Jessica Sunshine

This professor has taught: ASTR100, ASTR120, ASTR220, ASTR230, ASTR330, ASTR399, ASTR430, ASTR630

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Jessica Sunshine ASTR120 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2025	She was fine but not great. First of all, she is a good lecturer. Her lectures are interesting and engaging and she is genuinely a fun person to have as a professor (which makes me a little sad to be only giving 2 stars). The homework assignments can be a bit tedious but generally are reasonable for the class and are graded fairly generously. One other thing is that Professor Sunshine is a geologist almost as much as she is an astronomer, so a lot of her lessons and assignments are skewed a bit towards that side of things. I have a few qualms though: 1. The class had too many assignments. Not in the sense that the class was difficult to keep up with, but in the sense that the number of little assignments and grade categories was simply superfluous. Every class had a graded pre class quiz. Every class had a group assignment to submit. Before every discussion we were required to submit questions to the TA. Discussion attendance was graded. There was a group project involving a slideshow, oral presentation, and progress report. An individual project with similar requirements. Were any of these assignments difficult? No. But there were just so many little things to keep up with and it seemed unnecessary. Each of these assignment categories was also a separate grading category which was a bit silly. It was nice having so many categories besides exams, but there was no reason for there to be this many little participation type grades. It made a lot of the class just feel like busywork. 2. She wanted to do a "reverse classroom" format. I don't hate this and it can be done well, but it felt like the material from the pre class readings and the classes didn't always match. I don't think anyone ever actually did the pre class readings for this reason. 3. The textbook is bad. We used the openstax book, which is fine but not great. I get that a professor wants to pick a book that is free and thus accessible to everyone, but let's be honest. Every textbook is free online these days so you might as well pick one that's actually good. The openstax book was very general and included very little of the important math which was annoying. It felt like something that would have been more suited to a high school course, not a college one. Even the TAs admitted that they didn't care much for it and said it wasn't worth studying from too much. 4. The homework assignments didn't really match the exams. The homeworks tended to be mostly math based, with some simple conceptual questions mixed in. The exams however were mostly conceptual and often pertained to specific facts from class, as opposed to applying key ideas and equations. The TAs weren't even really able to help us prepare since the professor usually made exams the day before. Again, not the end of the world but was a bit annoying. 5. She did not curve and was unwilling to round grades at all. I finished the class with a grade that was 0.05% a way from an A. That is 1/20th of a percent. And she would not round up and applied no curve. That was kinda evil of her not gonna lie. Honestly I was really excited to be in Professor Sunshine's class after hearing such good things and seeing her reviews. She was very nice and I did learn a few things from the class, but the overall format was not my favorite nor was it really that helpful for my learning. From what I've heard she is probably a better option than Cole Miller, but not as good as Richardson or some of the other teachers in the department.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR220 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 07/17/2025	She is a great teacher there is no doubt about it and she is also very knowledgeable about what she talks about. However I found this to be one of the hardest Gen-ed class I have ever taken. The class was quite hard and the workload was also pretty heavy, the exams were also pretty hard, but she offered us for a certain percentage of our grade to work with out teammates which I found really helpful. The class was pretty interesting and I honestly got to learn a lot new things. If you are up for the challenge do take the class. If you are looking for a stroll in the park please do not take it!!!
Jessica Sunshine ASTR220 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2025	One of the most interesting courses I've taken at umd. No homework aside from 30-40 min videos + quiz due before every class which was kinda annoying but were pretty easy. You'll be assigned a group in the beginning and work with them the entire semester during lecture. Lectures were engaging and go over what you learn in the prelecture video. If you're doing ASTR minor I'd definitely recommend this over ASTR230.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR220 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2024	This class was very interesting, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to either satisfy General Education credits or explore the astronomy minor. The class was highly based around group projects, but Professor Sunshine took many precautions to ensure that fair and satisfactory work was being done by each group member. Students were also given an option to privately inform Professor Sunshine at the beginning of the semester about people they did or did not want to work with. My only problem with Professor Sunshine is that she did not provide feedback for exams and was unclear about how to access past exams. As such, it was challenging to improve upon test scores with limited feedback. This was less of a problem, however, as most of the grade for this class comprised of the group projects.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR220 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	We got donut holes and TA gave us stickers for the Final Exam! The class was not easy to get an A in, but the professor was really nice and caring for the students. Overall great professor to have!
