This class is one of the best I have taken thus far at UCLA because of Professor Schopf. In an academic setting where rigor is often the status quo, Schopf really takes the time to make his class accessible and open. He gives out the textbook, which he wrote, for free. He tells funny jokes and offers nearly ten office hours a week. Taking this class was always a breath of fresh air and an added dose of positivity to my day.

Throughout the class myself and a friend wrote down some of the funny things that Schopf says, so if you take his class you can hear some of these gems firsthand:

--Schopf: If you are Chinese I say Ni-How! (Student he was Speaking to): I’m Korean. Schopf: Then I say hi in Korean!
--I'm gonna make a t-shirt, I really really am! Then I am gonna sell it on Youtube! I’ve never watched Youtube in my life.
--Bobo Head
--(YOU CAN DO IT)x 4 Belieeeeeeve in yourself!
--Soviet Hoopster! Chinese Hoopster?
--Oh My Golly Gosh
--SYAD, That's Russian for sit down, because you are rushing to sit in your seat.
--If you pass by a car with a headlight out, that means you can kiss your girlfriend!
--Bologna!
--Just like you it has a low index of crunchability; I made that up to sound scientific
--A big brouhaha
--My hole is bigger than your hole! (talking about ripped jeans)
--Everyone thinks they look stylish when they look like a Hobo!!
--When the daffodils are daffing. They know about daffing
--Not a spelling bee but a buzzing bee.
--China has gone gangbusters
--I’m not even friends with no beetles
--Here. Is. Clam.
--MY SPECIMEN IS BETTER THAN THE ONE IN THE FRENCH NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM.
THE OTHER ONES HAVE BROKEN TEETH BUT MINE IS PRISTINE!!
--Next time you are at a dorm party, walk up to someone and call them a coelomate
deuterostome
--At this point when I’m by myself I swear and that seems to help Student: Feel free. Schopf: I
can’t, I would teach you new words.
--Hey mom put the stuffing in the coelom (Talking about stuffing Turkeys)
--They get attracted to the wiggleferousness
--I don’t know about Jeff, he probably likes the taste of earthworms
--Friendly fish? I like friendly fish
--Stay away from me bobo!
--Nice Doggy. Thank you very much. Do you want to date? (Talking about men who walk their
dogs)

If you’re looking for an easy science GE / lower div. this class is not it!! Not only did Professor Schopf have to transition from in-person lectures to online from weeks 2-10 but his recorded lectures were always off topic and it was very hard to understand what the main point of his lecturers are if not for the syllabus. He didn’t respond to student emails, hold office hours, nor were his TA’s helpful or able to communicate with him for the ENTIRE QUARTER.

On top of the subject material being boring, the midterms and finals were VERY hard and there was virtually no support from him or his TA’s. Highly advise against taking this class if you have other options available to you!!

Honestly, this class ended up being a lot harder than I expected. I was taking this class as a GE and I'm a biz econ major and I'm not very good at science, so I struggled a lot. I enjoyed his lectures and the labs were easy, just show up and your TA will help you with all of the questions. The tests were a lot harder than I was anticipating, if you have a background in biology and the basics of life you will probably do much better.

This class is a mix of biology, history, and geology. If you are interested in the history of evolution, geoformations, and life, this is the class for you. Professor Schopf is a great lecturer and his stories are very engaging.
In terms of coursework, the class has a total of 7 lab reports, 1 lab midterm, 1 lab final, 1 lecture midterm, and 1 lecture final. Weekly lab reports aren't always straight forward but shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to complete. All exams are multiple choice based on stuff covered during lecture and lab. If you pay attention in lecture and take good notes, getting a B shouldn't be too hard. When I took this class, Bs on exams got curved to As. Don't know if you'll get the same curve tho...

Taken online with pre-recorded lectures over Summer 2020. All labs and lectures were made available from Week 1, and this flexibility made the coursework very manageable.

Like other reviews have said, the midterms and finals (split into lecture/lab) had quite a few "trivia" questions. Nothing super obscure, but I needed to review the lectures/readings to do well (just looking at the course notes wasn't enough). Also, read through the lab manual! There's some info not mentioned anywhere else for the exams. If you just want to pass, a basic background in biology and reading the course notes is more than enough.
A lot of the material between the lectures, readings, and labs is repeated, so you really don't need to watch and read everything. This was nice because you can choose what to do based on how you learn best.

