Fall 2026

The Interstellar Medium

Study of the interstellar medium, covering properties of interstellar gas, clouds, dust, and related physical processes.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 4

Historical reviews of Ke Zhang: Workload includes tough weekly homework and midterms. One review notes open-book exams, while another describes a difficult final project and a strict grading scale.

Grade history

average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ASTRON 200 and (PHYSICS 241, 249,PHYSICS/​E C E 235, or concurrent enrollment)

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Fall 2026

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Ke Zhang: Ke Zhang is knowledgeable but her lectures can be dry. She enforces strict attendance and grading standards, with tough weekly homework and difficult assessments.

KE ZHANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Historical reviews of Ke Zhang: Ke Zhang is knowledgeable but delivers dry lectures. Reviewers disagree on the final assessment: one cites a final exam, while another reports a difficult final project instead.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.41 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.39 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=14 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.50 GPA, 84.2% A/AB (n=19 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Ke Zhang: Workload includes tough weekly homework and midterms. One review notes open-book exams, while another describes a difficult final project and a strict grading scale.

Historical reviews of Ke Zhang: Lectures can be dry. One review mandates TopHat attendance with limited absences, while another does not mention attendance requirements.

Topics

  • Interstellar gas, molecular clouds, intercloud medium, supernova remnants, and dust.
  • Radiation transfer, excitation, and ionization processes.

Skills

  • Understanding physical processes in low density gases, radiation transfer, and gas-dust interactions.
  • Analyzing properties of various interstellar components including gas, clouds, and dust.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2024— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2024

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Model & dataset provenance
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "8446690a2b7f9a4995c6855fb30794c3a1a9df28053574af0695bdb917fd34b9",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}