Jessica Sunshine ASTR100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/29/2022	Class was asynchronous in nature, with all homework assignments being due at the end of the semester. The material is interesting and was an easy gen ed
Jessica Sunshine ASTR430 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/16/2022	Jessica is incredibly passionate as a lecturer and very engaging. Took this class as a tech elective for aeroE (without any prior ASTR classes) and it is my favorite class ever. The bandwidth of learning in this class is extremely high and it's very interactive. Highly recommend her and this class as well!
Jessica Sunshine ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/13/2022	Very amazing professor and TAs are great too. Class is easy, almost too easy, but very interesting and you learn a ton of information in the process. Take this class if you need the credit or are just interested in the Astronomy in the slightest bit and have room in you schedule.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2021	Amazing professor who understand what it takes to teach this course. It is almost entirely self-paced, which is good for some people. Just make sure you remember deadlines and don't save all of the work until the last day. The projects are easy and kind of fun. She does a ton of demonstrations in class which is super super cool
Jessica Sunshine ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2021	Great and pretty easy class. For the fall semester of '21 the class was mostly a bunch of online work that you could do at your own pace. It seems like a lot of work but it's pretty easy. She is also very nice and helpful. Highly suggest taking this to fulfil gen ed and for gpa booster.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/03/2021	This is a great class to fulfill your science gen-ed. It is basically an online self-paced course with a couple of hard deadlines throughout the semester. Therefore, you only go to lecture every two weeks and have one discussion section every week. Even though it is self-paced, do not save everything until the end because that is extremely overwhelming. The lectures and discussions are mandatory attendance because they give an assignment at the end of each discussion and lecture. There is some work, but the quizzes are really easy (if you use online resources wisely) so it doesn't feel like that much over the entirety of the semester. Also, the general coursework is extremely interesting.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/01/2021	Very easy class, half to most of it is online and you only have to come to lecture once a week every Friday, maybe twice. The exams on ELMS are extremely easy and you can figure out the answers very easily (cough cough quizlet cough cough). Attendance to class is mandatory though, they have assignments at the end of every lecture or discussion that you have to turn in. Decent amount of course work though I would consider it simple to do. Overall great class if you need a natural science gen ed with not a lot of time commitment.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR220 Expecting a B- Anonymous 06/17/2021	Class was really interesting, professor Sunshine included plenty of activities to help us grasp the concept of each lecture. I took this course with absolutely no knowledge of Astronomy and I felt like I struggled a bit, but still came out with a B. This course does involve a substantial amount of advanced math calculations and some physics applications so be aware of that. She also does not do well with answering her emails.
Jessica Sunshine ASTR220 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2020	I took this during Fall 2019. Pros: + Very clearly passionate about the subject matter, if you like astronomy you'll love this class. + Class content is pretty interesting and made topical through the use of real world examples. + (Kinda) easy A (See below). + Tests are extremely generous. Basically, after you take them, you immediately take the same test again in your group, allowing you to net a lot more points. This is carefully designed to never hurt your grade, only help. Cons: - Despite the course being designated as for nonscience majors, the course actually does require quite a bit of rudimentary knowledge of math, science, and physics. Some help is given during class, but most likely not enough. STEM majors will be fine, but non-STEM majors should be prepared for some additional studying. - Class organization was a bit strange, as we had to take extensive notes of pre-lecture videos that were quite long, but in class lectures mostly didn't go over any new content.