SCHI 6020
The Sustainability-Energy-Climate Nexus: Integrated Science and Society (Graduate level) · 3 instructors on record · 3 sections
That is the class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it. Who taught it, and how each of them scored, is the board below — that is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between.
Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.
Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.
As one of the defining issues of our time, climate change touches every thread of the social fabricate. Also, what we choose to do (or not to do) has long-lasting implications for many generations to come. This interdisciplinary course, to be co-taught by the three core faculty members of the Schiller Institute, focuses on the intersection of sustainable growth, renewable energy and climate science. Designed for graduate students as well as junior/senior undergraduate students in STEM, the course aims to provide a comprehensive, yet in-depth overview of the complex interrelationships between these key areas and how they may interact to shape the future of our planet. (Interested non-STEM students are encouraged to reach out to the instructors about course requirements.) The course starts with the challenges and opportunities associated with transitioning to a more sustainable economy. Students will then learn about the current state of food production, energy production, water supply, consumption and technology. It concludes with the foundational knowledge of climate and water resource sciences. The course also includes a term-long research project where students will work in teams to apply course concepts to real-world scenarios, analyze data, and develop solutions to achieving one of sustainable development goals (SDGs). By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the complex interplays between sustainability, energy and climate, and will be able to think creatively about different technological and policy solutions to the most pressing problems in these areas. They will also develop skills in critical analysis and communication, which will be useful in a variety of fields related to the grand challenge of mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Scores are real averages. The order also accounts for how many records back each one — the count is under every score — so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them.
| Rank | Instructor | Overall | Workload | Challenge | RMP overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanqin TianEarth and Environmental Sciences Provisional | 941 record | 25th | 21st | —no page |
| 2 | Jier HuangChemistry Provisional | 931 record | 25th | 21st | —no page |
| 3 | Yi MingEarth and Environmental Sciences Provisional | 911 record | 25th | 21st | 1002 ratings · all classes |
How this board is orderedPositions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted. The comparison here is the class itself: a thin record is read against how this class was rated overall, not against the university.
Every instructor with an evaluation record for this class is on this board — it is not a top ten, and nothing is hidden behind a “show more”. Overall is the instructor's blended score for THIS class only, and its one contributing source is Boston College's evaluations for the sections in the row's record count — nothing on this board is an average across the other things they teach. Workload and Challenge are RANKS against every class we hold, not scores: BC's questions all sit near the top of the 1-5 scale, so a raw number would put almost every row in the high eighties and tell you nothing. Challenge is BC's “intellectually challenging” item, which students answer positively about courses that stretched them — it is not a measure of difficulty or grading. Neither column is ever marked better or worse. 3 of 3 rows are marked provisional: fewer than 3 records stand behind the number. That is thin evidence, not a bad instructor — the record count is in every row. The RateMyProfessors column is an instructor's overall figure across everything they teach; that site has no course dimension, so it is shown for information and kept out of the ranking.
The line
All 13 items · means across 3 recordsBar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.
Game log
3 sections · newest first| Instructor | Term | Sec | Instr | Course | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hanqin Tian | Fall 2025 | 01 | 94 | 85 | 40 |
| Jier Huang | Fall 2025 | 01 | 93 | 85 | 40 |
| Yi Ming | Fall 2025 | 01 | 91 | 85 | 40 |
How to read this boardInstructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.