I came into the class literally feeling like I was thrown off a boat. The labs seem impossible at first but the TAs grade super fairly and you can find a lot of info on her slides and online to complete them. The tests were much easier than I expected. Mostly multiple choice and fill in the blanks, and one essay question that you could prepare for in advance. The only con I have is that it is quite a lot of work and material. Additionally, Dr. Brown likes to talk in riddles which makes it hard to listen. Rather than being straightforward about a fact, she will add in like 20 extra words for no reason. I had to listen to her podcast several times to just comprehend her sentences. I feel like the class ended up being an easy A for a lot of people at the end, but you definitely have to study a lot.

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.

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.

selling lab manual $10 text **********

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!

TL/DR: Brown is a decent lecturer and this class is basically a continuation of how 70A was, except for a focus on biology and evolution. For more info on grade breakdowns + textbooks and such, see the link (didn't want to clog up this site):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15vILblHwWrnV7KnB-sOFzTRnQE2QPA7nmHxj4gdNKBU/edit?usp=sharing

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.