EE BIOL 120
Evolution
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Requisites: Life Sciences 1, 2, 3, 4, 23L, and Mathematics 3A and 3B (or 31A or Life Sciences 30B). Not open for credit to students with credit for course 185. Designed for departmental majors specializing in environmental and population biology. Introduction to mechanics and processes of evolution, with emphasis on natural selection, population genetics, speciation, evolutionary rates, and patterns of adaptation. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Funny and helpful professor. Requires some math calculations but overall emphasize the large concepts. Math calculations aren't too difficult but can be challenging (especially the pedigree) Homework can be somewhat difficult (mostly calculations) but you don't need to take the exam if you do well on the homework. Discussion sections go over the calculations needed for homework (with sample problems) and the research paper to write for the assignment (mostly summary and some application). Attend class for clicker participation.
Winter 2019 - Funny and helpful professor. Requires some math calculations but overall emphasize the large concepts. Math calculations aren't too difficult but can be challenging (especially the pedigree) Homework can be somewhat difficult (mostly calculations) but you don't need to take the exam if you do well on the homework. Discussion sections go over the calculations needed for homework (with sample problems) and the research paper to write for the assignment (mostly summary and some application). Attend class for clicker participation.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - TL;DR: Worst class I’ve ever took. Professor doesn't lecture on tested topics and is virtually unreachable outside of class. Dr. Schindlinger might be the worst professor I've had at UCLA. The only reason I did well is because it was online, students were allowed to collaborate, and there was no curve. Dr. Schindlinger almost never responds to his email. If you do happen to get a response, consider yourself lucky. This was frustrating during COVID because we had no other ways to ask him questions outside of lecture time. Class attendance was mandatory. We got a zoom message from one of the TAs at the end of the class with a code we had to input into a google sheet. If you had a time conflict, internet went out, lived in a different time zone, etc., you were out of luck. For homework every week, we were given an assigned reading that we had to write a 1 page summary plus questions and answers (took about 2-4 hours). Two weeks of the quarter, you had to do a presentation with your discussion group about the article. Weekly quizzes would be about assigned readings. Usually, this would be ~2 chapters from the textbook and a couple of "related articles.” In lecture, he would use the textbook company's slideshows to lecture, so we basically got a bad summary of what we had to do for homework. He would also not connect the related articles to the textbook chapters, so they felt like they didn't really connect even though they were supposed to. We'd then have a quiz about the topics we were supposed to do for homework. On a 5 question quiz, 2-3 would be about the related articles that were never talked about, so you just had to do your best. The remaining questions would be on information that was normally not covered during his lectures, making lectures feel like a waste of time. The midterm and final were both composed of 5 short answer/essay questions that we got a week to complete. The questions were often worded poorly or were overwhelmingly vague, so students didn't know what he was trying to ask. Some questions would be about material that was never talked about in lecture or assigned for homework. We had a math question on the midterm after learning no math during the class (wasn't information I had learned in other classes). The professor and TAs wouldn't answer questions because it was a midterm question so students just had to guess. After all of these issues, he never submitted final grades, so every student received an NR in the grade book.
Winter 2021 - TL;DR: Worst class I’ve ever took. Professor doesn't lecture on tested topics and is virtually unreachable outside of class. Dr. Schindlinger might be the worst professor I've had at UCLA. The only reason I did well is because it was online, students were allowed to collaborate, and there was no curve. Dr. Schindlinger almost never responds to his email. If you do happen to get a response, consider yourself lucky. This was frustrating during COVID because we had no other ways to ask him questions outside of lecture time. Class attendance was mandatory. We got a zoom message from one of the TAs at the end of the class with a code we had to input into a google sheet. If you had a time conflict, internet went out, lived in a different time zone, etc., you were out of luck. For homework every week, we were given an assigned reading that we had to write a 1 page summary plus questions and answers (took about 2-4 hours). Two weeks of the quarter, you had to do a presentation with your discussion group about the article. Weekly quizzes would be about assigned readings. Usually, this would be ~2 chapters from the textbook and a couple of "related articles.” In lecture, he would use the textbook company's slideshows to lecture, so we basically got a bad summary of what we had to do for homework. He would also not connect the related articles to the textbook chapters, so they felt like they didn't really connect even though they were supposed to. We'd then have a quiz about the topics we were supposed to do for homework. On a 5 question quiz, 2-3 would be about the related articles that were never talked about, so you just had to do your best. The remaining questions would be on information that was normally not covered during his lectures, making lectures feel like a waste of time. The midterm and final were both composed of 5 short answer/essay questions that we got a week to complete. The questions were often worded poorly or were overwhelmingly vague, so students didn't know what he was trying to ask. Some questions would be about material that was never talked about in lecture or assigned for homework. We had a math question on the midterm after learning no math during the class (wasn't information I had learned in other classes). The professor and TAs wouldn't answer questions because it was a midterm question so students just had to guess. After all of these issues, he never submitted final grades, so every student received an NR in the grade book.
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