This was a genuinely great course. I was never bored with any of the material, and actually looked forward to coming to class. The professor was super clear with what she was going to test on, as I feel she learned from previous students feedback. If you went to class she would tell you what topics of questions she would test on, saying "I always put this type of question on the test". Lipman also seemed like a genuine person who cared about her students. Gina was also an AMAZING TA. Super well informed and kind. Take this class, it will honestly change the way you see the world!

Selling the second edition book: Conservation Biology. Message 949-257-8506

Where do I start? This class is ridiculously annoying. While the material is easy to comprehend, the professors methods of testing are very unclear, specific, and out right frustrating. I feel I was constantly having to mind read what the professor and TAs were expecting in terms of answers to the very specific questions. Don't let the free response format fool you! The professor delivers the necessary information, but it is difficult to gauge the simplicity/difficulty of each test question. Lastly, the TAs, at least my TA was useless!! She always looked at me awkwardly and with confusion. I felt perpetually screwed in this class because even after seeking for help, I didn't know what to expect

I loved this class with Dr. Lipman. Her lectures were great, and discussion sections were my favorite of any class taken this year. The class overall was engaging, the material was interesting and accessible, the grading was very fair, and I felt like I learned a lot. Definitely one of my favorite classes I've taken so far.

As for the class structure itself, there were two books: a traditional textbook and Half Earth by E. O. Wilson. Half Earth was required while the other textbook was not, and you do not need the other textbook. Lectures and discussion sections are plenty for the content. The class was hybrid where the lectures were over zoom and recorded while discussion sections were in person.

The grading scheme of this class was focused heavily on exams and quizzes. The exams were open for a day and were collaborative if you chose to work in a group (although you didn't get to pick your group). The questions were multi-part short answer. Overall the tests seemed very fair, and if you knew the content, I thought that they were decently easy to get through. You also had to make a study guide, and there were evening study sessions ran by the TA, so I definitely felt prepared. The quizzes were short and 5 questions, given at the start of discussion sections. They were easy and really just there to make sure you did the weekly work (reading the chapters of Half Earth, reading the assigned journal article, watching the weekly film, and lecture content).

The rest of your points came from discussion section. A small amount was just pure participation. You also had two presentations, but those were informal and easily graded. You also had to volunteer, which was basically free points.

Overall the grading scheme felt fair with a decent buffer from the discussion section. If you do the work, you should feel prepared and get a good grade and learn a lot. Again, I highly recommend this class!

Dr. Lipman allowed us to do group, open-everything exams this quarter. She has some really interesting stories, but I honestly thought that she was a boring lecturer.

There was a lot more reading, writing, and talking in this class than I expected. Lectures are quite enjoyable and engaging, and the content is definitely interesting. Discussion sections are almost two hours long, which can be pretty excruciating. Participation also matters, and you are expected to speak in sections at least twice to get full credit. You are given a lot of time for exams but they are really long and took me forever to finish. Grading seemed pretty fair to me, but I think it depends on your TA. Overall, do not think this is a super easy class because quite a bit of effort is required. That being said, you will learn a lot and Lipman is a nice professor.

I really did enjoy this class, because of how passionate Professor Lipman, the TAs, and other students are about the subject! Most students who are taking this class actually are interested and care about the subject, so class discussions are very engaging. Professor Lipman tries to make these lectures engaging by using polls, annotate activities, and breakout rooms. There is a lot of reading for this class, that isn't necessary to understand lectures, but is super helpful for exams. My quarter she structured it with a midterm, final, weekly quizzes, and discussion grades (discussion grades comprised of participation, a group presentation on a reading, and a group presentation on conservation organizations). Discussion readings were pretty interesting, and the contents often come up on the weekly quizzes. The exams were hard because of time constraints and page length constraints. Both the exams were all short answer, but multiple parts of each question. The difficulty was that we were given a limited amount of space, but asked to answer many questions with a wide breadth and depth. She pushes for group writing for the final, but you had the option to take it alone, which I did and did just fine.

Grading was:
50 points -- midterm which we had a weekend to complete (four short answer questions, with multiple points)
50 points -- final exam which we had 24 hours to complete, or could go during the 3-hour time slot and do it with a group they assigned on zoom (same structure as midterm)
70 points -- quizzes based on lecture and readings each week, not too bad if you paid attention, worst quiz grade is dropped
80 points -- discussion section, includes a 10 min group presentation on conservation organizations and a 30-40min partner presentation/discussion you lead based on a reading, as well as general participation in other people's partner discussions

Prof Lipman is very passionate about what she teaches. Her lectures were super relevant for the exams but she also gives a lot of very specific examples of conservation efforts that are interesting but take up a lot of lecture time and don't come up again. I never read the textbook, but I did check it a few times during the exams.

The exams did mark off on specific things (like if you didn't mention MEAT agriculture when you said agriculture) but were doable if you take decent notes and can come up with general ideas for conservation plans. Pay attention in lecture when people brainstorm ideas/annotate on the slides because you can use those ideas on the exams.

Discussions require participation but Alec is a really chill TA so take him if you can. The presentation aren't too bad.

Amazing!! This class is highkey extremely life changing and will affect the way you see and do things in your day-to-day life. I HIGHLY recommend taking this at some point.

Professor Lipman is really cool. Documentaries in this class were spectacular. This class is also super doable!

Even though I received an A, I would not recommend this class. TA's are extremely unclear with expectations for the midterm. Your grade is highly variable and there is no way of knowing what the professor/TA wants at any given moment. This extends to the midterm and final. Even though I answered all parts of the question with factual evidence, points were continuously marked off with TA's saying "this is correct but you also could have said this..." TBH this class could have gone either way for me and I could have just as easily gotten a B. I just happened to get lucky.