Most Recent Comments

Very good course that I thoroughly enjoyed. Good information about many things. Especially volcanoes.

Listen intently to the lectures and utilize the website with the study guides. They are truly helpful. I am a business major and had really no interest in science, so it was initially a struggle to get interested in the subject. I used the study guides to help study for the exams and they truly helped me get through the tests with a decent grade. Study, Study, and... Study

Fantastic instructor and interesting material. What more could you ask for?

If you don't like to study, this class might not be for you. Overall, it is a really awesome class and you do learn a lot from it. 

take lots of notes!!

Try your best to attend every class. If you do that you should pass. If you want to excel you will need to study outside of class. This class isn't easy, but it's not extremely hard either.

Go to class has much as you can. On days that you can't make it make sure you get the notes from someone. Read the book and bring on lab days. You will sometimes use the book for some question in lab. Use the lecture material Harwood has on his website. They help with studying and give an outline what you learn in class. STUDY STUDY STUDY! Don't be afraid to ask questions!

I really enjoyed this course, and I learned so much. It seems like there's a ton of material covered on the tests, but if you consistently review beforehand, you'll do fine. I highly recommend attending as many classes as possible because notes are crucial. Also, hearing explanations and examples of the concepts can be very helpful.

Past Comments

This class is worth it. Brains will receive a workout. This is my haiku.

Take the time to read and fully understand the material and make sure not to miss any lab assignments. The course is not hard, but you get what you put into it. The class is very laid back and the instructor is very passionate and well educated about the topics that are discussed and taught in the class.

This class is very hard. Study as much as you can.

Very interesting course but you will need to make time to really study, study, study to pass his exams. Lab practical tip: read material before you come to class. Makes all the difference! I would've like for the professor to have assigned and/or referred class to supplemental reading that would've assisted in our understanding of the topics being covered.

This was a good class, the instructor knows his stuff and is interesting. You only need to use the book a few times so I would suggest not buying it. The class might be different from what you thought, there is a lot more to physical geography than maps. Good Luck

This course is certainly a higher level college class and is no walk in the park. The professor explains in detail many subjects and some harder to comprehend then others. Studying intensely for test is a must, like at least a few days in advance and read the lab directions carefully because that material will be on the test. Ask plenty of questions and if need be stay after class so you will understand the ideas expressed in class with out a doubt. He loves this subject and was a pleasure to be in class. Mention volcanoes to get a laugh.

If you want a cool and challenging class with lots of relevant and enlightening information, and you're interested in natural processes, then this course is recommended. This class has to do with science, not political boundaries, so keep that in mind.

Dear future students, Professor Harwood is a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable professor, however be prepared to study and work hard. The labs will help with your grades but to truly get the grade you want you will need to really study for the exams and lab practical's. There are no assignments. Be sure to take advantage of the course website and print out the lectures, also you can use that website to find study guides, as well as materials to study for lab practical's. Good luck and enjoy this course. Professor Harwood is very easy to talk to and is very willing to help out if needed.

He is cool. He makes funny. He likes volcanoes. He is volcanoes.

Professor Harwood, is amazing instructor, and is very organized with his lectures. I recommend taking any of his courses.

The instuctor is a very enthusiastic, fair instructor. If the subject doesn't spark interest to you, I wouldn't recommend it. This class is pretty tough. I personally thought this class would be easy, but I was mistaken. To be successful in this class, you have to study. I'd highly recommend doing the labs on your own without any of your fellow classmates' help/assistance. This will surely enforce learning and a better understanding of the concepts, and you will do better on the lab practicals.

Geography 101 is a great introductory course for students to get a grasp on today's everyday science. If the student is willing to put forth the effort of studying and reading their is no doubt the professor Harwood will give you the chance to succeed and understand.

Do not miss a single class if you can avoid it.

If you are considering taking this course be prepare to spend many hours studying. Going down to the tutor helps and find a study buddy. Labs can be difficult but manageable. DON'T FORGET TO STUDY!

Use the study guides and study a lot.  There's not really any homework, so spend a lot of time studying.

this course is great! read ALL notes and study hard, and you will get a good grade! this course is not an easy A you have to put time in to get a good grade out! PS. if you dont know an answer say something with volcanoes it will usually be close to right! haha

When entering this course you may say to yourself 'this is going to be simple and not require any work'. Brace yourselves as this course requires a lot of effort and work to get through the semester. Whether you are a good or bad student, this course will test you in ways you may not have experienced yet. Recommendations for all students is to print off ALL materials available to you on the course website. The printing of the lecture notes will save you a tremendous amount of time throughout the classes and focus more on the detail as opposed to the general points. If you are struggling with labs throughout the semester, do the practice practicals over and over again if you must. The material is always available to you and will only help in the long run. Be focused and practice and while doing so you will complete this course successfully.

