I'd like to start off by saying this class format was changed so that there were weekly 30-minute quizzes during lectures. To make matters worse, lecture days were only on Friday afternoons, so studying the entire week for a small quiz after midterms and other exams was a complete drag.
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These other high reviews were during COVID when the professor was just printing out A's based on effort and not accuracy.
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The quiz and exam questions were overly specific random facts that were tested on instead of the main overarching ideas of the reading assigned. The readings were just excerpts from the professor's written books that you are required to purchase, and they took hours each week to complete. The chapters you are required to complete are just jargon stories of her time practicing medicine. The main takeaways should be of importance to the student, but you will end up being tested on random facts like the name of a penguin or seal discussed in the last paragraph of the chapter readings (weren't specifically tested on, but are just examples of what to expect).
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The quizzes and exams weren't even the worst part, the professor decided to curve the class down an entire letter grade when she posted the final grades. There was no warning on her end or any mention of a downward curve the entire quarter. The class was based on rank from the beginning, despite her numerous claims that anyone who puts in the effort will earn an A.
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My overall rating for this course is a 2/10. I simply cannot recommend it with good faith. There were too many inconsistencies coupled with a complete lack of support. It's perhaps one of the worst classes I have taken at UCLA. So many of my classmates including myself put so much energy into memorizing her ridiculous stories just to earn mediocre grades. It only satisfies the first box of major requirements for EEB majors, and believe me, other classes in those boxes are much easier. It has completely changed after COVID, and it seems like she plans on leaning more toward grade deflation than anything. If you have no other option than to enroll in EEB 186, since EEB gives very little variability in class selection I would understand, but if there is a possibility of taking another class I would choose any class over this, including the 3 quarters of biochem I took beforehand.
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Don't take this review with a grain of salt. I was surrounded by high-performing students who had straight A's just like me, and they all shared the same views listed above. The professor never responds to any of her emails and has a tight-knit group of TAs who were cruel and never allowed for regrades. The TAs would even grade objective questions so subjectively as to lower certain students' grades in order to make the distribution more "even". If you notice you are receiving lower grades than what you think is fair, I would suggest dropping the class early, you are likely the "fall" person they plan on using to make the averages lower. I also found it funny that she stated anyone who puts effort in the class will get an A, the day she "requires" us to submit course evaluations.
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I could go on and on about how terrible the structure of this class was from the beginning, but I think you get the GIST of it. Your grades and responses to questions are all dependent on the opinion of the grader/TA, if you are an A student like most of the people reading this, your grade will be given based on what they think is the right answer rather than what actually is a correct answer. It's not a typical class by any means so don't have expectations that the work put in will correlate to the grade received, this was simply not the case.
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My best advice for students who take this class is to never show up to lecture, since nothing she talks about is ever on quiz or exam questions, it's all just random useless facts. Memorize her reading like it's Lehninger and pray that your rank is high, because after all your grade in the class is dependent on rank and not merit.

Selling: Zoobiquity book for an affordable price! Message me @ **********

This class isn't easy. There are 30 minute quizzes at the beginning of every class and there are two exams with the final being cumulative, but heavily weighted towards content in the second half of the class. Readings are long and require lots of care.

The readings are easy to understand, but you need to read extremely carefully and remember key details in order to do well on the quizzes. The quizzes are substantially harder than the exams due to brute memorization questions on the quizzes. You will need to know definitions of key terms in the reading as well as examples of certain conditions taught and how they present in animals. Knowing examples is key to doing well; for example, if there are three reasons as to how something is significant, you should know those three reasons. As for the papers required, all you need to know is the main point of the paper as well as the significance of its findings (no nitty gritty details about procedures required).

Exams require application of what you learned (less memorization and more of knowing examples in animals and how they apply to Tinbergen's style of analysis) and questions may include references to lecture, so it's important to pay attention during lecture and take note of examples and key points that didn't show up in the readings.

This class changed the way that I approached medicine and I think it's a game-changer when it comes to how we should approach every patient with empathy and understanding. Lectures are TED Talk style and slides (not posted) don't include all the information, so listening carefully during class is crucial. Classes are once a week with 2 hour and 20 minute lectures. I would recommend taking a look at Dr. Natterson-Horowitz's books Zoobiquity (the main book used in this course) as well as Wildhood; if you don't enjoy the content of the book and the connections it makes between both human and animal conditions, then you won't enjoy the class. The books are written like a story, so if you don't enjoy biographical style books, then don't take the class—it's not like a regular textbook.

Quizzes were hard, but because of this, the class was curved based on rank. I don't know the specific curve, but before the first exam, an A was >75%. The averages for exams were well into the B range. This curve changed based on how well people performed on exams and subsequent quizzes, but the A- range went well into the mid to low 80s by the end of the course. Dr. Natterson-Horowitz cares deeply about her students and wants this class to be a way to change students' perspectives rather than be the reason that students don't get into med school.

An extra credit assignment was provided.

