Spring 2027

Our Planet, Our Health

Introduction to global health determinants, disease burden, and the intersection of ecosystem stability, planetary boundaries, and human health.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Jonathan Patz3.6/5Linda Oforka

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jonathan Patz

The class was very easy and almost solely relied on Canvas discussions for assessment, without going super in depth about the material.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Use a local to global perspective to assess the historical, current and future trends in human health and well-being

  • Describe the use of planetary boundaries to measure Earth system sustainability and the potential impacts of instability in these systems on global health and human well being

  • Describe current primary global health challenges, their distribution, and prevention strategies

  • Analyze global health disparities through a social justice and human rights lens

  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of contemporary issues, problems, and controversies in global health through an interdisciplinary perspective that recognizes the complex relationships between social, economic, political, and environmental systems.

  • Analyze ecological perspectives on the connections among human health and well being, animal health, and ecosystem health

  • Assess and reflect on the successes and failures of global health interventions and become familiar with current events and current literature that describes these efforts

  • Reflect on personal goals, objectives, and role as a global citizen and future professional or researcher

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ENTOM/ENVIRST 205 used by

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.50/5 from 2 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.

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

Past student reviews · Jonathan Patz

Jonathan Patz taught engaging, entertaining lectures that some students found rambling but fun, while others noted the material was not covered in depth. The course was described as easy, relying heavily on Canvas discussions rather than rigorous exams.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.79 GPA, 88.4% A/AB (n=398 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.95 GPA, 97.2% A/AB (n=388 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.88 GPA, 94.5% A/AB (n=418 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.95 GPA, 97.2% A/AB (n=388 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.88 GPA, 94.5% A/AB (n=418 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.87 GPA, 94.3% A/AB (n=209 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Susan Paskewitz

Students described the course as easy, with no exams, four portfolios, eight open-note quizzes, and attendance. Susan Paskewitz was often praised for clear outlines, though one student found her deadlines confusing and noted she sometimes let others lecture. Others reported lenient grading, with one earning over 100%.

JONATHAN PATZ is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LINDA OFORKA is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SUSAN PASKEWITZ is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

VALERIE STULL is recorded teaching in Fall 2021. 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 / 4750
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 4750

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 · Jonathan Patz

Jonathan Patz taught this as an easy, engaging course that relied heavily on Canvas discussions and news articles rather than deep technical material.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.95 GPA, 97.2% A/AB (n=388 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.88 GPA, 94.5% A/AB (n=418 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.87 GPA, 94.3% A/AB (n=209 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jonathan Patz

The class was very easy and almost solely relied on Canvas discussions for assessment, without going super in depth about the material.

Past student reviews · Jonathan Patz

Students found Patz friendly and funny, though some noted he tended to ramble during lectures despite keeping the class engaged.

Topics

  • Infectious disease, sanitation, mental health, and ecological perspectives on global health.
  • Human-mediated global change factors such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land-use patterns.
  • Sustainability science, planetary health discourse, the Anthropocene, and resilience.

Skills

  • Assess historical, current, and future trends in human health using a local-to-global perspective.
  • Describe planetary boundaries as measures of Earth system sustainability and their impacts on global health.
  • Analyze global health disparities through social justice and human rights perspectives.
  • Assess the successes and failures of global health interventions using current literature.

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

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · 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

1280 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
ENTOM/ENVIRST 205 · Spring 2027

Our Planet, Our Health

Recorded 2026-10-14
ENTOM/ENVIRST 205 · Spring 2027

Our Planet, Our Health

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:355:025648",
    "course_id": "ENTOM/ENVIRST 205",
    "course_uid": "course_10f2359ea814be11064c2731",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025648",
    "source_subject_id": "355",
    "title": "Our Planet, Our Health",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:360:025648",
    "course_id": "ENTOM/ENVIRST 205",
    "course_uid": "course_10f2359ea814be11064c2731",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025648",
    "source_subject_id": "360",
    "title": "Our Planet, Our Health",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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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 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f883bdc50e1cc158a201655617abb46269fec9a87275ec92f01c6afeae33965f",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}