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.

I took this class with Brown during the Spring Quarter 2020 during quarantine . In general, this was a very great class and overall a relatively easy. There are two lectures per week along with one lab class.
The labs are very easy as the TA goes over everything with you, which means that you are usually finished with the weeks assignment just by attending the section. There are also assigned readings, which I would recommend skimming over them since I did find them somewhat helpful.
Brown assigns weekly quizzes, which are easy points since there are unlimited attempts. I would recommend paying attention during lecture and taking notes as you do NEED to know the material in order to perform well on the midterm and final.
STUDY THE STUDY GUIDE LIKE IT IS THE EXAM! Brown provides a study guide for both the midterm and final so make sure to take them filling everything out. Personally, I found the final to be easier than the midterm and Brown took the best score out the two exams for this quarter.
If you are looking for an easy GE, take this class!

Professor Brown made this class incredibly interesting and easy to digest, which I came to appreciate as I took this class as a GE outside my department. There are two books required for this class, but they can easily be found online through libraries, etc. I personally did the readings, from what the weekly MCQ quizzes (5 questions generally) are based on, but the quizzes (at least for this quarter) has unlimited tries leading up to the due date, so you could go back and look for your answer. A large part of your grade is lab, but the TAs are extremely helpful, they essentially guide you through all of the questions while asking for your insight. Go to your section and you will get full credit essentially! There were two exams in this class, not counting quizzes, the midterm and final, which were multiple choice plus one free response question at the end. I found both to be reasonable, nothing surprising if you attended lecture and understood the learning objectives, definitely nothing to fear. I am glad I took this class, it definitely has made me considered taking more GEs in this department and/or another class with Professor Brown.

Took this as a GE and I loved, loved, loved this class. I have wanted to take it ever since I heard it was offered at UCLA, and it didn't disappoint. It was such a cool experience to be in a class about dinosaurs as a humanities major and Prof. Brown was great.

I took this in an online format due to covid-19 but if anything that just made the class easier. The books Brown assigns for reading are also GREAT, like seriously so well written and fascinating, I loved them. I had Valeria as a TA and she was fantastic, super kind, helpful, and also willing to share her experience in the field as a paleontologist which I really appreciate. Labs were really easy as long as you came to discussion, as we literally did them question by question with the TA's. Quizzes were a breeze because you could re-do them as many times as you wanted until you got a 100, and the midterm was ridiculously simple as long as you read and went to class (I got a 100). The final was also trivial because you could replace whatever you got on it with your midterm grade, so as long as you do well on that, you're set (and even if you do bad on the midterm, no worries, the final was just as manageable).

My only criticism is that I wish this class talked more about the ecology of dinosaurs, this class mainly talked about bone structure of fossils, bodily processes, identifying species, and stuff like that. As someone who has loved dinosaurs since they were a kid, I really wish we could have talked more about actual behavior patterns/ what it would have been like to live life as a dinosaur. But, this is just personal preference and totally subjective.

Overall, all you need to know is that this class is a super unique, fun, and easy GE, I could not recommend it enough!

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.

I took this Spring of 2020 during the coronavirus quarantines/protests. Even so, it was a really easy class: there are easy quizzes every week with no time limit and unlimited retakes based on the books. The midterm was also easy (got 100%) and based mostly on lecture material. Didn't go to a single lecture or read a single slide after the midterm, and the final was made so that your midterm grade also counts for the final. Labs took longer since they were online but were also basically free points as I had a great TA who walked us through everything. Also, there are two textbooks required, but I barely read either of them and you can find them both online in PDF format!

Overall, if you need an easy GE during spring quarter, take this class! You'll learn a lot about dinosaurs!

I took this class as a GE and was hoping to do well in it. Professor Brown is a sweet woman, but I found the lectures kind of dull and hard to sit through. She moves through the slides quite quickly; they are posted on CCLE, but most of the slides don't have any words, just pictures. I didn't end up going to many of the lectures, because I was unable to pay good attention in them & it was a little inconvenient for me to walk all the way over to CS at that time of my day.

The labs were alright. I got high As on all of them, but that was probably because I worked in a group of people and we asked our TA for help quite often. Each lab is a packet of questions that require looking at fossils or photos. There was one group project that was a lab grade, and it was basically to make a diorama of life in the Jurassic; it was quite a pain to complete, because it required time spent outside of lab, physically building a project. However, my group of 3 finished it in a day, and received a 100% on it. There are also weekly quizzes on CCLE. They're pretty easy because there are unlimited retakes. One quiz grade was dropped at the end of the quarter.

The midterm and final were kind of tricky. Granted, I didn't go to all of the lectures, but I spent a while studying for each. Professor Brown posted study guides for both, and a lot of the class collaborated on the guides. The midterm contained short answers, while the final did not. These tests were not as easy as I expected them to be for a GE.

I was kind of annoyed at having to buy the textbooks; they were not cheap, and I couldn't find anyone who was selling them as used. Personally, I think they are totally not necessary. Overall, if you are genuinely interested in the topic, this class will probably be easy to do well in. However, if you are just looking to get the physical science GE over with (and aren't really too interested in the topic), be prepared to put in a little more effort than you would likely expect.

Took this class a GE and it really was not that bad. Some of her lectures are pretty dense, but I think she is a really passionate lecturer so they aren't too bad to sit through.
The midterms and tests were honestly pretty tricky. I barely studied, just reviewed my notes from lectures (which I attended most) and made sure I knew the dinosaur names which she provided in a study guide. I also did not do a single reading, and was able to get an A on the midterm and B+ on the final.
Labs are pretty easy and you can often finish early and leave. There is one group project but that is also pretty easy, and annoying to do if anything.
The class is actually pretty fun- if you are at all interested in dinosaurs, you will probably leave knowing a little too much about them. Not the easiest GE cause the midterm and final might be stressful, but definitely on the easy spectrum.

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.

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