Earth's Soil: Natural Science and Human Use
Overview of world soils and their role in environmental challenges, including specific focus on USA and Wisconsin soils.
Summary
Past student reviews · Alfred Hartemink
Grades were determined by a midterm, final, and essay or brief assessments. Students found the workload fair for a one-credit class, though it was sometimes unclear which exam content to prioritize.
What you’ll be able to do
Synthesize knowledge of the diversity of soils in the world
Describe what are important soil characteristics
Discuss how soils relate to the grand environmental challenges that confront humanity
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapNone
- None
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- None
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
ALFRED HARTEMINK is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 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 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Past student reviews · Alfred Hartemink
Past students described the professor as knowledgeable and passionate, noting that he often made them laugh during class. The course focused heavily on lecture material and soil classification.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.44 GPA, 73.5% A/AB (n=49 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.30 GPA, 61.0% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.05 GPA, 42.9% A/AB (n=21 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Past student reviews · Alfred Hartemink
Grades were determined by a midterm, final, and essay or brief assessments. Students found the workload fair for a one-credit class, though it was sometimes unclear which exam content to prioritize.
Past student reviews · Alfred Hartemink
One student felt it was difficult to tell which material to pay the most attention to because the professor delivered so much information. They emphasized the need to memorize soil classes.
Topics
- Global soil diversity and environmental challenges
- Regional soils of the USA and Wisconsin
- Important soil characteristics
Skills
- Synthesizing knowledge of global soil diversity
- Describing important soil characteristics
- Discussing the relationship between soils and environmental challenges
Grades
Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
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
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.
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.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"task_version": "17",
"output_id": "a9e6d92ea726d9185b87ac00043d496a95afdd9cf3d35d2c114020e8f9d2d03c",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}