If you are reading this now and are taking this class or plan on taking this class, I would just like to tell you now that you are fortunate for what you are about to, or plan to, experience. Richard Harwood is a phenomenal professor; one of the most easy to understand and get along with that I have had at this college. Having said that though, if you are looking for an easy A you are in the wrong place. You will be expected to learn the material to the best of your ability. Don't let that phase you though, because the material is very easy to learn so long as you follow these steps: 1.) PAY ATTENTION: Professor Harwood does an amazing job of explaining the material and answering ANY questions you have. I literally mean any. He is more than happy to take peoples questions in class, and answers all that he can, and in great detail. If you are confused about a topic or concept, a simple hand-raising and questioning can very easily clear it up. That applies to both in the classroom and outside the classroom. The professor is always willing to answer your questions. 2.) VISIT THE COURSE WEBSITE: The lecture and lab materials are easily found online, but they are NOT a replacement for going to class. The website is extremely helpful and if you learn the answers to the questions on the test practice questions, you should have no problem getting good grades on the exams. 3.) KEEP LEARNING OUTSIDE OF CLASS: I know it is easy to forget the material that you go over in a class the moment you walk out of the door. But I recommend that you try and think about the material outside of class. This is useful information in any class, but I believe in this class it is easy to do. After all, taking any class directly relating to the earth around us, it is easy to see and experience the very thing you go over in class the moment you walk out of the door and out into the world. Honestly, most of what I learned in class I was able to keep fresh in my mind by relating it to the world around me. 4.) LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES: When you give a wrong answer in class, on an exam, or in lab, keep those mistakes in mind because you will most likely be running into the concepts and questions on future exams. Most of what you go over in this class directly applies to future concepts. If you learn from your mistakes, and learn the concepts of the material, you will be much further ahead in the future. 5.) PAY ATTENTION SOME MORE: Seriously, just listen in class and pay attention when he goes over lab answers with you. The professor is great at explaining everything. If you listen to what he says, you should have no problem getting an A in this class. Other than that, just have fun! You don't have to worry about some professor who is stiff and up-tight. Harwood is a very nice and genuine guy with a great sense of humor. On top of that this man clearly loves what he teaches. It is easy to get hooked on the material he teaches because he teaches it with such passion that it's hard not to fall in love with it too. It is my strong belief that if anyone has a problem in his class, it is their own fault and not the fault of the professor. My only regret in taking his class is that I took it so late in my time here at Black Hawk. I spent so much time here and only NOW got the pleasure of having Richard Harwood as my instructor. I am saddened that I may never have the opportunity to take any of his other classes, because seriously this is the most fun I may ever have in any Earth science class. I strongly urge that you take this course seriously, but not too seriously. There is always room for humor and enjoyment in this class. And if you are open to learning, you will find lots and lots of enjoyment during your time here.

I believe it is very helpful to print out the notes and study guides to follow along in class. When studying for the lab practicals use the practices on his website. The book is only used 2 or 3 times. The class is not to difficult if you attend and studying.

You don't need the book but maybe 1 or 2 times. just go to every class and take notes and you'll understand fine enough. oh he loves volcanoes so answer that if you dont understand a question!

This class is difficult and so are the labs but the study guides are helpful. Good luck.

Utilize the study tools from the webpage. Start studying early because the tests have a ton of topics covered in each. Form study groups with other students in the class/use the tutor center/ask the instructor for help. Make sure to not miss any labs, it will change your grade even if you miss one and don't make it up in time.

The study guides for this course are a life saver and are included for every lecture. If you use those, you will do great!

Good teacher, pay attention or you will be left behind

The first thing i would say to the new students is HELLO!! The thing you should do is before lab is make a line outside of Professor Harwoods and ask him as many questions as you can about the lab, he'll be in ther eatting spaghetti, so make sure you ask a lot of questions so he cant eat. Seriously, During lab get into groups and stay in that group all semester. Print out the lecture notes for class before class. If you print them all off and divide them into exam sections, you can follow along with the power point lecture in class and just write down key points. It will save you so much time. if you dont believe me, take a look around your class sometime and watch how long it takes everyone around you to write down slide after slide of one days lecture notes...I did and after awhile just watching everyone made my wrist hurt. Learn the wet adibatic process and Orographic precipitation. You are going to get dizzy from the amount of times you talk about going up and down the dry and wet adibatic...just thinking about it is getting me nausious. Lastly, this class is a lot of fun, if you let it be. Professor Harwood does a great job of letting you voice your opinion and teasing you if your wrong. Know the material and a lot of things about physical geology will become interesting.

