Professor Robinson is someone who knows what she teaches in class (the absolute boss!). It is an easy subject but the content was a lot (lots of new terms and concepts of biogeography). I enjoyed the lectures but it would have been better if she were to reduce the content of the syllabus for this class. Labs were a piece of cake and exams were generally easy. 99.9% recommended (0.01% due to the huge syllabus content).

This was one of the best classes I've taken at UCLA! First and foremost, just to get it out there, the textbook is NOT needed. Professor Robinson clearly demonstrates her expertise in this field while keeping it very engaging and interesting. Every Sunday, two recorded lectures are released, and they're generally about an hour each. These lectures are incredibly informative, plus she uploads the slides for you to download. Dr. Robinson also provides a study guide for the Midterm and Final exam. I recommend doing them, as they are very helpful. It takes me about a whole day to finish it.
Discussion sections are very straightforward. The TA usually presents a slide introducing what the weekly lab is about to prepare you for it. Once that's out of the way, you are free to go or stay in the call to ask any questions. My TA (Ruth) was excellent. Few times I had to email her, and she was always quick to respond.

The weekly labs are due every Friday. It used to be at 6 pm, but it later changed to 11:59 pm for us. It takes me 2-4 hours on average to complete them; they're not too hard. I recommend starting on it at least a day before if you run into a problem and have to ask questions. The species report was not too difficult, 4-5 pages excluding figures and graphs, with 6 pages the maximum. The rubric literally tells you the outline and what you need to write. In addition, you have to cite at least two scholarly journals via UCLA VPN. Again, as other reviews stated, it was not too difficult, but it is time-consuming, so the moral of the story is to start on it ASAP, not when it's due in the next 2 days. The only thing I wish is if this class were in PERSON! Thank you, Professor Robinson, you ROCK!

This class was relatively interesting and easy with asynchronous lectures. The midterm and final were very memorization-based and easy. The labs also were very quick and graded very leniently and there was a short and easy species report final. Do the study guide though as that is really important to do well on the midterm and final! Overall would recommend this class to anyone for an easy science lab GE

Would definitely recommend this class as an easy GE. Biodiversity is not a topic that is super interesting, but the content is straightforward and Prof. Robinson is super engaging. She does a great job of explaining the content and is super passionate about her work.

The work overall was light. Lectures were asynchronous and two lectures were posted each week, about 1 hour each. Besides the lab, there is no other work and buying/reading the textbook is NOT needed. Everything you need to know comes directly from her lectures. Each lab was assigned during the lab section and due every Sunday. The lab assignments were fairly simple and didn't take long to complete, but TAs were readily available if you have any questions.

The midterm and final were very easy if you know the material. Make sure you fill out and study the study guide, because pretty much all the questions were taken from the study guide.

If you need an easy GE, this is the one. It's asynchronous (although of course these things might change when the pandemic is over), lectures are recorded, and there are no group projects. There's a textbook, but the professor told us herself to focus on the lectures since they follow the book but focus on what's important for the tests. After I learned this, I didn't even read the textbook. The tests are mostly multiple choice (the midterm had some frq). But she gives us a study guide for both tests and the tests follow the study guides very closely. Just collaborate with people in the class to finish/answer the stuidy guides (it's lengthy) and you'll be fine for the tests.

As for the labs, their easy. Especially because this class is remote, we didn't collect any data or perform any experiments. So all the data was given to us which made doing the labs very quick. Lab sections will have like one hour of lecture and one hour of working on the labs. So basically if you have questions you can just ask the TA right there, and sometimes they'll just give you the answer. You can just finish the lab right there during lab section with confidence that you got most of the questions right (and they're not even that hard to do anyway). Although, the TAs will write their explanations on the slides and lab documents differently so some are more clear than others. I had Ben and his slides and instructions were always very clear and straight to the point.

As for the research report, it's not too hard. They give you all the topics you need to research and they teach you how to find articles on google scholar etc. and how to use and download the UCLA vpn.

Basically, don't worry about this class at all.

Took GEOG 2 for the science GE + lab, and overall it was a fairly easy n normal class. It's on biodiversity, so it's very interdisciplinary. You get quick run throughs on the basics of lots of other studies. Not too difficult, so long as you listen to her lectures.

Professor uploaded her lectures, so it was all remote and asynchronous. I had Monica as my TA, and all I can say is GET HER. She is super sweet and understanding, and you have plenty of time to do labs with her and finish them on the day of assignment.
Prof also gave study guides which were VERY helpful. You can tell which questions on the guide are gonna be on the exam.

If you want the class textbook Biogeography: Space, Time and Life (brand new, first few pages lightly highlighted) contact *************
25 w/out mailing costs