I took this class online during COVID and I enjoyed it. There are two professors that teach this course: Margot focuses on the astronomy/physics parts whereas Treude on the chemistry/biology section. The lectures themselves can get kind of boring since they're just reading off the slides, but they are recorded and you can always watch them at a later time. If you have some sort of background to these fields / have been exposed to them, the material is really easy but for some that do not, I understand how it can be somewhat difficult. The class is broken down the following way:

Homework (40%)
Midterm (30%)
Final (30%)

For the homework assignments, they are assigned weekly. The best 6 out of 8 count towards your final grade, and they all come straight from the lecture. They are very easy if you have the lectures in front of you and can just look through them. I also found the midterm and the final to be fair. The exams are open notes/lecture/recordings so I would recommend going through them right before the exams. If you've been paying attention during lecture that's all you really need to do well on them. There are also a few random questions that get thrown into the exams that are from the textbook, so make sure you at least have it with you so you can ctrl + f .

I would definitely recommend this class for anyone looking for a fairly easy science GE. Lecture content is engaging and the prof is always willing to go further into depth in a given topic when someone asks a question. Weekly homework is a quick quiz on the lectures which usually don't take very long at all. If you have a strong science background, this class will be almost no work at all for you, but even if you don't, all the concepts are explained very well. Overall a very engaging and easy class to take.

The class is designed as an easy GE. In fact, I believe a lot of the lower divisions classes in EPS SCI department are. The homeworks and exams are all easy. The only minor problem is that Professor Margot sometimes talk about really confusing astrophysical stuff, such as the multi-stages of the Bigbang, that are kind of hard for me to grasp because I personally didn't take any physics in high school. But none of the difficult stuff are tested, so there's that. Professor Treude teaches the biology part and I find her content clearer than Margot's because the concepts are more concrete and finite and there are no extraneous untested things. I wouldn't take this course again personally to be honest because I find the physics part a bit boring and remote. But that's just me.

Jean-Luc Margot and Tina Treude jointly taught this class. Both professors are strong lecturers, and they explain concepts pretty slowly and clearly. This was by far the easiest class I have ever taken at UCLA. Multiple-choice homeworks and exams.

Jean-Luc is an okay professor. When he stays on topic, he's knowledgable and clear. He often goes off on tangents about the philosophy of science and logic. I understand it's important, but a class about something as interesting as biology shouldn't be hampered by one of the professors wanting to waste time on content out of the scope of this class.

The questions on the topics he taught (he and Tina did 1/2 of the total lectures) always wanted specifics that he wouldn't explain well or would merely gloss over.

Lectures were recorded. Discussions were mandatory, but you only had to go to 5/9 of them. The exams were online and open book so it was simple to find the answers in the textbook or lecture slides. Some of the questions, specifically on the final, were also common sense or things I learned in high school biology. There was extra credit for visiting places like the Griffith Observatory. Overall, it was interesting class and an easy GE.

Margot and Treude are both very knowledgeable about their areas (Margot teaches the astrophysics parts and Treude teaches the biology parts). I never went to live lecture because they posted the slides and it was easy enough to just use the slides for weekly hw quizzes and the open-note midterm and final. If you know basic physics, chemistry, and biology, this class will be an easy A, but I know people who had a weak science background and struggled. I just slacked on the final because I thought the extra credit (museum visit) was worth more than it was.

Exams were worded weirdly. Take only if you're a fanatic of space sciences.

I took this class as a science GE and would highly recommend it. It is the easiest of the science GEs I’ve taken, with easy (googleable) midterm and final, along with homework being not too difficult and very short. The teachers are engaging, the class is really interesting, and it is easy to do well. The policies are also very forgiving, and they drop your bottom 2 hw assignments (which is great because I forgot completely to do the hw twice) and you only have to go to 5 of the sections to get full credit. Kind teachers, easy AND interesting class, I can’t recommend this enough.

Easy GE. Midterm and test were open note and take home online exams on Canvas. Easy to follow for non-STEM majors.