I took this class as a GE and was hoping to do well in it. Professor Brown is a sweet woman, but I found the lectures kind of dull and hard to sit through. She moves through the slides quite quickly; they are posted on CCLE, but most of the slides don't have any words, just pictures. I didn't end up going to many of the lectures, because I was unable to pay good attention in them & it was a little inconvenient for me to walk all the way over to CS at that time of my day.

The labs were alright. I got high As on all of them, but that was probably because I worked in a group of people and we asked our TA for help quite often. Each lab is a packet of questions that require looking at fossils or photos. There was one group project that was a lab grade, and it was basically to make a diorama of life in the Jurassic; it was quite a pain to complete, because it required time spent outside of lab, physically building a project. However, my group of 3 finished it in a day, and received a 100% on it. There are also weekly quizzes on CCLE. They're pretty easy because there are unlimited retakes. One quiz grade was dropped at the end of the quarter.

The midterm and final were kind of tricky. Granted, I didn't go to all of the lectures, but I spent a while studying for each. Professor Brown posted study guides for both, and a lot of the class collaborated on the guides. The midterm contained short answers, while the final did not. These tests were not as easy as I expected them to be for a GE.

I was kind of annoyed at having to buy the textbooks; they were not cheap, and I couldn't find anyone who was selling them as used. Personally, I think they are totally not necessary. Overall, if you are genuinely interested in the topic, this class will probably be easy to do well in. However, if you are just looking to get the physical science GE over with (and aren't really too interested in the topic), be prepared to put in a little more effort than you would likely expect.

Took this class a GE and it really was not that bad. Some of her lectures are pretty dense, but I think she is a really passionate lecturer so they aren't too bad to sit through.
The midterms and tests were honestly pretty tricky. I barely studied, just reviewed my notes from lectures (which I attended most) and made sure I knew the dinosaur names which she provided in a study guide. I also did not do a single reading, and was able to get an A on the midterm and B+ on the final.
Labs are pretty easy and you can often finish early and leave. There is one group project but that is also pretty easy, and annoying to do if anything.
The class is actually pretty fun- if you are at all interested in dinosaurs, you will probably leave knowing a little too much about them. Not the easiest GE cause the midterm and final might be stressful, but definitely on the easy spectrum.

I took this class with 3 friends, all of different majors. I don't think they had a good impression of the class, but mine is pretty neutral. It's not the easiest GE but it's not the hardest. If you're interested in the subject, you'll probably find it more interesting than if you just need an easy A. The lab sections were super easy, got above 90 on every one and finished early every time, and Andrew (TA) was chill and interesting. I did not find the books she assigns to be helpful. Take good notes on her slides, which are uploaded (so you don't have to go to lecture necessarily, but sometimes she says specific things that wouldn't be in the slide). For exams, STUDY THE STUDY GUIDE LIKE IT'S THE TEST. The online quizzes have unlimited tries, so it would be stupid to not get 100% on all of them. Honestly, compared to my engineering classes this is decently interesting to me, but my friend in psychology found it utterly mind-numbing.

TLDR: You'll probably have to study more than you first expect, and the books aren't useful, although slightly interesting. The professor is pretty entertaining in lecture but the subjects can get exhausting. Labs are easy. Study her guides for tests.

Mammalogy is such a great class! It's super interesting, and the material is really easy to follow. Dr. Brown and the TAs are so enthusiastic and approachable. I have never taken an EEB class before and found this class super manageable. No need to buy the textbook (honestly I stopped using the lab manual after the first couple of weeks, too.)

Tips: Try to ace the lab practicals. They are solely based on memorization of the skulls/pelts, so make sure you actually go to lab every week and take good pictures/notes of the specimens. If you can get those points that are just based on memorization, you can set yourself up to do really well. Also, make sure to give very detailed answers on your lecture exams. Go to class, go to lab, and reach out to Dr. Brown and the TAs.

Lecture was pretty easy to follow but her tests required a lot of data to get full credit. Lab was interesting and basically a free period but there was wayyy too much information to know for only a 5 unit class.
Selling lab manual for cheap. Text **********.

Before you enroll in this class just know that yes, you will learn in depth about most mammals so do not take this class if this does not sound like something you are interested in. That being said, before taking this class I was not interested in the course material at all and Dr. Brown made it interesting so now I find myself reading articles about mammals!

TL;DR This class makes you realize how cool mammals are!!!!

