Spring 2027

Energy Resources

Critical examination of renewable and nonrenewable energy options from an Earth systems perspective, covering conversion, efficiency, consumption, and environmental consequences.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Christopher Zahasky

The course required one presentation for most of the grade and weekly quizzes.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain the origins of both renewable and non-renewable energy resources.

  • Explain the dependency of energy resources on natural and geologic processes.

  • Describe how changing technology impacts energy resource utilization.

  • Analyze and interpret the constraints and negative consequences of renewable and non-renewable energy resources.

  • Discuss how energy use has changed since the industrial revolution and how evolving energy use impacts the climate and environment.

  • Evaluate relevant scientific literature related to energy resources.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

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/GEOSCI 411

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ALAN ROBERT CARROLL is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, 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

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

Past student reviews · Christopher Zahasky

Students found Christopher Zahasky's lectures passionate and worthwhile, describing the overall class experience as fairly easy.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.35 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=84 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.58 GPA, 82.1% A/AB (n=56 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.71 GPA, 90.4% A/AB (n=73 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Christopher Zahasky

The course required one presentation for most of the grade and weekly quizzes.

Past student reviews · Alan Carroll

Alan Carroll's lectures were informative and approachable, with exam questions drawn from a provided study bank.

Topics

  • Renewable and nonrenewable energy options within Earth systems.
  • Energy conversion, efficiency, consumption patterns, and environmental consequences.

Skills

  • Explain energy resource origins and analyze constraints and negative consequences.
  • Examine energy conversion, efficiency, consumption patterns, and environmental consequences.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 3 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

4 earlier forecasts · 0.18 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 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

1286 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

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
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": "3c9e93b56226bdfdb259570a08d40e96ff2006ed4a3cec86a1186b3a94c7c99e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}