Spring 2027

Toxicants in the Environment: Sources, Distribution, Fate, & Effects

Examines the nature, sources, distribution, and fate of contaminants in air, water, soil, and food, focusing on potential for harmful exposure.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Inna Popova

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Phillip Barak

The course was rated as extremely difficult, primarily due to the disconnect between the material taught in class and the content covered in examinations.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe how the physicochemical properties of an organic chemical and equilibrium and kinetic principles influence the distribution of the chemical in the environment

  • Estimate the physico-chemical properties of organic compounds using linear free energy relationships

  • Predict the behavior of hazardous organic chemicals in the environment

  • Derive and use equilibrium and kinetic box models for determining the fate of organic pollutants in the environment

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(CHEM 104, 109, or 116) and (MATH 211, 217, or 221) and (PHYSICS 104, 202, 208, or 248), or graduate/professional standing

CIVENGR/M&ENVTOX/SOILSCI 631

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

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.58 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.78 GPA, 77.8% A/AB (n=9 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

INNA POPOVA is recorded teaching in Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PHILLIP BARAK is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 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 / 350
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 350
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 350

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Phillip Barak

A past student described a significant mismatch between lecture content and exam questions, stating the professor taught one topic but tested on another.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.58 GPA, 75.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.58 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.78 GPA, 77.8% A/AB (n=9 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Phillip Barak

The course was rated as extremely difficult, primarily due to the disconnect between the material taught in class and the content covered in examinations.

Past student reviews · Phillip Barak

Students reported that the department rejected their complaints about poor teaching quality, and the professor subsequently accused reporting students of cheating and gave them zero grades.

Topics

  • Contaminants in air, water, soil, and food
  • Harmful exposure potential
  • Linear free energy relationships

Skills

  • Describe how physicochemical properties and equilibrium/kinetic principles influence chemical distribution
  • Estimate physico-chemical properties of organic compounds using linear free energy relationships
  • Predict the behavior of hazardous organic chemicals in the environment
  • Derive and use equilibrium and kinetic box models for pollutant fate

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— 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 Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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
CIVENGR/M&ENVTOX/SOILSCI 631 · Spring 2027

Toxicants in the Environment: Sources, Distribution, Fate, & Effects

Recorded 2026-10-14
CIVENGR/M&ENVTOX/SOILSCI 631 · Spring 2027

Toxicants in the Environment: Sources, Distribution, Fate, & Effects

Recorded 2026-10-14
CIVENGR/M&ENVTOX/SOILSCI 631 · Spring 2027

Toxicants in the Environment: Sources, Distribution, Fate, & Effects

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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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 2026-10-14

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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
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  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "6cab46ab25ae972ebf83c4ffbb931d1124ca70955644bcb940860056214626d6",
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}