I would argue that this class, although very engaging and comparably less difficult than other Science GEs, is not the SUPER easy-A GE that it is made out to be on Bruinwalk. This class requires lots of memorization: you are responsible for knowing different lineages of dinosaurs, be able to identify dinosaurs based on very niche specific tooth-shapes and skull-shapes, recall long dinosaur names, and be able to match any given dinosaur to its location on Pangea and the time frame it lived in. Lectures are engaging (though they are recorded) and Professor Brown is super nice and intelligent! Every TA is also extremely well-informed and resourceful, I would highly recommend office hours. I would consider the weekly labs to be difficult at times because they involve the observation of many different dinosaur fossils, and some lab questions are completely guess-based and hypothetical. So as someone who likes when there is one right science-based answer, it was difficult to guess. There are weekly quizzes on Bruinwalk based on the textbook readings (which can be taken as many times as one wants until they get their ideal scores). There are also 5 or 6 lab quizzes based on the labs, which can only be taken once (and I find these to be a little more on the difficult side).

This class was sooooo much fun!! It was a light and easy GE and the labs were actually so fun I looked forward to them every week! This class made me realize I think dinosaurs are pretty damn cool and I want to learn more about them

Everything about this class is amazing. I want to be a paleontologist now.

This class is very interesting but definitely not the easiest GE to take. You must memorize a lot of information on multiple species of dinosaurs to where it can get confusing if you don't study enough. I liked this class a lot but it is definitely not a GE you can get away without studying for. Midterm and Final were both in person. The labs for this class were very fun and engaging.

This is an easy and good GE to take freshman year. It’s quite interesting at some points, but is a lot of memorization. The discussions were all lab-based and collaborative work that we do in class. There was barely any outside work other than weekly quizzes about the recent readings and lectures. Definitely take this class if you want an easy GE!

idk i didn't go to class or watch lectures at all. lab attendance mandatory. she posts lectures and slides. labs are easy if someone at your table knows what is going on. but our TA pretty much would just tell us the answers to everything we asked about. you do not have to do the readings at all. weekly 5-question reading quizzes are google-able and have unlimited attempts on bruinlearn. bi-weekly 5-questions lab quizzes also on bruinlearn don't have unlimited attempts, but i didnt know any of the content and googled based on the context of the question and always got 100%. i tried squeezing all the content in the day before the midterm & final, but this is the first class that this method has not worked for with me. there was just way too many concepts and dinos to memorize it was impossible so i gave up. i also thought i failed both exams because i literally guessed on all of the questions. that being said, i got a 52/58 on midterm mcq and 7/7 on one written response question and for the final i got 41/43 on mcq and 14/14 on a couple written response questions. midterm was 28-30 mcq and final was 43 mcq. she deliberately makes the written questions extremely easy, basically the most basic concept you could know. she curved both tests i believe. grade distribution: midterm 15%, labs 40%, weekly reading quizzes 10%, bi-weekly lab quizzes 10%, final 25%. definitely recommend. automatic A

I'm an engineering major, I took this just to fulfill GE requirements but I loved this class. I found it incredibly interesting and super easy. Most of your grade is basically given to you for free. Tips: 1. Ask your TA's if you're not sure on lab answers. They will probably just give you the answer. 2. Don't overthink the lab quizzes. They're not designed to trick you. 3. Go over the study guide and lecture slides a couple times for the tests and you'll ace them. She curves them too, but you shouldn't need it, everything in this class is super easy. Take the class! You'll have fun and have almost no work to do for it ever.

this class is interesting, the tests are easy, the professor is nice, the grade distribution is generous, and the only homework you have is weekly five-question quizzes that you can take as many times as you want until you get a 5/5. I can't recommend this class enough.

This class was randomly so difficult this quarter. I know this is supposed to be an easy science GE but I just did NOT feel that way. There was a LOT of memorization to be done for the exams (I think this was the first quarter that this class was going to be back in person for lectures, exams, etc.) and it was so much information that I just genuinely was not interested in at all for a GE.

I was a total dinosaur kid in elementary school so this was the perfect science ge to take, especially since I'm really really really bad at science. Labs were really fun since we just looked at fossils and pictures of dinosaurs. The midterm and final were pretty easy as well, especially since they were online (although this might have been because of covid idk). We also had weekly online quizzes with unlimited retakes. Honestly I didn't need the textbook, just go to lecture! Professor Brown is really cool too, and we got to learn about her work with the La Brea Tar Pits!