Professor Harwood does an exceptional job keeping the class interesting, uses Power Points of an extremely high quality, and is genuinely interested in helping his students comprehend the subject matter. The only thing I would warn you of is that when the average layperson thinks of the discipline of "geography," they think of maps. Well, in this class, maps are only about one or two units. Honestly, rather than calling this course "Intro to Geography," I would call it "Intro to a Super Ultra Mash-up of Earth Science Courses Including but not Limited to: Geography, Geology, Meteorology, Astrophysics, Evolutionary Biology, Oceanography, Botany, Agricultural Sciences, etc." In this class, you will cover issues ranging from the formation of the universe, the impacts of solar radiation, formation of clouds and storm systems, types of soil and their composition, the greenhouse effect, the effects of the earth's rotation on both high-altitude and surface winds, major wind and ocean currents, the evolution of plants, and yes, also maps. So if you are expecting to take this class and only learn about maps and such, you will be in for a rude awakening. However, if you are prepared to learn a little bit of everything about your planet, then I would highly suggest taking this course.

Great class, have to study to maintain a good grade if not you'll probably struggle in the class.

Web page materials were very helpful, especially practice tests and study guides. Textbook was used very little and not very helpful. I am sure I could have done without it.

Mind your p's and q's

I recommend printing out all of the available online notes before the lecture, while most stuff is covered in the lecture, it really helps to have the notes as well in case you miss something during lecture. The study guides and practice exams that are available online are also extremely helpful, if you can answer those questions you'll do fine on the exams.

Use the online lecture study notes and do the practice lab practicals online they REALLY do help

don't care

This is a very interesting course with an incredible amount of information if you are willing to learn it. Study hard using the online lecture notes, personal notes from class, online study guides and lab practicals and you will do fine! Don't be discouraged if you do bad on the first exam as it will give you an idea of what to study for future exams. There are plenty of exams and lab practicals to better your overall grade before the end of the semester. Very good class overall!

Print out the notes and the study guides. They help.

The labs are pretty cool and you learn a lot of stuff when working on the labs each week.

This class is exciting, boring, difficult, easy, funny, and most of all not what i expected

My advice is to get the materials offered on the website. This will cut down on your note taking by an enormous amount. He only told us one time about it (it is in the syllabus as well) and there were many students that didn't take advantage of this, and as a result, they were writing a lot more notes. This is a difficult course, so don't take it lightly or you will not do well.

Take advantage of the study guides. They are very helpful.

Make sure that you study a lot and get to know the material. Previous material always pops up on the next test.

This course is hard. There is way too much information to learn... So you end up cramming and not really learning the material. If there was less material it could be doable... To succeed print the notes and study guides off of the web page (it will save you lots of time) and fill out the study guides during lecture. The study guides are reflective of the tests. Don't buy the book, you will not need it. The tests are all over lecture and lab material. Buddy up, two brains are better than one!!

When it comes to Professor Harwood's class, don't fret. It may seem hard at first but once you get used to the structure of the class, you will do fine. If you have any questions, you can always go to Prof. Harwood because he is very understand and will help you out in any way he can.

This class is pretty tough. There is a lot of information in just a small amount of time. There arent many grades thoughout the semester, so make them count. This is definitly a college level course, and takes a fair amount of dedication. It kind of made me feel stupid at first, but by the end of the semester I obtained a great deal of knowledge that now makes me feel a lot smarter. If your in for a challenge i suggest this course.

This course is not any push over course. You have to put time and effort into this class. The only problem I had with the class is that the instructor wanted you to print off the lecture material, but I do not learn that way. I learn better taking notes by hand. I feel that if you want to take this course you better not want to take notes the old fashioned way.

Study, Study, And study! Even when you think you have study enough, Think again. I enjoyed learning about the Earth, but you just have to keep studying.

This is a good class to take if you want to learn a lot of information and study a lot, or if you are interested in this subject. If you just need to get a physical science credit this class is not easy so check out some less dificult options if that is what you need. You will have to study a lot to get a good grade. No one in my class ever got an A on any of the tests all semester. So only take this class if you want to work hard for your grade =)

study... it helps.

this was very interesting class! but it often is too difficult!

Great knowledge I learned from the class although I did not go alot I am still very knowledgeable on the info I was taught.

This is a good class. It is challenging but rewarding. It was better than I thought it would be and I learned a lot about the world around me.

cool teacher. print out the study questions and study for the TEST!!!

a great course to take

I recommend to future students that they pay attention to the advice given them by Professor Harwood regarding study and preperation thim necessaty to be successful in this course, or any other one for that matter. Take advantage of the lecture notes posted on the course web page, as well as the study guides. Read all of the text materials before covering the material in class. If at all possible, do not miss class, be ther every day, and approach the material with an open mind. Don't miss lab, attend every one. Even though labs may be made up, it is not the same as being there. Dont rush through exams and lab practicals. take the time to do a good job, and think about the material before answering.

Be sure to aquire and study the study guides, they are very helpful in taking the exams.