The class grade is solely based off of exams:
-2-100 point midterms (a few multiple choice +short answers/ fill in)
-2-100 point lab practicals (Fill in)
-1-200 point final (a few multiple choice +short answers/ fill in)

The midterm questions are solely based off of lecture learning goals that the professor posts and explicitly talks about. I think Dr. Brown does an excellent job writing exams. They were def somewhat tricky, but fair if you studied the material (literally create a study guide based off of the learning goals). She does not try to trick you, but make sure you are understanding the course content.

The lab practicals on the other hand were extremely difficult. 5 weeks of lab material is a lot to memorize and practice identifying. Essentially during the lab practical there are stations and you get 2 minutes each station to read the question and fill out the answer based off of the skulls/animal skins/teeth presented. I only did well because I made a powerpoint presentation with every animal skull from every angle and practicied a lot. YOU HAVE TO STUDY A LOT for the lab practicals. On the first one I got like a 65% and then a 92% on the next one. Dr. Brown does something amazing by letting you write a 7-10 double spaced research paper to replace your lowest grade which saved my grade.

People in the past have claimed that this class was really hard but I truly thought it was fair. It is graded on a straight scale so you can only miss 50 points to get an A-, but it is doable. Tip: record her lectures because she talks fast due to the crazy amount of information she has to get through. I never used the lab manual or textbook so don't buy them- make a friend who has it and briefly scan the lab manual when you want a more in depth description.

Dr. Brown is an amazing professor who is truly passionate about what she is teaching. She is helpful in office hours and very approachable. Every prof should strive to be like her.

TAKE THIS CLASS- It is lots of fun :)

I took this class online. Dr. Brown lectured live on Zoom and recorded for those who could not attend. This is a great class and I would recommend taking it. The tests were straightforward, easy, and fair. Lots of definition-type questions. Our tests were open for 2 hours and designed to take about an hour and 15 minutes. Dr. Brown posted study materials and the tests were almost word-for-word from the slides. The discussion required a group presentation. There is no busy work; the only real assignments are to read a scientific paper each week for discussion. No weekly quizzes or anything like that. Overall, this was a low-effort class with an entertaining professor.

I took this class online during the pandemic. It was extremely easy. I don’t feel I learned that much about dinosaurs because it was hard to prioritize studying for such an easy class. The midterm was open book and multiple choice. The labs were interesting and I had a good TA, so they were also free points. No homework, aside from one lab we had to do on our own. The final could be replaced by your midterm score, so if you did well on the midterm you didn’t even have to attempt it. The quizzes were kind of fun, since you could keep attempting them until you got them right (it felt almost like an online trivia game). The lectures could be a little slow. The professor tried her best but some of the topics covered weren’t super interesting and paired with the professor’s connection issues I have a feeling a lot of people skipped. I thought it was a little deceiving that she posted her slides, but omitted a ton of slides that she used in the lecture. I understand wanting students to watch the lecture and not rely on the slides, but it would’ve been nice if she’d labeled them as condensed in some way. Overall, a very easy GE and a nice class to balance out more difficult classes. If the class were in person, however, I could see it being pretty difficult (not open book, not unlimited quiz responses). Online, definitely up there with the easiest (and most casually interesting) GEs I’ve taken.

Took it during pandemic, didn't watch a single lecture, just reviewed the slides, got an A.

Super great class, even better if you're already interested in dinos.
There were two books for required reading, and some weeks she would upload pdfs/links to articles which would be the reading for that week too. Both books can be found online for free (l*bgen !!!) so don't waste your money buying it!!!! Both books have a lot of content, but she sets a weekly schedule for what chapters you need to read and from what book, so that made things easier. The content is easy to understand anyway, so skimming is totally enough to get through everything.
She goes through slides quite fast but due to being online the lectures were recorded and slides were uploaded onto CCLE so it made note-taking a whole lot easier.
Labs were super easy and cool. The TAs basically hold your hand and walk you through everything, and you go through the lab questions one-by-one and everyone answers the questions and discusses them together. Write up the lab DURING the lab so that once it's done you can just upload to gradescope.
There were weekly quizzes, based off either lecture or the readings, but with unlimited attempts, so that was nice. Midterm was really straightforward (multiple choice), pretty sure the average was in the 90s. The final was made optional in week 10 so that the highest score between the midterm and your final was taken to replace the other test's grade, so I personally didn't take the final to save myself time.
Overall, great flippin class, great way to impress family and friends with your weird knowledge of dinos, and also the prof has a lil cockatiel called Billie who is super sweet.