Spring 2027

Sustainability Science, Technology and Policy

Analyzes sustainability concepts via trends in energy, water, agriculture, GIS, remote sensing, modeling, and climate change within a science, technology, and policy framework.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Carol Barford

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.56 GPA, 79.2% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Apply a simple physical model to evaluate sustainability claims from a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, energy, water, land use and conservation.

  • Explain how economic, social and cultural factors that don’t explicitly involve matter or energy can also affect environmental sustainability.

  • Produce thoughtful written work that integrates guest lectures, readings, other texts and/or current events related to environmental sustainability.

  • Analyze sustainability issues and/or practices using a systems-based approach.

  • Explain the social, economic, and/or environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenges of climate change, water scarcity, land and water degradation, energy use and biodiversity loss.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ENVIRST 417

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.56 GPA, 79.2% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CAROL BARFORD is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. 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 / 200

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.56 GPA, 79.2% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Energy, air and water resources, and agriculture
  • Environmental measurement, modeling, remote sensing, and Geographic Information Systems
  • Built environment, transportation, ecology, conservation, and global climate change
  • Economic, social, and cultural factors affecting environmental sustainability

Skills

  • Apply simple physical models to evaluate sustainability claims across sectors like agriculture, energy, and water.
  • Analyze sustainability issues and practices using a systems-based approach.
  • Produce written work integrating guest lectures, readings, and current events on environmental sustainability.
  • Explain social, economic, and environmental dimensions of challenges like climate change, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss.

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
ENVIRST 417 · Spring 2027

Sustainability Science, Technology and Policy

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:360:025623",
    "course_id": "ENVIRST 417",
    "course_uid": "course_c36c249147d43b221aabe6bc",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025623",
    "source_subject_id": "360",
    "title": "Sustainability Science, Technology and Policy",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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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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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": "5e905985386e6813d3b583944878d5c598570082cc418a47d691393504171d77",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}