This was my favorite class of the spring semester! Professor Galloway is one of my favorite professors at UVA, and Professor Mills was great too. Unfortunately, both of these amazing professors have retired from teaching, so I am not sure if/when this course will be taught again. I am really glad I took it when I did, because it was fantastic. Your course grade is made up 4 components: 2 take-home exams (35% each), final paper (15%), and final presentation (15%). My one complaint about the course is that the exams were very long and took the better part of a day to complete. They are looking for extremely detailed answers to get full credit. The final project was very enjoyable. You are able to select any topic you wish, as long as it is related to biogeochemical cycles. If this course is taught again, I high recommend because it is enjoyable and provides important knowledge for a career in environmental science.

The lectures for this class tend to be pretty interesting and the professors are both very helpful. The tests tend to be really hard though. However, the tests are take home and at least half of it will be open book. Still, they are looking for super in depth answers that make it tough to do well if you get lost during lectures. The end of the semester is composed of student presentations which tend to be very interesting. Instead of a final exam, a final paper (15-20 pages) is due on the last day of class.

Dr. Galloway is a great professor, but his co-professor, Dr. Mills is even better, they both have a great way of taking incredibly complicated science and boiling it down to a point where it's easy to understand. This class is a great way to analyze the indepth processes that our earth undergoes and how humans have changed all this.