TLDR,
- quizzes require lots of careful reading and memorization (ex: what's the definition of this term, why is this condition named this way, how does this condition present in animals vs humans),
- tests require memorization of examples of key aspects of the content and application toward Tinbergen analysis (give examples for two aspects of Tinbergen analysis of "X" condition),
-and if you don't like the anecdotal style of her books (Zoobiquity and Wildhood) or TED Talk style lectures that reiterate the readings as well as add details that may be on the exams, don't take the class.

A great class! Highly recommended!

Dr. Natterson is definitely one of my favorite professors I've had so far at UCLA. She is such an accomplished person, and you can really tell she puts thought and time into teaching. However she is a busy person, so she doesn't waste much time at all. She speaks very quickly and changes slides fast (doesn't post the slides either!!) so you really have to be prepared to either a) type everything she says word-for-word the whole lecture, or b) record the lecture bc it's not bruincasted. This class doesn't have homework besides one big group project, and there are quizzes at the beginning of each discussion. Pay attention to her lectures and read her book, and you'll definitely do well on her quizzes. Overall, I learned a lot and the material is super interesting! Highly recommend taking this class with Dr. Natterson.

Took this class during quarantine, so should start off by saying Professor Natterson was not as acclimated to zoom classes/online formatting. Because of this (and because of other copyright reasons), lectures are NOT podcasted, and slides are NOT posted. Other drawbacks in this course is that depending on your TA, grades may take weeks to post (I didn't get a grade for any assignment/participation until Week 6). Professor Natterson has a tendency to change what she is talking about very quickly, and this can lead to a bit of confusion; the concepts discussed in this class are also very novel and at times a bit abstract.
Negatives aside, this was by far the best class I've taken at UCLA. I would take her class again and would recommend it to anybody who wants to actually learn applicable skills. This class made me understand how to write research papers, how to (actually) develop scientific writing, and at the end of the day the topics covered were pretty damn interesting. That being said, do NOT take this class if you are looking for a hard science upper division - there is absolutely no need to memorize anything science-y in this class, as it's primarily a writing/research class imo.

I took this class online, so things may be different in the future. Overall, I thought it was a great class! Dr. Horowitz is a great speaker and a really cool person in general. Lectures are very "TED Talk"-y in that the subject matter is really cool but is presented quickly, if that makes sense. However, at least when I took the class, small details from lecture weren't super important for homework+exams, which were primarily research-based. Pay attention to how she explains and approaches in-class examples. Scientific writing, experimental design, and library/internet research were important skills as well.

When I took the class, we were expected to participate in discussion (just by talking out loud/in chat, no quotas so this was easy) and lecture. Lecture participation came in the form of questions prompted by Dr. Horowitz at random intervals throughout class based on the reading. The required texts are easy+interesting reads, but it was hard to recall the details needed for the questions without taking extensive notes. We also had 90 seconds to type our answers and PM them to our TAs via Zoom, which was kind of anxiety inducing, but my TA didn't grade them harshly and I got used to them as the quarter went on. There were also lots of extra credit opportunities to make up for any lost participation points.

Homework typically required substantial time+effort to research, but they prepared me well for exams. We had one assignment every week, but sometimes the more difficult research assignments were replaced by lighter fun ones.

I highly recommend this class! I learned a lot and had fun doing it, even during an online quarter. The teaching team is amazing and wants to see everyone succeed. Shout out to the TAs!

The lectures were engaging (TED talk style), and I was so passionate about what I was learning but my grade did not reflect that. The grading system in this class was very frustrating because it had been completely redesigned with these new weekly reading quizzes. The average was lower than a 65% so this professor decided to grade based on rank from the very beginning. You had to read the assigned scientific articles or certain chapters from her books then on the quizzes you would be tested on random as* facts (e.g. what does this acronym stand for?) every week in the first 30 minutes of class on Canvas vs the exams where they focused more on the main concepts (applying Tinbergean). Everything was graded pretty harshly. In addition, she held her office hours at 7 or 8 am (something very difficult for commuters), she didn't post her slides, didn't Bruincast her lectures, you couldn't see your quiz unless you went to office hours and the TA's weren't bad, they were just pretty ruthless when it came to grading. Towards the end, she said that anybody who put in the work would get an A well that didn't end up being true because she downcurved people when it came to final grade time because she needed people to sacrifice to meet her grade quota. She did not even bother communicating that the new range had changed. Worst part is, she said she was satisfied with the new class format. If you want a class with a professor where you're competing with your peers for a good grade, this is definitely that class.

This was my absolute favorite class I have taken at UCLA. I liked it so much I added Evolutionary Medicine as my minor. She is a very engaging lecturer. Her lectures are actually intriguing to watch and she is a very funny person. All of the information we learned was incredibly interesting. The "textbook" was two of her own books, which were pretty cheap on Amazon. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these books. In fact, my mom and friends started reading the books as well, even though they weren't taking the class. Overall, I highly recommend this class, especially with this teacher.