-Class Breakdown:
Midterm exam: 15%
Lab assignments: 40%
Weekly reading quizzes: 10%
Online lab material quizzes: 10%
Final Exam: 25%

-Lectures/Content:
I am not quite sure what I was expecting when choosing to take this course but I heard that it was a pretty interesting and light GE. And while it was light and somewhat interesting, the material was VERY dense. I am definitely walking away from this class knowing much more about dinosaurs and their relatives than I would like. With that said, I think that it is important to note that this class does not just teach you dinosaur names and traits. This class involves heavy aspects of geology, biology, and anatomy. For example, we learned about the metabolism of dinosaurs, how fossils are preserved, how to know our place in geologic time, and the anatomy of different taxa of dinosaurs. While the professor does a great job of explaining these concepts, they are not (in my opinion) the most enjoyable. Like I said, they are explained well both by the professor and the assigned reading, it is just a matter of applying yourself to learn it. Other aspects of the class such as the “Dinosaur of the Day” and learning about how dinosaurs and their relatives lived during their time on earth was very interesting. All things considered, I would say the content was pretty enjoyable to learn BUT it did require students to stay on top of weekly learning goals in order to not fall behind and become overwhelmed by the material.

-Labs:
There are pros and cons to the labs. For one, the labs are usually 2 hours in length. While I know some lab sections only lasted for 30 minutes of those 2 hours, my section almost always went the full 2 hours (sometimes even slightly above that). There were a few people who preferred to get their lab done and leave, however, a few other students and myself usually stayed behind to ask questions and spend more time looking at the fossils in order to write down more accurate answers. I credit the scores I got on my labs to my willingness to stay the full 2 hours. Going over the lab with other students and with my TA allowed me to get full credit on all of my labs so I highly recommend making friends in your section and communicating with your TA. For context, labs were usually 5-9 pages of questions about fossils or other lab materials shown during the 2 hours. There were some times where we would leave the room and take walks around campus to look at fossils or plant life and that was pretty fun! The questions were usually not too difficult and were pretty easy to answer if you were caught up with lectures. All in all, I would say that labs were nothing crazy and definitely should not worry you.

-Exams:
For this quarter, both our midterm and final exam were conducted online (open-book/open-note). They both consisted of about 30 multiple choice questions with a short answer question at the end of each. We were given a time window for both exams (example: 24 hours to finish a 90-minute exam with 35 questions). Initially, these exams were planned to take place in person, but because of a rise in Covid-19 cases, they were both moved online. I think these exams were very fair for the modality on which they were provided. I know that several students did amazing on these exams. I, myself, managed to get A’s on both. That said, if these exact exams were given in person, I don’t think they would be as manageable. As previously mentioned, the content of this course is very dense. Before the midterm was switched to online, several students did not think they were going to do well, myself included. Because there is so much information covered, it is hard to decide on what information you should prioritize. However, the professor provides students with a VERY helpful study guide and usually provides extra office hours leading up to the exams to ask any questions about the study guide, the format of the exam, or any content that you might be confused about. In general, the exams shouldn’t be too hard if you study the study guide well and understand the learning goals from lectures.

-Quizzes:
We were given two types of quizzes. Reading quizzes dealt with information covered from the weekly readings. You had unlimited tries, an unlimited amount of time to complete these quizzes, and they were open-note. Meaning that it was relatively impossible for you not to get 100% on every quiz. There were 8 reading quizzes and the one with the lowest score was dropped. The second kind of quiz given were lab quizzes. These were a bit tougher because they were timed and you only got one chance to complete them. Additionally, you had to look at 3D models on your computer and it could be difficult at times to fully understand what you were looking at. That said, they were not too difficult and students were often provided with practice quizzes that resembled the content and format of the lab quizzes before the actual quiz. There were 4 of these quizzes. During my quarter, the professor made an announcement that she was going to group the two kinds of quizzes together and was going to drop students’ two lowest scores overall (not just from reading quizzes). This meant that both categories were combined to make up 20% of our grade and any quiz could be dropped. This helped students a lot because more people did poorly on lab quizzes than reading quizzes, meaning that the lab quizzes they didn’t do well on were ultimately dropped.

-Overall Opinion:
In comparison to other science GEs at UCLA, this one is by far one of the more interesting ones. While there is a lot of content covered, it can be quite enjoyable, especially when given the chance to actually hold and look at different fossils. I will also say that the professor is amazing. Her energy is great and you can tell that she really wants her students to succeed. If you find yourself struggling in this class, don’t be afraid to reach out for help! I wish you the best of luck!

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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.