I don't think this is necessarily the easiest GE but it's manageable. Grade consists of weekly labs, midterm exam, final paper, and final exam. Labs are super easy and are completed during section with your TA. Both exams ask for really specific details from the textbook that seem kinda irrelevant to the overall course. I felt like some questions were just testing to see if I read the book or not rather than understand the concepts (I skimmed a few days before and ended up with a solid C on the midterm). I'd say try to attend most lectures even though they're pretty boring and make sure to keep up with the assigned readings because they really add up by the midterm/final.

Professor MacDonald is a funny guy and really tries to make this topic interesting to students. Biogeography isn't exactly an inherently interesting subject (unless you're a Geog major like me lol) but he uses slides and real life examples to explain the harder concepts and bring it to life. I'd definitely take a class with him again. I wouldn't say this is an incredibly easy GE, because he will test you on the little things on the test, but if you put in some effort to study you'll be rewarded. Pro tip: really study specific case studies, especially ones he talks a lot about. He likes to put things about specific animals and plants on the tests. Also, if you go to lecture he'll reward you by telling you specific things he'll be putting on the test, but he does upload slides as well. The book is his own, basically elaborating what he says in lecture and sometimes he'll tell you to read certain sections for the test.
Overall, a fun class with engaging lab sections. I feel like I know a lot more about the world around me after taking this class, so I call it a win.

Professor Macdonald is humorous, helpful and knowledgeable. He always explains everything clearly and makes his students laugh. His midterm and final concentrate on small details in his textbook, but if you never skip class, you will be fine. Need to write down every word in his lecture to get an A.

SELLING: Biogeography: Time, Space and Life, which you need for this class. Text me at 310 948 3660 for more details! Book is in brand new condition.

Overall this class isn't exactly easy, as you do need to know your stuff for the midterm and final. The information he tests you on is based on the a) his class slides and b) his book, so you need to have a very STRONG understanding for both of these. He will test you on details; he particularly likes asking you to label and fill out his graphs.

Prof McDonald is a very nice and charismatic professor, and after one lecture you can immediately tell how passionate he is about the subject. Ask any question related/ not related to what he's discussing, and he'll be glad to answer it in great detail. He uploads his slides so don't worry about not catching something; but he doesn't go to fast so it should be okay.

Labs take up 40% of your grade, so make sure you put effort into them! Consult your TA as they would most probably guide you in how to answer the questions. Also there's a report in which you write about any plant/animal, which shouldn't be too hard if you have enough resources i.e. use books and websites so it's kind of a freebie.

Overall I wouldn't say this is an easy class, as I didn't do too well for the midterm and freaked out, so I studied really hard for the final, and got an A- in the end.

Overall, this was an okay G.E. There are two tests for the midterm and final. For these, he gets the smallest detail from the book he wrote and uses it for the tests. The textbook is used with the slides. The labs are around 40% of the grade. They are sometimes difficult but overall doable. Also, there is a species report that you must do on the species of your choice. I got a B so it's doable. Would recommend.

I wouldn't say this is the best Life Science GE to take, but it certainly isn't the worst. I ended up with an A so that definitely is possible, but I very much doubt it's as easy as some other LS GE's out there.

The first exam (midterm) is worth 20%, the second exam (a non-cumulative final the week before finals week) is worth 25%, a research project species report is worth 15%, and the combination of 8 labs in the class are worth 40%.

Professor MacDonald is a very nice, charismatic guy with a great sense of humor. He's a really enjoyable lecturer with an excellent teaching style. It's admiring to see how enthusiastic he is about his field of study, and he does the best he can with his otherwise dry course material. #1 tip for succeeding in the class is writing down EVERYTHING he talks about in his lectures. The exams are taken more from his lecture content than the textbook, because even though he actually wrote the class's textbook, the large majority of what you need to know will have come from lecture. Don't skip lecture for this one - go every time or you'll have to work extra hard to figure out what exactly you're required to know.

After going to every lecture, take what he's talked about and read a little bit more about it in the book to pick up on the details of the different case studies. He loves making test questions on specific case studies of animals and on details about the lives of his favorite biologists and geographers. Figures and graphs are also very important. In previous years, the tests used to be free-response and there were plenty of TestBank materials to help with them, but now each exam is roughly 50-60 multiple choice questions.

Putting your all into the labs is vital, because this makes up a huge amount of your grade. Ask your TA when you have questions and be thorough in every lab activity, because those points really matter - for every point you lose on one of the eight 5-point labs, your grade in the class basically goes down a percent.

The species report is a medium sized research report about a species of your choice, and it's interesting enough not to be mere busy work. Start early and pick a interesting species.

Overall, MacDonald is a superb professor burdened with making the topic of biogeography interesting to students. If you appreciate his enthusiasm by going to lecture and working hard on labs, you could end up with an A. It won't be the easiest of the LS GE's, but if you're at all intrigued by this class it will be a sound choice.

MacDonald is really so FUNNY!!! He knows his stuff well and is good at presenting his knowledge to the class. You can sense from his lectures that he really enjoys and is extremely passionate about the subject.
Hilarious and easy-going, dont expect you to go to class but if you go, you'd better be ready to listen and learn. Only one midterm, one final, and a species report (easy research paper about a species of your choice). If you read and study what he tells you to, an A is more than do-able. Although going the lab sessions every week can be painful, try to go because it is fairly easy and is also a considerably large portion of your grade, i think all of his TAs are pretty nice, mine was Elyse and i really liked her.

i just wish he taught more courses. go to class, enjoy his easy to follow lectures, pay attention to the figures and tables he spends the most time on, and you'll do fine. there are no surprises on the tests, everything is straightforward. mostly short answer questions, but you get a choice of which ones to do. you will have to learn the material, but he makes it easy and enjoyable. i studied the night before the tests and got A's. definitely the best geography teacher i have had on campus. i'm done with my minor now.

His lectures are very interesting and engaging. He's passionate about his subject and uses the book he wrote himself. The labs are ridculously easy, but can be anooying if you had a bad TA like me. The exams aren't bad, but it sucks that you have to recreate specific grphs and charts from the book on the test.
If you go to all the lectures and actually read the book and memorize some of the graphs, an A is in your reach. The copncepts are simple and easy to grasp for the most part, it's just a lot of material.
Overall, a great guy and a fun teacher.

He is a pretty cool guy. He is friendly and the lectures are not that bad. I actually went to every one. The material was not that interesting. The labs were somewhat tedious, but not impossible. For me the labs were not that bad becasue I had a good TA. For a life science GE it is not that bad. But i think that there may be a few easier ones. He gives one midterm, and one final. And grading is made up of exams and labs. The biggest problem with this class is that he wrote the book, so he can put questions in the exams on just about anything in the book. Also his exams were big on diagrams and pictures in his book. So if you are taking his class study the pictures from the book more than the actual text. Overall I do not think that I would take this class again, but it is not that bad if you need the GE.