Reviews of professor Aaron Sparks

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Great teacher and lets his students take part in the responsibility of making timelines for assignments. A lot of mini-presentations were low-stress and had no tests. There were few 'pop' quizzes but as long as you do the readings you'll pass.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Professor Sparks expects students to do all the learning by themselves, his class is unorganized, and there's too much work.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Sparks is the absolute man. understanding guy who cares about his students. Easy to get a B, hard to get an A kind of vibe in terms of grading. Overall a ton of reading and some big essay at the end of the year but not much else.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
My major is environmental studies and public policy so Environmental Policy should have been interesting. IT WAS NOT. Professor Sparks talks AT you. The readings are unrealistic; like 50-page scientific abstracts. I wish I waited to take this class till it was offered by another teacher because I usually love environmental politics and policy.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
This class had a reading quiz almost everyday. Group work/in-class activities everyday. Dense lectures and no actual context or connection to what was going on. Dr. Sparks is a nice professor and the class itself is easy if you pay attention and participate. But criteria for grades, assignments, tests, etc were so vague. 3/10

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Dr. Sparks was a nice man and all, but his class was BORING and the amount of reading to do was far too much. He also wasn't great at giving feedback on assignments and papers and didn't explain what was expected from those assignments and papers very well either. Not the harshest grader, but definitely not the easiest grader either.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
Professor Sparks gets a lot of hate and yes he is a little vague in his lectures and not clear at times. But he TRULY cares about students' success and loves what he does. He is an understanding professor who will work with you to be as successful as you can be in his course. He is very good at giving feedback and helping you improve your work.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
This is a required class for the poly sci major but under no circumstances should you ever take this with Dr. Sparks. I did all the homework and paid attention in class and was still so confused. Never answered a single question and told me to Google things. Lectures are boring. Only pro is he sometimes gave us time in class to work on things.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
I am fully dropping my policy major after taking his class. You get assigned 200+ pages to read for hw and are expected to understand everything in the liturate without class time reviewing or explaining it. The large project at the end has little guidance. don't try and ask a question because you won't get anything remotely close to an answer.