Spring 2027

Environmental Biogeography

Environmental Biogeography explores how physical and biological factors influence terrestrial biome and biodiversity distributions, including the impacts of disturbance and human activities on past and modern species ranges.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Erika Marin-Spiotta3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Erika Marin-Spiotta

The course required significant reading across social and natural sciences. Students completed a final paper with flexible topic choices, and grading was described as not strict.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify patterns and mechanisms of local to global gene, species, ecosystem and biome distributions.

  • Describe how past, current and future environmental change affect biogeography.

  • Explain how humans affect geographic patterns of biodiversity.

  • Discuss major paradigm changes in biogeography and how changes in conceptual frameworks and technology have altered interpretations of data and understanding of processes.

  • Apply concepts from biogeography to current environmental problems.

  • Explain how legacies of colonialism and scientific racism affect historical and current biases in the representation, methods, practice, and applications of biogeography.

  • Discuss and critique the primary literature (scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals) in biogeography.

  • Identify a controversy in biogeography and state the problem, trace its origins in the literature, provide arguments on opposing sides from the peer-reviewed literature, and what implications it has on current thinking and practice in conservation or sustainable use.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
BOTANY/GEOG 338

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.72/5 from 29 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.6/5 raw quality · 2.4/5 difficulty · 5 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Erika Marin-Spiotta

Erika Marin-Spiotta taught with enthusiasm and provided supportive feedback on assignments, including a final paper where students could choose their own topics. Students found the heavy reading load challenging but noted that grading was not strict, making the course accessible for those interested in the material.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Ken Keefover-Ring

Historical instructor Ken Keefover-Ring was described as approachable and humorous, prioritizing conceptual understanding over strict specifics. Students found lectures engaging, though some preferred smaller sections for better interaction. Workload included weekly quizzes, readings, group presentations, and a final essay. Assessment was characterized as fair and clear, with tests that required studying notes but were not considered difficult. Students generally found the class chill and supportive.

KEN KEEFOVER-RING is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2018, Fall 2023, 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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 500
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 500

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Erika Marin-Spiotta

Erika Marin-Spiotta taught the course with enthusiasm and genuine care for student success. She explained topics clearly and kept students engaged through interesting lectures.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.78 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.97 GPA, 97.9% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.91 GPA, 98.0% A/AB (n=50 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Erika Marin-Spiotta

The course required significant reading across social and natural sciences. Students completed a final paper with flexible topic choices, and grading was described as not strict.

Past student reviews · Erika Marin-Spiotta

Students found the instructor supportive and invested in their grades. Exams were straightforward, and professors provided useful feedback on assignment and essay submissions.

Topics

  • Terrestrial biomes and ecosystem types
  • Disturbance and human impacts on species distributions
  • Historical and social biases in biogeography

Skills

  • Identify patterns and mechanisms of gene, species, ecosystem, and biome distributions.
  • Describe how environmental changes affect biogeography.
  • Apply biogeographic concepts to current environmental problems.
  • Critique primary scientific literature in biogeography.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

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 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
BOTANY/GEOG 338 · Spring 2027

Environmental Biogeography

Recorded 2026-10-29
BOTANY/GEOG 338 · Spring 2027

Environmental Biogeography

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
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  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:208:008241",
    "course_id": "BOTANY/GEOG 338",
    "course_uid": "course_b1a495c1918109de244bb953",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "008241",
    "source_subject_id": "208",
    "title": "Environmental Biogeography",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:416:008241",
    "course_id": "BOTANY/GEOG 338",
    "course_uid": "course_b1a495c1918109de244bb953",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "008241",
    "source_subject_id": "416",
    "title": "Environmental Biogeography",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "4d3ec39aee635a05c95a499f06007daba689b47e0ec1eb89293aa1c84ef2e28d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}