Spring 2027

Principles of Environmental Science

Principles of Environmental Science connects environmental science to daily activities through sustainability, conservation, and systems thinking, covering energy, water, land use, food, power, materials, buildings, transportation, and.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Grace Bulltail3.5/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Timothy Lindstrom

The course involved weekly assignments and long lab worksheets that some students found repetitive or time-consuming. Reviewers noted that while the class was generally easy for a lab science, the labs were lengthy and required consistent effort.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Apply foundational principles of Environmental Science to practices such as sustainability, conservation, and systems thinking

  • Practice science as a process of inquiry and discovery, using the UW-Madison campus as a living laboratory

  • Connect campus systems to wider environmental issues relating to energy, water, land use, and waste

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

  • Explain the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenges of operating a large public research institution

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

None

  • None
ENVIRST/ILS 126 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: 1.00/5 from 1 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.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.77 GPA, 88.1% A/AB (n=42 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.69 GPA, 84.4% A/AB (n=32 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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

TIMOTHY LINDSTROM is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022. 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 / 750
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 330
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250

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 · Timothy Lindstrom

Past students found Timothy Lindstrom’s lectures engaging and his teaching approach clear, often connecting sustainability concepts to real-life experiences to help them understand the material without heavy memorization.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.76 GPA, 87.5% A/AB (n=96 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.77 GPA, 88.1% A/AB (n=42 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.69 GPA, 84.4% A/AB (n=32 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Timothy Lindstrom

The course involved weekly assignments and long lab worksheets that some students found repetitive or time-consuming. Reviewers noted that while the class was generally easy for a lab science, the labs were lengthy and required consistent effort.

Past student reviews · Timothy Lindstrom

Students appreciated the supportive environment, noting that Timothy Lindstrom and the TAs were always willing to help with assignments and that the class was a good fit for non-science majors.

Topics

  • Energy, water, land use, food, electric power, materials, buildings, transportation, and waste.
  • Sustainability, conservation, and systems thinking.
  • Connecting campus systems to wider environmental issues.

Skills

  • Applying environmental science principles to sustainability, conservation, and systems thinking.
  • Analyzing sustainability issues and practices using a systems-based approach.
  • Explaining social, economic, and environmental dimensions of institutional sustainability challenges.

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 5 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.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.13 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 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
ENVIRST/ILS 126 · Spring 2027

Principles of Environmental Science

Recorded 2026-10-14
ENVIRST/ILS 126 · Spring 2027

Principles of Environmental Science

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": "1274:360:007259",
    "course_id": "ENVIRST/ILS 126",
    "course_uid": "course_6cef80fccf59dceaa6ccec31",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "007259",
    "source_subject_id": "360",
    "title": "Principles of Environmental Science",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:500:007259",
    "course_id": "ENVIRST/ILS 126",
    "course_uid": "course_6cef80fccf59dceaa6ccec31",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "007259",
    "source_subject_id": "500",
    "title": "Principles of Environmental Science",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "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 2026-10-14

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": "82283b09be543731417db4123dce8267013593364274ed425da89a30be9bf813",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}