Okay so this class did not dissapoint. I loved it from begining to end. Professor Brown is an awsome lecturer, though sometimes she does gove a lot of information and goes through it pretty quickly. Regardless, learning about dinosaurs and what actually qualifies as one in more detail is pretty freaking awsome. Before every lecture started she'd play a scene from the Land Before Time or from the Jurassic Park/World movies. I also really enjoyed the labs and how at the very first lab she took us on a walk around campus to mirror a timline of ancient life on earth. There was a lot of information to sort through, but I'd take this class again. She was also very helpful to answer questions during office hours and broke down any concepts I had issues with. After class if something is bothering you from lectures or your confused don't be afraid to go up to her and ask. She'll definitely answer your question.

BEST CLASS I HAVE EVER TAKEN AT UCLA. Take this at all costs! This class was absolutely fascinating. Labs were like group projects where you got to analyze real dinosaur bones! The workload of the class was easy and our midterm and final was open note. I wish i could untake the class so i can take it again. I went to see Jurassic World after the class and I could name every dinosaur and say facts about each! Also, Professor Brown is freaking HILARIOUS. She had us all laughing our heads off.

This is a great course for a science GE. You certainly learn a lot about dinosaurs and their relatives- species, anatomy, ecology, etc. Brown is a pretty good professor. Her lectures are easy to follow and she presents information clearly. Grading is fair and is based on weekly reading quizzes, labs, lab quizzes, a midterm, and a final. Quizzes can be done without the readings, but the two books she assigns are very insightful for the course so I recommend reading them. Labs are interesting but can be tough. The midterm and final require studying- in my opinion, the midterm was a lot harder than the final. All in all, a good GE, especially for non-STEM majors.

I thought that this class was great overall. Professor Brown was super accommodating and friendly during Covid times since our midterm and final were all online. The only thing is that she talks pretty fast during lectures, so it can be a little difficult to keep up with her while writing notes. However, she posts her lectures on Canvas and the slides, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect. The midterm and the final were pretty fair, but I felt like I got lucky with the tests being online because some of the questions were slightly difficult if you did not study. With that being said, the final/midterm will most likely be in-person after the spring 2022 quarter, so keep that in mind.

The labs were very easy and the grading was extremely generous. Shoutout to my TA Leslie!!! She was super sweet, kept the labs super engaging, and helped us every step of the way. She definitely made this more of a fun class rather than a GE you have to mindlessly take. The lab quizzes were straightforward since Dr.Brown let us use the lab answer keys to answer questions and they were 5 questions/multiple choice. There are also readings, but to be honest, I never read anything and still got an A at the end of the quarter. Overall, I would recommend taking this class because of the interesting content, friendly professor, and chill TAs. However, if the exams are in person, make sure to really study!

Prof. Brown was so cool! This class is a great GE. It's definitely worth taking if you're trying to fulfill a lab requirement, and the material was super interesting.

I took this class, like many, as a science G.E. Honestly it was more of a pain that I expected, but in the end I would still recommend it given that an A- or above I think is easily attainable if you put the work in and go to class and pay attention (honestly though, I didn't even pay attention that much). Professor Brown is so sweet. She is really funny, smart, and really cares about her students. You can tell she is passionate and knowledgeable about dinosaurs and teaching, and that makes for really engaging lectures. However, honestly, I found the content to be really bland. It had nothing to do with Professor Brown's teaching style, but I really just didn't connect to the science concepts like bio and looking at bones, etc. etc. You will basically get full credit on labs as long as you show up, but they can be a little frustrating to do. My TA Jason was more or less helpful (lol) but overall super easy points. My lab never went over an hour even though it was scheduled for two. The tests were fair. A ton of questions from the final were literally taken directly from a practice reading quiz she had sent out, so I highly recommend reviewing any materials she sends before midterms/tests. Overall, this is a decent class that works well for a science GE (especially coming from a North Campus major) and it's kind of interesting to learn about dinos... but probably not as much as you think . :)

-Class Breakdown:
Midterm exam: 15%
Lab assignments: 40%
Weekly reading quizzes: 10%
Online lab material quizzes: 10%
Final Exam: 25%

-Lectures/Content:
I am not quite sure what I was expecting when choosing to take this course but I heard that it was a pretty interesting and light GE. And while it was light and somewhat interesting, the material was VERY dense. I am definitely walking away from this class knowing much more about dinosaurs and their relatives than I would like. With that said, I think that it is important to note that this class does not just teach you dinosaur names and traits. This class involves heavy aspects of geology, biology, and anatomy. For example, we learned about the metabolism of dinosaurs, how fossils are preserved, how to know our place in geologic time, and the anatomy of different taxa of dinosaurs. While the professor does a great job of explaining these concepts, they are not (in my opinion) the most enjoyable. Like I said, they are explained well both by the professor and the assigned reading, it is just a matter of applying yourself to learn it. Other aspects of the class such as the “Dinosaur of the Day” and learning about how dinosaurs and their relatives lived during their time on earth was very interesting. All things considered, I would say the content was pretty enjoyable to learn BUT it did require students to stay on top of weekly learning goals in order to not fall behind and become overwhelmed by the material.

