Spring 2027

Soil Pollution and Human Health

Examines sources and properties of anthropogenic soil pollution, including PFAS, nanomaterials, and microplastics, focusing on contaminant mobility and impacts on human and ecosystem health.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Geoffrey Siemering

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Geoffery Siemering

The course involved short relevant articles and micro presentations. One student rated the difficulty as low, suggesting the workload was not overly demanding.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify the nature and sources of common and emerging environmental soil pollutants.

  • Recognize how contaminant mobility and bioavailability impact human and ecosystem health.

  • Analyze case studies to understand environmental and human health impacts and applicable contamination mitigation techniques.

  • Apply epidemiology, toxicology, and risk assessment methods to assess soil contamination impacts on local populations.

  • Evaluate scientific published literature and synthesize results for oral presentations.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

CHEM 103, 108, 109, 115, or graduate/professional student standing

SOILSCI 430

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

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Past student reviews · Geoffery Siemering

Geoffrey Siemering led an engaging course featuring mock town hall meetings, discussions, micro presentations, and short articles. He shared personal stories that made the material memorable and captivating, creating an unforgettable learning experience.

Geoffrey Siemering was accessible outside of class and adjusted his lecture content to be more engaging after receiving student feedback midway through the semester.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.82 GPA, 94.1% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.97 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 96.8% A/AB (n=31 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

GEOFFREY SIEMERING is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Fall 2024, 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 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 350

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Geoffery Siemering

Professor Siemering taught an engaging course using mock town hall meetings, discussions, and short articles. A student found the animated lectures and personal stories made the information captivating and memorable.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.82 GPA, 94.1% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.97 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 96.8% A/AB (n=31 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Geoffery Siemering

The course involved short relevant articles and micro presentations. One student rated the difficulty as low, suggesting the workload was not overly demanding.

Past student reviews · Geoffery Siemering

A student noted that Professor Siemering was accessible outside of class. He also adjusted his lecture content to be more engaging after receiving feedback midway through the semester.

Topics

  • Sources and properties of anthropogenic soil pollution and emerging contaminants like PFAS, nanomaterials, and microplastics.
  • Contaminant mobility in the environment and effects on human and ecosystem health.
  • Global case studies of soil contamination and interventions to mitigate health impacts.

Skills

  • Applying epidemiology, toxicology, and risk assessment methods to evaluate soil contamination impacts.
  • Analyzing global case studies to identify environmental and human health impacts and mitigation techniques.
  • Evaluating scientific literature and synthesizing results for oral presentations.

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
SOILSCI 430 · Spring 2027

Soil Pollution and Human Health

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:908:025423",
    "course_id": "SOILSCI 430",
    "course_uid": "course_a1a276ab9ba17b56de2bab48",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025423",
    "source_subject_id": "908",
    "title": "Soil Pollution and Human Health",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "059e3dc2ba454ce945a402ffd18fd7b74fb1147bec719092755281a564ab25c8",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}