[ENVS 0215]
Nature’s Meanings

Rate This Class

Professor: Gould, R.

Value of Course / Overall Score

Not Much (20%
Average (50%)
Valuable (30%)

Material

Friendly (22.2%)
Average (33.3%)
Competitive (44.4%)

Class Atmosphere

Boring (33.3%)
Average (44.4%)
Fascinating (22.2%)

Prep Time Needed

1-2hr (0%)
3-5hr (25%)
6-8hr (37.5%)
9-11hr (25%)
12+ hr (12.5%)

Grade Weighting

Harder (25%)
Average (12.5%)
Easier (62.5%)

Adequate Assistance

Yes (50%)
No (50%)

Would Recommend Class

Yes (50%)
No (50%)

Evaluation Comments for Gould, R.

  1. No Comment
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  4. Professor Gould is a really wonderful and interesting person, but she's really contradictory. She talks a lot about mindfulness in education and the importance of taking time for yourself and to do you work thoroughly, but she assigns so much work! I took Nature's Meanings in the same semester as Calc 2 and Bio 145 and Nature's Meanings was definitely the most work. Her reading assignments are the main culprits--on multiple occasions she assigned 150 page readings ONE DAY in advance of the class. As in, literally 24 hours beforehand. The nice thing is that she doesn't actually expect that everyone will read everything she assigns, but there is no way to know what you'll actually discuss in class and what will never be mentioned. Don't buy all the books that are on the book list. You won't read half of them. Buy them as they come up in the class. Take this class with Professor Brayton if you can. He is amazing.
  5. Professor Gould is a very fair person and incredibly knowledgeable. There is a lot of reading, but some of the above comments about exams and grading are not true of every section. I found the material interesting and relevant and would recommend this course.
  6. too much reading, too much religion
  7. Only take this guy if you're an ES major...there is an absurd amount of reading, the tests induce severe emotional, mental and physical pain, and Gould herself is dogmatic, condescending and often overly-focused on religion.
  8. For a class that didn't give any philosophy or religion credit, this was a pretty intense class. We frequently dicussed the bible and religion which was probably only because Gould is actually a religion guru. A lot of times she wouldn't understand the comments that people made, so much or the class was either her preaching what she knew or trying to understand what the students meant. Also, there was a TON of reading that ended up being superfluous. We'd read an entire book just to get the feel of an author's style. If you aren't good at taking essay exams, then watch out! The midterm will kill you when you have to write 8 essays in 50 minutes for an exam that's worth 40 points = 20% of your grade! Very provocative class, but expect to spend a LOT of time on it. I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't an ES major.
  9. This course is eye opening, with some great cultural history adn readings. Gould is a bit intense at times, adn if religion doesn't interest you some classes can be boring, but for the most part the lecture was interesting and discussions were provocative. Great class to take as a freshman if you want to be exposed to different subject areas at the same time.
  10. Gould was clearly a wonderful and interesting person, but she was incredibly disorganized and didn't care about this class. She had tons of reading that really didn't matter at all. I am still angry that three of the books I bought weren't even discussed in class. She doesn't answer email, so the best bet is to talk to her in class or in her office. The discussions were good, but often went on stupid tangents and she didn't bother to bring us back to the main point. I stopped doing the reading half way through and it didn't affect my grade.

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