-Labs:
There are pros and cons to the labs. For one, the labs are usually 2 hours in length. While I know some lab sections only lasted for 30 minutes of those 2 hours, my section almost always went the full 2 hours (sometimes even slightly above that). There were a few people who preferred to get their lab done and leave, however, a few other students and myself usually stayed behind to ask questions and spend more time looking at the fossils in order to write down more accurate answers. I credit the scores I got on my labs to my willingness to stay the full 2 hours. Going over the lab with other students and with my TA allowed me to get full credit on all of my labs so I highly recommend making friends in your section and communicating with your TA. For context, labs were usually 5-9 pages of questions about fossils or other lab materials shown during the 2 hours. There were some times where we would leave the room and take walks around campus to look at fossils or plant life and that was pretty fun! The questions were usually not too difficult and were pretty easy to answer if you were caught up with lectures. All in all, I would say that labs were nothing crazy and definitely should not worry you.

-Exams:
For this quarter, both our midterm and final exam were conducted online (open-book/open-note). They both consisted of about 30 multiple choice questions with a short answer question at the end of each. We were given a time window for both exams (example: 24 hours to finish a 90-minute exam with 35 questions). Initially, these exams were planned to take place in person, but because of a rise in Covid-19 cases, they were both moved online. I think these exams were very fair for the modality on which they were provided. I know that several students did amazing on these exams. I, myself, managed to get A’s on both. That said, if these exact exams were given in person, I don’t think they would be as manageable. As previously mentioned, the content of this course is very dense. Before the midterm was switched to online, several students did not think they were going to do well, myself included. Because there is so much information covered, it is hard to decide on what information you should prioritize. However, the professor provides students with a VERY helpful study guide and usually provides extra office hours leading up to the exams to ask any questions about the study guide, the format of the exam, or any content that you might be confused about. In general, the exams shouldn’t be too hard if you study the study guide well and understand the learning goals from lectures.

-Quizzes:
We were given two types of quizzes. Reading quizzes dealt with information covered from the weekly readings. You had unlimited tries, an unlimited amount of time to complete these quizzes, and they were open-note. Meaning that it was relatively impossible for you not to get 100% on every quiz. There were 8 reading quizzes and the one with the lowest score was dropped. The second kind of quiz given were lab quizzes. These were a bit tougher because they were timed and you only got one chance to complete them. Additionally, you had to look at 3D models on your computer and it could be difficult at times to fully understand what you were looking at. That said, they were not too difficult and students were often provided with practice quizzes that resembled the content and format of the lab quizzes before the actual quiz. There were 4 of these quizzes. During my quarter, the professor made an announcement that she was going to group the two kinds of quizzes together and was going to drop students’ two lowest scores overall (not just from reading quizzes). This meant that both categories were combined to make up 20% of our grade and any quiz could be dropped. This helped students a lot because more people did poorly on lab quizzes than reading quizzes, meaning that the lab quizzes they didn’t do well on were ultimately dropped.

-Overall Opinion:
In comparison to other science GEs at UCLA, this one is by far one of the more interesting ones. While there is a lot of content covered, it can be quite enjoyable, especially when given the chance to actually hold and look at different fossils. I will also say that the professor is amazing. Her energy is great and you can tell that she really wants her students to succeed. If you find yourself struggling in this class, don’t be afraid to reach out for help! I wish you the best of luck!

Selling physical copies of both textbooks!
- "Dinosaur Odyssey" by Scott D. Sampson
- "The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs" by Stephen L. Brusatte

Text me! **********
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This class was pretty fun, but I gotta say I was not expecting I would have to know so much about dinosaurs. Maybe it was dumb of me to be shocked by this, but I was expecting a VERY easy GE. It was definitely easy, but be prepared to know some stuff about dino metabolism, anatomy, taxonomy, etc. and be able to recognize these things in diagrams and fossils (this was the hardest part for me). If you get a good TA, labs are easy and they are worth 40% of your grade. I would highly recommend Hanzhang Chen as a TA for this class, he was so chill and a chill grader. You are given unlimited attempts for the weekly quizzes, so you can totally get 100% on those.

I didn't do ANY of the readings for this class and ended with an A. If you go to lectures (or watch them later, they're recorded) and pay attention/take notes, you should be able to get an A. Also, Professor Brown is so fun and chill and a great prof. Overall, a pretty chill and good GE, especially compared to other physical science GEs.

Took this during COVID19 and hands down was the easiest class I had. Relatively, I did not have to study that much and was able to just skim the lecture and powerpoint slides the prof posted during both the midterm and final.

If you are looking for an easy GE, this is it.

While the concept of dinosaurs seems cool in general, I found this class to be extremely tedious and boring after a while. There also is a lot of memorize if this class were in person. For an online GE that will not stress you out much, it is not a bad choice. I did not really do the readings and I stopped attending lecture and I ended up in the A range of things. She is an extremely sweet professor but after seven weeks of extremely condensed information on dinosaurs and evolution, I reached my breaking point and could not go to class any further.
As classes become more in person, however, I think this is a way harder class than most are making it out to be. The labs are quite long and the information you need to memorize is very hype specific and dull. For a pass/no pass class, it is very manageable though.