Goran Ekstrom

Literally the best science for core class. Professor Göran is a gem and I will miss his million dollar smile. Simply because he was highly organized and had an outline, presentation, and typed notes for each lecture half the class never came and it showed on their midterm grades. For a class talking about the environment and natural occurrences you just need to hear out loud how these processes work. It is a lot of information to digest without attending lectures. I don't know the gripe others students have in other reviews lol because if you met him he's the sweetest grandpa (actually is) and is so kind and bright. Come to class and do your best and he curves at the end of the semester. Don't be discouraged by the rigor, he explains it perfectly. The TA might not be the best but you don't need them lol. Discussion sections were optional for us.

Prof. Ekstrom is very kind but his lectures are not very interesting. He kind of just reads off from his lecture notes (which are uploaded before every class and are very detailed so you don't necessarily need to go to lecture) and in general, the content is very much science-heavy rather than policy-heavy (which was my expectation coming into the class). The class is also surprisingly more difficult than I expected – it requires a lot of memorization even though the lectures are not necessarily formatted in a manner that is conducive to memorizing that much content. The TA was super nice and was mostly helpful with answering questions but also didn't seem to know *that* much about the subject matter. Not sure if Ekstrom had office hours but I never went to them.

This class was a lot harder than I anticipated. I only took it to fulfill my Science Requirement, but regret thinking it would be easy. Goran is a cute, little, old man that you will find adorable and sweet, but his lectures are incredibly dense. He is obviously very knowledgeable about the content, especially earthquakes and seismology, and I appreciated that he was very humble and not too braggy. The TA, Dan, was wonderful. He emailed back solutions to problem sets very quickly. Our class was about 40 people, but being an 8:40 am lecture, there were literally only 5 people in the lectures every class. Most of us who actually came were freshmen. Professor Ekstrom posts his powerpoints, outlines, and lecture notes on his class site, so you didn't really need to come, but it definitely helped to be able to listen to him talk out and explain his notes. His exams are very easy to understand and clearly reference things that he talked about in class. However, it is difficult to get full credit on the questions, even if you understood the answer perfectly because he is an inconsistent grader. There's a lot of definition memorization involved. He also expects you to be able to apply concepts he taught in different scenarios to prove you understand them. Also be prepared to draw the diagrams he drew in class, even the ones of the ocean. Overall, I'm glad I took the class because I le…

The class is the most straight forward class you will ever take at Columbia. Dr. Ekstrom's lectures are clear, slightly dull, and completely unnecessary to do well. He posts perfect lecture notes on his websites from which the exams are verbatim based upon. The problem sets are easy if you've taken any high school statistics or math class. Good science filler. The TA, Max Cunningham, was excellent for the course.

TERRRIBLE COURSE. I completely agree with the comment below. it was misleading and Goran taught nothing. Hes cute and old and sweet but trust me under that endearing accent is a man with no clue how to successfully and properly assign homework, write a test or run a course. Every single student of his was disappointed with his actions and misleading behavior and every single student in Logan Brenners TA class was automatically given a disadvantage because she was the HARD TA and unjustly took off points. Best part is she had no idea what the hell she was doing and looked cometplely confused and lost the entire course and the entire time she was teaching. I felt like I taught myself for a full semester, they did absolutely nothing to help or teach any student. This class was a mess, AVOID EKSTROM AND ESPECIALLY AVOID LOGAN BRENNER AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am completely SHOCKED by the comments below this and in even more shock that Goran has a silver nugget. Yes he is cute and adorable, however these qualities do not make a good professor. And trust me Goran is anything but a good professor. I have never been more disappointed in a professor or mislead by a professor/course in my life. On the first day of this course, Goran told his students that there would be 3rd grade math, adding and subtracting basic numbers only, and that there would never be calculators needed. This was a blatant lie; not only were calculators REQUIRED for every single test and homework assignment (without a miss), I found myself attempting to teach myself statistics, calculous, economics, trigonometry all myself in order to successfully even attempt to do the homework as this math was ON the homework however, was literally never gone over in lecture. Goran tells you that discussion sections are optional- seems nice right? However, what he doesn't tell you is that 70% of this class is based PURLEY on information from discussion sections. We learn all the math in discussion sections, however the TA's (Hannah L & Logan Brenner) are too stupid to understand the math and literally have no idea what theyre doing or what theyre explaining. Basically, you end up teaching yourself everything because these TAs are not only incompetent but give you CONFLICTING in…

