Overall, this course has a lot of content, work and time consuming. It can be interesting at times and really boring too, so be sure that you want to take this course especially if you're in Life Sci!