Professor
Caitlin Brown
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I loved this class so much! Took it during spring 2020/covid-19 quarter. This class seems to be really great for people with a preexisting interest in dinosaurs. Personally, I love Jurassic Park/World and this class satisfied all my dinosaur curiosities. Well administered, tests and quizzes are easy, labs are easy, no homework other than reading (which you don't really have to do imo). Lectures are engaging. I highly recommend this as a science GE. Learning about deep time/evolution really helped me understand humans' place in the universe.
Spring 2020 - I loved this class so much! Took it during spring 2020/covid-19 quarter. This class seems to be really great for people with a preexisting interest in dinosaurs. Personally, I love Jurassic Park/World and this class satisfied all my dinosaur curiosities. Well administered, tests and quizzes are easy, labs are easy, no homework other than reading (which you don't really have to do imo). Lectures are engaging. I highly recommend this as a science GE. Learning about deep time/evolution really helped me understand humans' place in the universe.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Professor Brown is awesome! She just got her PhD so she's new and very young, which is pretty refreshing in a tough class like EEB 111. Her slides were very easy to understand and she made class engaging. She often ended class early because she went through her slides pretty fast, which would be my only complaint about her if you're a slow notetaker. I would definitely take classes with her again.
Fall 2017 - Professor Brown is awesome! She just got her PhD so she's new and very young, which is pretty refreshing in a tough class like EEB 111. Her slides were very easy to understand and she made class engaging. She often ended class early because she went through her slides pretty fast, which would be my only complaint about her if you're a slow notetaker. I would definitely take classes with her again.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Professor Brown is a great professor. She just got her PhD in a mammalogy field so you can tell she is passionate about the subject. I loved her lectures, she put in gifs, and made the material relatable. Everything she tests on is on the slides, and the tests are pretty straightforward if you study, although it can be dense sometimes. Her labs were pretty hard because you have to ID skulls of mammals that can all look pretty similar. My advice is to make a powerpoint for yourself with pics of each skull from all angles and descriptions of each skull in the speaker notes so you can practice IDing skulls at home. My only issue with her is she speaks really quickly, so either learn to type really quickly or record her lectures because they are not podcasted. Overall love her though! I would definitely recommend her as a professor.
Fall 2017 - Professor Brown is a great professor. She just got her PhD in a mammalogy field so you can tell she is passionate about the subject. I loved her lectures, she put in gifs, and made the material relatable. Everything she tests on is on the slides, and the tests are pretty straightforward if you study, although it can be dense sometimes. Her labs were pretty hard because you have to ID skulls of mammals that can all look pretty similar. My advice is to make a powerpoint for yourself with pics of each skull from all angles and descriptions of each skull in the speaker notes so you can practice IDing skulls at home. My only issue with her is she speaks really quickly, so either learn to type really quickly or record her lectures because they are not podcasted. Overall love her though! I would definitely recommend her as a professor.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - To preface, I took this class online so it might have been a lot easier than it usually is. Professor Brown is one of my favorite Professors I've had at UCLA and I highly recommend taking a class with her any chance that you can. Her lectures were dense but super interesting and she loves what she does so it is super fun listening to her. Recommendations: For her tests she takes exactly what she puts on her slides or says in class. She gives you learning objectives at the beginning of each lecture that are reflected on the midterm and that is all you need to study. If you take good notes during class you can fill out the learning objectives with little no effort whatsoever and then you're all set for the tests. She has three tests all weighted equally: midterm 1, midterm 2, midterm 3 (which is the the final). The first midterm was medium difficulty, the second midterm was supposed to be harder but I did better than I did on the first, and the last midterm/final is the easiest test which is supposed to boost your grade. PS the TAs are great for this class and are super helpful answering study questions.
Spring 2020 - To preface, I took this class online so it might have been a lot easier than it usually is. Professor Brown is one of my favorite Professors I've had at UCLA and I highly recommend taking a class with her any chance that you can. Her lectures were dense but super interesting and she loves what she does so it is super fun listening to her. Recommendations: For her tests she takes exactly what she puts on her slides or says in class. She gives you learning objectives at the beginning of each lecture that are reflected on the midterm and that is all you need to study. If you take good notes during class you can fill out the learning objectives with little no effort whatsoever and then you're all set for the tests. She has three tests all weighted equally: midterm 1, midterm 2, midterm 3 (which is the the final). The first midterm was medium difficulty, the second midterm was supposed to be harder but I did better than I did on the first, and the last midterm/final is the easiest test which is supposed to boost your grade. PS the TAs are great for this class and are super helpful answering study questions.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - 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.
Winter 2021 - 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.
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