Spring 2027

General Soil Science

Covers physical, chemical, and biological soil properties affecting plant-water relations, classification, and agricultural suitability.

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

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Mattie Urrutia

The class involved a variety of different lab activities, requiring engagement with diverse practical tasks.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Define and describe the basic chemical, physical and biological principles of soils.

  • Use the acquired knowledge of soil properties to make land use decisions.

  • Perform quantitative calculations about nutrient status of soil, water content and flow rate, and carbon and greenhouse gas fluxes of soils.

  • Classify soils based on their properties.

  • Relate the principles of soil science to the Soil Science Society of America’s Four Grand Challenges: Human and Ecosystem Health, Waste Treatment and Water Quality, Food Energy and Security, and Climate Change.

  • Create a work of art (poem, song, story, etc.) that demonstrates their mastery of soil science.

  • Apply principles of soil science to make predictions about a contemporary issue in soil science.

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

(CHEM 103, 109, or 115) and (MATH 112, 114, 171 or placement into MATH 221), or graduate/professional standing

SOILSCI 301 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

MATILDE URRUTIA is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2008, Fall 2012, Fall 2019. 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
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Mattie Urrutia

Students found the course valuable due to its organized lab structure and the instructor's approachable teaching style.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 2.73 GPA, 35.5% A/AB (n=62 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.19 GPA, 61.5% A/AB (n=65 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.20 GPA, 54.7% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Mattie Urrutia

The class involved a variety of different lab activities, requiring engagement with diverse practical tasks.

Past student reviews · Mattie Urrutia

The instructor was described as kind and willing to help students understand the material, creating a supportive environment.

Topics

  • Physical, chemical, and biological soil properties
  • Soil-plant-water relations
  • Soil classification and agricultural suitability

Skills

  • Define and describe basic chemical, physical, and biological principles of soils.
  • Apply soil property knowledge to make land use decisions.
  • Perform quantitative calculations regarding soil nutrients, water, and gas fluxes.
  • Classify soils based on their properties.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— 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 Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 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

1316 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 
[]
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
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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": "c54603a47247f41277bb8abc27fc785c111807204b4592d3731a352b10d336e1",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}