Spring 2027

Planetary Microbiology: What Life Here Tells US About Life Out There

Explores planetary microbiology and astrobiology, connecting molecular life processes with Earth's geochemical history and origins of life to understand potential life elsewhere.

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

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.85 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=37 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=46 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Evaluate the reliability of sources of information about biology

  • Synthesize key topics/concepts of planetary microbiology, astrobiology, and the molecular history of life

  • Describe the environments in which life on Earth might have originated, emerged, and persisted over billions of years

  • Analyze and describe the significant molecular innovations that impacted life on Earth

  • Describe the current origins of life scenarios on Earth and planetary conditions that may give rise to life elsewhere in the universe

  • Formulate an original hypothesis to guide future research based on a synthesis of current research into the connections between the origins, evolution, and molecular underpinnings of life and corresponding planetary scale changed

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

MICROBIO 101 or 303 or graduate/professional standing

MICROBIO 520 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

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.85 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=37 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=46 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Origins of life and evolution of essential metabolisms
  • Molecular innovations like translation machinery and carbon/nitrogen fixation
  • Recognition of life elsewhere in the universe and signs of life

Skills

  • Evaluating the reliability of biological information sources
  • Formulating original research hypotheses based on synthesized knowledge of life's origins and evolution

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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
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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

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Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "5329f167bfc3a9e3f70b0a0e4568cd291a002c12f2a3a79e0eeaed81022790ec",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}