All of Schopf's lectures are pre-recorded. I was worried that this would mean that they would not be as entertaining as reviews for his in-person classes suggested, but this wasn't the case at all. Sometimes he could go on a 20+ minute tangential story! While I enjoyed these tangents, I think some people might not. In the syllabus, there are abridged notes for each lecture, and all of the slides were on CCLE to download. I found when I wanted to review or didn't have the time to listen to a lecture, this was a good alternative.

Labs were essentially weekly homework assignments. You can easily finish most of them without the lab lecture. Going through the slides/lab manual gave me 90% of the answers.
Lab sections were live but not mandatory. My TA was helpful for clarifying some of the questions on the lab worksheets, but it wasn't super necessary to attend.

Professor Schopf genuinely cares for his students and he makes it very clear. I've sat through many sweet speeches of how he's determined to be there for us and our problems inside and outside of his class. He's also a legend in the realm of Precambrian fossils, but he's very nonchalant about it which I loved. The class itself is pretty laid back, and lecture exams are multiple-choice. My only complaint is that this class has an additional midterm and exam belonging to the lab, leading to a total of 4 exams for what is an "easy GE" for the majority of the class. Because the lecture exams are multiple-choice, your lab exams (and ultimately the quality of your TA) will either make or break your grade.

I took this class as a science GE and found it to be pretty hard because it involves a lot of memorization and the questions on the midterm and final were very specific. When I took this class the professor had an accident week 2 and we never heard from him again. We watched pre recorded lecture videos and had online midterm and final tests, with only labs in person, so I didn’t have a typical experience. With my limited experience of in person lecture I found the lectures incredibly boring and hard to focus on. They felt like they lasted forever. Going online helped because I could put them on 2x speed and do something else when he went off on long irrelevant tangents. With that being said, the labs were easy to figure out, it was usually just a worksheet. The midterm and final were insanely specific and would have been impossible without it being online. Idk if it was made harder to account for the fact that everyone would cheat and use the internet/notes, but the test was supposed to be closed note (it wasn’t enforced) and would be impossible to remember all the specifics if I didn’t have access to my notes. There’s also 2 midterms and 2 finals which was pretty draining and the lecture final especially was really hard. You have to memorize a lot of specific and complicated scientific terms for the labs and tests and it was a lot for a GE. I wouldn’t recommend it.

This class is very interesting, and honestly I would recommend taking it for the learning experience - I learned so, so much especially on the phylogentic tree. But, if you just want an A (I totally get it), I would not recommend this class. The exams are difficult, as many of the comments besides mine have stated. Some comments also say that the professor curves, but for this particular quarter, Schopf did not curve. So, I guess it really is a gamble. Although, I must note that on Week 2, Schopf got ill (hopefully he is doing fine now) and was pretty much gone the entire quarter. So, lectures and exams were made online and the class was 100% run by the TA's. Perhaps, that is why the professor decided not to curve.

My only nitpick on the class is that there are 4 exams total, which for a GE is a lot. However, the work load is light, and I finished every lab during the assigned lab times and the TA's grade easy and fairly.

TAKE THIS CLASS!!! For Shopf ONLY! The professor is the most charming and wholesome old guy ever, and has the absolutely craziest stories. He will talk to you about rocks during lectures but also how the KBG chased him in Russia. He is so connecting with his students and kind, and really makes an effort to get to know you if you put yourself out there! Told me I looked like a movie star one time early in the morning, genuinely the sweetest guy. I will say the information is a bit dense and boring, unless you love rocks, and not quite what I thought it would be, but shopf makes up for it. The information is so heavy, and after the final I thought I was going to get a C in the class at the end, but he did a very generous curve that took me to an A-, and that wasn't specified in the class or on the syllabus. Definitely go to lectures to learn the information and to interact with the prof, and read the book! Requires effort but you will be so glad you invested it and chose to take this course.

Professor Schopf is a really engaging lecturer. However, he is really off topic and sometimes it is very hard to understand what the main point of his lecturers are. He offers lots of office hours though. The midterms and finals were VERY hard, but he did end up curving the overall grade of the class so it ended up being okay. The subject material itself is pretty boring. Definitely not an easy science GE.