Just wanted to throw in the mix below; this is one of the easiest-feeling classes I've taken at this school, and I'd definitely recommend it for a science requirement filler. Not to discount the opinions below, maybe it just happened to be a good match for me, but I don't want the thread to sound too discouraging. (I'm pretty good with numbers and understanding probability/stats, so maybe that helps?) I'm loving the material and the low commitment (maybe 2 hours a week to do the HW and a few hours to review before exams. as long as you listen to the lectures that's really all that's needed). Not loving the 8:40 am. The TAs are both wonderful. Prof Ekstrom is really clear, concise, and adorable. The material is generously posted online. Textbook might help but I'd have no idea because I didn't buy it.

Others have already said it: Professor Ekstrom is adorable. He is genuinely passionate about the topics and his enthusiasm makes him a great person to learn from. One thing you should know is that this class really covers an amazing variety of risks and disasters from earthquakes to tornados to arsenic to asteroid impacts-- it's not just about climate change (which I think some people thought it would be entirely about, although you do spend two lectures on climate change). You really get to learn about such a variety of topics (and they are topics that are generally good to know more about to life a long and healthy life), which is why this class has been one of my favorites at Columbia (and I'm not even in a science major). I do agree that the course can be a but challenging at times, but you should really give it a chance. If you have any experience in basic statistics and physics, you will be fine. If you don't, you might need a little more help from the TAs, but it's still not that bad. For me, the payoff of useful and interesting knowledge was definitely worth the effort. I took this course as a second semester senior, and I am so glad I did. The tests were a but challenging but fair, and as long as you actually go to lecture, you will probably be fine. Professor Ekstrom, like I said, is great. He knows that many people in the class are not science majors and makes the t…

Ekstrom is adorable, and he really cares about the material he's teaching, and it shines through in his lectures. He tries, but, unfortunately, he doesn't always succeed. I end up spending half of the lecture on my phone, and he's a bit dry for an 8:40 AM class. The class material is all really interesting, and he tries to make it accessible and engaging and humorous, but this class can get HARD. The TAs can be tough graders, and there will be curveballs on the midterms (of which there are two) that you will not have seen before. The problem sets were all over the place -- some were ridiculously easy and quick, while others were incredibly difficult and could take hours for me to finish. There is roughly one a week (except the weeks when there are exams). My grades were all over the place in the class, and reflected that -- some were A+'s and some were C-'s. You win some, you lose some. This class is essentially a statistics class taught through the lens of environmental science: they want you to do some mathy stuff, so they throw it into what could be a really genuinely interesting class. Discussion sections are optional, but are helpful in making sure that you can at least do the problem sets. They don't do much else, and that's the reason anyone goes. I ended up P/D/Fing this course like the person below me did, which makes it easier on me, but it's not worth it over all if…

Goran is adorable-- but it's hard to go to an 840 class every other day. Homework is really hard if you don't go to office hours (which I did, every week). If you aren't good at memorizing and decent at math/science, this is not the class for you. The TAs throw random stuff at you on the midterms. It's really annoying. As someone who studied EVERYTHING, I didn't appreciate that. Final is 40%! So if you fail, you really fail. But discussion sections aren't mandatory, which is great. I ended up P/D/Fing this course which was the best decision ever. The class went from an enrollment of 80-something to 20-something if that gives you any hints about the difficulty of this class.