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.

Really easy science GE for anyone looking for one. Seriously, this is a really easy class. Personally, I had a knowledge and liking for dinosaurs since early childhood, but even if you have no idea what a dinosaur is, this is still an easy class. The lab TA I had (Erik) was also really easy, he virtually tells you the answer to every question on the lab during lab sessions. Overall, if you're looking for the easiest GE ever, this is just the class for that.

Took this class in Spring 2020 so it was fully online. This was easily one of the coolest classes I've taken at UCLA. Professor Brown makes learning about dinosaurs so enjoyable. The workload is minimal, the labs are honestly so fun, and the content is fascinating. I totally recommend this class if you're looking to take it as a GE like I did, or even just for fun!

Professor Caitlin Brown is a good professor who cares about the subject and her students. I would love to take another class with her, if it would count towards my major. I petitioned to take this class and it was an incredibly good decision. THIS CLASS IS NOT ONLY ABOUT DINOSAURS, IT IS MOSTLY ABOUT THE HISTORY AND OVERALL REVIEW OF PALEONTOLOGICAL HISTORY AND METHODS PALEONTOLOGISTS USE TO DATE ROCKS AND FOSSILS AND PLACE THEM IN SPACE IN TIME. This class goes over some really interesting stuff that I became even more passionate about as time went on, and Professor Brown made it more engaging. My criticisms of this professor are that her lectures are pretty dense, but the slides are really good for helping and following along, and reviewing. The labs were a big chunk of class, but to me, the content was super engaging and fun to learn, I wish I could have learned more but being online takes away from the rock examination portion of the class, no feeling for texture, orientating them correctly, seeing large vs small grained rocks, etc.. What I did not like is that most of the assignments in this class were groupwork to randomly assigned groups, and I have to say, I really did not like that, it actively detracted from a class I love and held me back intellectually, which was huge for me. I left lab early once out of frustration with my partners. Thankfully my TA, Deep, let me work in a group with some people I was compatible with. She assigns a really engaging and easy-to-read textbook, the 6th extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. I would say that this class is a little bit too heavy on the homework, with 9 labs, 2 review papers, 2 lecture exams, and 2 lab exams, with 3 labs, 1 final, 1 lab exam, and 1 paper due in the last 2 weeks, in fact, allowing for an adequate time for labs to be completed thoroughly, some assignments were even due during spring break. I didn't have enough time to submit the final paper with all I had going on academically. I appreciated that there was a pre-uploaded syllabus because I needed it to petition for the class LOL. All tests, and assignments were fairly graded and ask fair questions, a bit on the lenient side for the labs I would say, but I haven't gotten a lot of grades back as of now, March 26th. Overall, take this class but be prepared for a bit more work than average.

While the concept of dinosaurs seems cool in general, I found this class to be extremely tedious and boring after a while. There also is a lot of memorize if this class were in person. For an online GE that will not stress you out much, it is not a bad choice. I did not really do the readings and I stopped attending lecture and I ended up in the A range of things. She is an extremely sweet professor but after seven weeks of extremely condensed information on dinosaurs and evolution, I reached my breaking point and could not go to class any further.
As classes become more in person, however, I think this is a way harder class than most are making it out to be. The labs are quite long and the information you need to memorize is very hype specific and dull. For a pass/no pass class, it is very manageable though.

Took this during COVID19 and hands down was the easiest class I had. Relatively, I did not have to study that much and was able to just skim the lecture and powerpoint slides the prof posted during both the midterm and final.

If you are looking for an easy GE, this is it.

I would argue that this class, although very engaging and comparably less difficult than other Science GEs, is not the SUPER easy-A GE that it is made out to be on Bruinwalk. This class requires lots of memorization: you are responsible for knowing different lineages of dinosaurs, be able to identify dinosaurs based on very niche specific tooth-shapes and skull-shapes, recall long dinosaur names, and be able to match any given dinosaur to its location on Pangea and the time frame it lived in. Lectures are engaging (though they are recorded) and Professor Brown is super nice and intelligent! Every TA is also extremely well-informed and resourceful, I would highly recommend office hours. I would consider the weekly labs to be difficult at times because they involve the observation of many different dinosaur fossils, and some lab questions are completely guess-based and hypothetical. So as someone who likes when there is one right science-based answer, it was difficult to guess. There are weekly quizzes on Bruinwalk based on the textbook readings (which can be taken as many times as one wants until they get their ideal scores). There are also 5 or 6 lab quizzes based on the labs, which can only be taken once (and I find these to be a little more on the difficult side).

Dr. Brown is an absolutely brilliant woman. There are few dinosaurs in this class, but it was still one of the most interesting and well-structured classes I've ever taken at UCLA. There are no curveballs on exams—everything you expect to be on them will be on them. The labs are super cool because you get to hold actual fossils!

Take this class!

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