Mr. Harwood is a very good and fair professor. His class requires a fair amount of dedication and regular attendance. I would highly recommend taking this class if you need a science class with a lab, or if you just want to learn everything about geography.

I think that if you are going to take this class, you need to be prepaired to work hard. It is a lot of work, a lot of material and a lot of memorization. You really have to study a lot to succed in this class.

This class was pretty fun. You will learn how to predict the weather, and how what we are doing on the earth affects the world we live in. I recommend taking this course, whether it be just to fufill graduation requirements, or as part of your major

When taking this course it is good to read chapters, and also print out lecture notes and study guides, which help you have a better understanding of the course. Also students need to have a basic understanding of each lecture, because all the information that is given to you in a class is later used in other subjects.

I enjoyed this class emensly. I liked how the lectures went and how well the powerpoint presentations were put together. I really got a good feeling about this course. Thanks.

"The only thing I had against this course was that there was so much material. I understand that a lot has to be covered in a semester but everyone has there own speed of learning and I am not a person who can take that all in and expect to do well in the class. It seems like as soon as we were moving on to something new, I was just beginning to understand the material from the previous week"

"The letures and the labs were well established and taught, and I succedded in the labs and enjoyed working with the people I was with. The only problem in this class was the exams. Unfortunatly the exams and lab practicals are 75% of the grade and for me was the hardest thing in class. The exams and lab practicals should be a little less in percentage (65%) with an additional assignment to make up for that. I do not test very well since it is based on pure knowledge and the large amount of material to retain. In addition, the questions on the exams are usually reworded and can sometimes be tricky. The essays were the hardest of all, so I completed all lecture notes and looked over them and my test scores improved slightly. Otherwise the class was interesting and Mr. Harwood was a enthusiatic teacher. Just a couple of adjustments to the exams will make this class better. THANK YOU!"

"overall this was a great class. it required alot of time and effort but i really learned alot and enjoyed my time in the class. the organization of the lectures is what impressed me the most because it just makes the course that much better and easier to follow. the exams were very hard, especially because they were cumulative, but if i studied i did ok. i really liked this class and would recommend harwood as an instructor. he did a great job and really knows his material and seems to enjoy what he does."

"it would be nice if we had more than just test. for example homework or a project"

"Overall, a good informative earth science course. Lots of material to know for each exam, material that needed to be known for exams could have been less, such as not having questions from previous exams. Lab was also good, except more practice questions would of been nice, and for the practice questions that are given should be similar in aspects and no hidden suprises on the lab practicals from which I notice more the on the 2nd lab practical compare to the first one. Other then that, I enjoy the course relatively well. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me Mr. Harwood."

"The tests are impossible. I study for many many hours and still dont get the grade I want. If I knew how hard this class would have been I never would have taken it."

"I think that the class would have been better if the material had been split up + tests given once every week a week in a half. or, if quizes had been given."

"The class was fun and the labs were good also."

"I thought that this class was very difficult for me. Too much new information in such little time."

"The course was good; no changes."

"More interesting, not as boring to listen to. more enthusiastic."

"instructor was good, new what he was talking. needs more exciting labs. more interactive lectures."

"Have the test in the same words as what is given in class. People would enjoy this class better if they weren't getting confused."

"Need to format tests more like lectures and lecture notes because rewording them like they are is confusing."

"There was much information concerning this class and it made some sections hard to grasp given the amount of time we had to cover it."

"This is a college class, but the comprehensive final is a bit much. This is only a 100 course and in my opinion shouldn't be this hard. Not at all what I had expected. Great teacher, very high expectations, especially for college students! Many don't have the hours you expect for studying! Maybe you should add more assignments instead of a comprehensive final."

"I thought that the labs were a good idea, the just show up part for an A. It actually makes you learn more in the long run. My best grades were on the lab practicals."

"This is class is very hard, it was interesting to try and learn"

"This class was well-taught and the professor knew the information well. It would be helpful on the essays on the tests to have more written information on why points were lost. It would also be helpful to have procedures in labs, especially graphs + math explained so the students can do it."

"Even though the material was not presented in a manner which I could understand, Mr. Harwood was more than willing to assist me in trying to meet the challenge. I wish I would have realized earlier in the semester how helpful he could have been had I taken advantage of the help avaiable. Thanks Mr. Harwood!"

"Everything was good but I just don't understand this material the way it's taught. I think there is to much material covered. This is an intro level class, you cannot demand this much of us. 95% of us have no major with Geography, but you teach us like we do. Never the less I think you are very knowledgable and a very good person. The time you put into presentation for this class and for your students deserves credit. But to get an A in this class you either have to be a genious or have no life. Students at BHC have jobs, and other classes that demand attention. You may say school should be first over a job, but the reality of it all is it's not that way."

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