I would not really recommend this lab honestly. It’s not that it’s insanely difficult, it’s just a lot of work and it can be annoying when you have a bunch of other things going on. I had Sara as my TA and I liked her a lot, it wasn’t too difficult to get an A, just make sure you meet with your TA often and ask for lots of guidance on your group project. Also, almost your entire grade is based off of one big project/paper and you can’t choose your group members so make sure everyone is contributing equally and you’ll be fine.

Seriously the worst class I have ever taken. The TAs will take off points for absolutely random things. AND I MEAN RANDOM. They clearly are just trying to meet a quota and that honestly just makes the authenticity of the class go way down. Everyone agreed that the exams were super vague and worded weirdly. There were probably about 10 questions on each exam that could have multiple correct answers depending on your reasoning. I met with a TA one time to discuss exam answers and even she couldn’t give me a logical reason as to why my answers were incorrect. Dr. Lipman and Gorlitsky… do better

This course is TA-taught. The only interaction my group had with Dr. Gorlitsky and Dr. Lipman was through an hour-long office hour they held, in which we received optional feedback for our initial research project idea. Because the class is TA-taught, your grade will heavily depend on your TA, and the professors will only be accessible if you request extra meetings with them (the professors seem to often be busy, as my group emailed a meeting request and did not receive a response). The course revolves around a group research project in which you write a prospectus (proposal) for, present on twice, and write a final paper for. This class was more work than I expected as several of my group members did not pull their weight, and the only consequence for this is a lower group participation grade, which is a small portion of the grade.

TLDR; Don't take this class because of mandatory attendance (not recorded), poorly written multiple choice exams, and weekly assignments that are near impossible to get 10/10 on.

This class is an unnecessary time sink that will require a disproportionate amount of effort to succeed in compared to other classes. For instance, I took this class at the same time as CHEM 153A and found that I was spending WAY more time on EEB 100. If you are able to take literally any other class, I would choose it. The professors do not post their lectures which is crazy because they expect you to remember every little detail for the midterm and final. They had multiple test questions that referenced a singular sentence from a YouTube video shown in class.

There is absolutely 0 indication as to what is important to study for the exams. You essentially have to memorize the course which is especially difficult to do when it is not recorded. The PowerPoints lack the necessary detail to succeed and the practice exams are far easier than the actual tests which are worth 60 PERCENT of your final grade.

In addition to this, the TAs were super nitpicky about the weekly assignments. They were literally taking off 10% of our weekly assignment grades for not including a hyperlink in a pdf document in addition to their wildly inconsistent grading scheme.

So, if you have the choice DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. However, if you have to take this class then you better be prepared to go to every lecture and take really good notes.

I took this course with professor Gregory grether and Lipman.

Overall view of the class:
I think that the concepts were engaging and interesting and there wasn’t a lot of work to do for the class. For discussion you only had a weekly reading that came with a summary and 1 presentation. But it was annoying because you can almost never get a 100 on the homework and they take off points for the most dumb thing like not putting your name, the title of the reading, the TA’s are very nit picky. I had Joey as a TA and he would never give 100 and would take off points for anything he was also harsh on grading presentations. Basically it’s very hard to get an A for this class, the class average this quarter was 85% and BEWARE they do not round up grades. Even if you are very close they say they do not round, so whatever you get is your grade period !

Gregory Grether :
His lectures were so boring ! I had to fight my sleep ! He would talk to fast and I feel like I couldn’t take notes as quick but he had recordings which helped. His quizzes were online and must be completed in an hour, which was graded for accuracy. The quizzes were not that simple, I feel like you had to understand the concepts and I feel like the way he explained things just made it way more complicated. The best TA that helped explain things was Maddy. But besides that the midterm was not that bad, I feel like he mostly teaches about concepts rather than definitions. But the way I studied was mostly by definitions. And I got a B on the midterm. Overall, boring lecturer but his midterm was not that bad.

On the other hand…

Lipman: she was a very engaging professor, she asked questions and accepted participation. So I didn’t want to fall asleep in her class. But what I hated was that she would take more participation time rather than thoroughly going over concepts. Not only that but she would not record lectures so you have to go to class and she would have pop quizzes that would be turned in to the TA some Time during class so you have to make sure to go. Good thing the quizzes were not graded on accuracy but more on participation. But because she wouldn’t record it would be hard to keep up with the material since I feel like she mostly used pictures as her slides. Not only that but I feel like her exam was way harder than the animal behavior portion. Something I did not expect in the final was the fact that she had questions related to the videos she would show in class so try and pay attention to the main point in the videos she shows in class. Overall, she was not the best professor when it came to explaining content.

Not an easy class, but doable if you stay on top of the material and know going into it that it is going to be a little bit more difficult than some EEB classes you take. Make sure to do the EC field trip because it can make a big difference at the end of the class! Going to office hours before the exams really helps and both Gorlitsky and Lipman are very nice and willing to answer any questions you may have.

Selling the Animal Behavior Textbook, $45 **********

The content was interesting but participation and attendance was required for every single discussion section. Exams were difficult and no answer keys were given out after receiving grades. I am selling my 80+ pages typed-up notes for both the ecology and animal behavior sections, my email is L*************.

Lipman was an overall pretty okay professor. Compared to Dr.Gorlitsky, her lectures were a bit lower energy, had fewer videos, and were often very slow. The slides were also weirdly formatted but contained most of the information that you would need for the exam. It would help if you still showed up to the lecture since they do pop quizzes based on participation to check for attendance. Her exam which only tested the last 5 weeks' ecology portion of the class was very hard compared to her practice exams and the sample questions that she had in her slides. If you study and pay attention to some of the important concepts and know how to apply them in the slides and her lectures, you should get by just fine. The workload each week was very manageable where you had to read one research paper each week and answer some questions. However, depending on the TA or grader, they can be kind of picky with the grading. For the ecology part, the concepts are a bit easier, especially if you took LS30A/B, but the exam is def harder than the animal behavior part with Gorlitsky.

This lab is TA taught. It was a lot of work and participation was required during the long 4-hour lab period. There are many assignments and a final research paper. My group did not receive the equipment for our experiment from the faculty until week 9, a few days before the final presentation was due.

Take a shot every time Dr. Lipman mentions Bolivia.

The exams are very open-ended with many correct answers as long as you explain your answer.
Discussion sections involve group presentations and weekly quizzes.
Her slides are so ugly and lectures aren't recorded but the way she lectures is so convoluted and confusing.

Overall I regret taking this class LOL I was vaguely interested in conservation biology and Dr. Lipman made me take it all back. Honestly, listen to the reviews, avoid the class, it's so annoying.