This was a genuinely great course. I was never bored with any of the material, and actually looked forward to coming to class. The professor was super clear with what she was going to test on, as I feel she learned from previous students feedback. If you went to class she would tell you what topics of questions she would test on, saying "I always put this type of question on the test". Lipman also seemed like a genuine person who cared about her students. Gina was also an AMAZING TA. Super well informed and kind. Take this class, it will honestly change the way you see the world!

Mixed feelings about this class, but overall I do recommend it. In terms of actually educating you on the state of our planet and climate change, this class is a must-take. Absolutely life-changing class, the course material is very very interesting and important, and VERY eye-opening. Prof. Lipman does a good job teaching, the textbook is optional but helpful, and the labs, while better in person, are still good. The major downside to this class is the tests, which are very harshly graded. A nice thing though, is Prof. Lipman usually allows a group option for either the midterm or final, which can help, if your group is good. But besides the harsh grading, this class is very important and good to take in terms of actually educating yourself. Oh and please do the extra credit opportunity, it comes in clutch.

This is literally the worst class you will ever take at UCLA. I took it with Lipman and Gorlitsky and I thought Gorlitsky was bad until I had Lipman. Both the midterm and the final were insanely difficult for no reason at all and discussion section questions were graded very difficultly. Both are dry lecturers with nearly no personality and little regard for the welfare of their students. Moreover, Lipman frequently incorporated her own political opinions into lecture in order to brainwash her students. Please save yourself before its too late.

Where do I start? This class is ridiculously annoying. While the material is easy to comprehend, the professors methods of testing are very unclear, specific, and out right frustrating. I feel I was constantly having to mind read what the professor and TAs were expecting in terms of answers to the very specific questions. Don't let the free response format fool you! The professor delivers the necessary information, but it is difficult to gauge the simplicity/difficulty of each test question. Lastly, the TAs, at least my TA was useless!! She always looked at me awkwardly and with confusion. I felt perpetually screwed in this class because even after seeking for help, I didn't know what to expect

The final was unnecessarily difficult. I could not believe I was tested on the concepts she chose as they were explained very briefly during lecture. I almost shed a tear. I felt as though I had a good grasp on concepts but apparently that did not matter because we were tested on ~15% of the information on the final.

I am currently taking EEB100 right now with Alison Lipman and Gregory Grether, and I'm not going to lie, I was scared to take this class when I saw the Bruinwalk reviews. But, after the midterm and quizzes from her half of the class (which was on topics that only *she* covered), I think she has improved her teaching style and tests since the last Bruinwalk reviews. She was very clear during lectures, and the answers for the weekly quizzes we take are explained almost word-for-word in her lectures. I got a 100% in almost every quiz just by pressing "ctrl+f" through the lecture transcripts. But beware, you should at least still watch the lecture to actually comprehend the quiz questions thoroughly.

I got a 90% on the midterm with minimal studying, although I know other students had their grievances with the number of calculations on the exam. The class average was 87%, so I think the majority of students did very well. I'm glad to see that she realized she needed to change something about her class and actually listened to students- she also made her exams open-note once students voiced their opinion. Also, with consideration that not everyone could attend/afford an off-campus extra credit assignment for 10 points, they later offered a couple of on-campus options for EC.

In conclusion, I was very satisfied with the ecology section of this class. I will write another review for Gregory Grether's section on animal behavior on his Bruinwalk, but Alison gets 5 stars from me!

I took this class with both Dr Lipman and Dr Gorlitsky. Dr Gorlitsky taught the first 5 weeks on Animal Behaviour, whereas Dr Lipman taught the latter 5 weeks on ecology. With that being said, Dr Lipman's portion was not only more engaging, but her exam was also markedly easier. Overall, I enjoyed both professors and the class. The textbooks were also helpful for further clarification on subject material.

I'm only writing this review because the GroupMe for this class seems to be going crazy. Professor Lipman is an exceptional teacher. She stays up to date with effective teaching methods and successfully employs them in class. She taught the second half, i.e. the ecology portion, of the EEB100 class. She truly believes in the importance of her work and its real-world applications. To that end, she often mentions how we as students can get involved in conservation efforts which is incredible. She is incredibly engaging. I have to admit I would tune into live lectures and just watch TikTok for the hour and 15 minutes but I would still end up having learnt something every single time. For the final, I just skimmed her slides and rewatched the recorded lectures at 2x speed for any confusing concepts like the diversity indices and life history tables. I never bothered reading the textbook. She covered everything in plenty of depth in her lectures even for someone who wasn't even really listening. She encourages class participation to work on problems together. She does assign a lot of weekly articles and documentaries. I didn't read or watch any of them but answered the relevant questions on the final with nothing more than common sense. The final was incredibly fair and I truly believe I would have gotten an A without any review. The answers to the questions from the discussion articles could basically be found in the abstracts of each paper. The GroupMe however seemed to think that the exam was impossibly hard and unfair. They misinterpreted her lecture slides and tried confronting Professor Lipman. I was curious so I went back to the lecture recording to the relevant sections and I really don't see how they managed to confuse themselves. The average for the final was still in the 80s so I have no idea what they were tripping on but there was some beef there. I only wrote this review because it seems like there's a small but vocal group with an agenda against her and I wanted to present the other side to this story.

Professor Lipman cares about the class and about the subject. She has a lot of experience in conservation and often uses her work as examples during lecture. I never looked at the textbook, but she did require us to read a chapter book, E O Wilson's Half-Earth that we only discussed in section, took short reading quizzes on and one or two questions appeared on the exam. In section you are also required to read one scientific article and take a short quiz too. Her tests are multiple choice and strangely formatted with very similar choices as answers. Even though many of us complained that the answers and wording was misleading, she only gave us the points back for one question. Other than that, she is a reasonable professor.

If you clearly look at the A distribution, there is a 10%ish value. This class is not easy. I also did not finish the exam. Those people below that got A's and are "praising" the class were very rare individuals who attained that score. They say it's easy and doable but to be honest, you have to fight for points and to finish exams... She told us that she would make the exam shorter. Lies.

Don't think this is an easy class. This was actually harder than my biochem class 153 class. The exam answers have to be written in a very specific way....