Ok, so personally, I felt this class was a small step down from the magnificence of Maloy in 7A. The class felt a bit more disorganized, with lab sections being rushed with a rigid due date right after section and the fact that the information being taught is a bit more conceptual than 7A. That might be my personal preference for 7A material speaking, but genetics is kind of confusing initially and ecology/evolution are semi-intuitive. On the other hand, Professor Kane is extremely chill and fun with her pets in the background of her presentations. Overall, a mediocre course with a chill professor.

Professor Kane was nice and clear with her lectures. She was engaging with her students and even showed her dogs during the beginning of zoom. Since we were online, every lecture was recorded. If you took LS7A, you know all about Launchpad and how tedious it can be sometimes, but honestly the Launchpad assignments ended up boosting my grades in the end. The PEQs for Launchpad are timed, so make sure to treat them like an actual quiz. The midterms were fair, even if some of the graphs were hard to interpret. I had the best TA (shoutout to Graham Montgomery; take the lab section with him if you can), so the lab was pretty fun. Overall, the class is what you would expect from a Life Science class, and Kane is a pretty good professor

Best class so far in the LS 7 Series. Dr. Kane was never the most knowledgeable about topics if you ever had deeper questions to ask her, but she was always able to teach you enough to prepare you for exams, which is all that was necessary. She gives a TON of extra credit through surveys and "mini-midterms" after exams to get points back, and the class is full of free points in general. Labs were extremely boring but 135 free points, as my TA, Shomik, literally graded on completion and made the class the best. First midterm was a breeze. Second midterm and final were a little harder, but it's almost impossible to not get an A in this class.

Professor Kane was the most absolute sweetheart. I would retake this class if I could. The work was clear and very manageable. I took this class over the summer during the 6-week session and it went by extremely fast which was awesome. I never had a true interest in the marine side of ecology but after this class, I might not be so sure anymore. The class was structure to a method I really enjoy learning, so maybe that is why I also enjoyed the class. You had modules due every week ranging from 2-4 that had quizzes to go with them. There was a midterm during week 4 (no work that week) and then of course the Final Exam. The exams were very reasonable and very straightforward. I loved her exams for that reason since she wasn't trying to trick you on any of the questions. It was just a matter of looking through your notes and matching the best answer. The discussion portion was not bad either, I did like the lecture just a bit more though. Oh, also the quizzes you took could be opened for days as they were not timed and due on a specific day. So you had plenty of time to construct and find answers.

Really fun, doable class that dives (haha) into conservation, marine life, chemical cycles, physical cycles!

This class consisted of 1-2 weekly multiple choice "quizzes" or homework assignments that assessed basic knowledge from lecture recordings, other videos, and the assigned readings. They're super doable, and you can use your notes to help you! We also had 2 midterms and a final, and all were very very fair exams.

Overall, really straightforward and enjoyable class!

This class is completely points-based. There are 774 total points: 120 Midterm 1, 120 Midterm 2, 200 Final, 135 lab worksheets, 64 clicker, 45 launchpad activities, 45 PCRQs, 45 PEQs.
Like 7A, Launchpad is just busywork. Try to find the PCRQs on Quizlet so you don’t have to waste hours clicking through the content, although not all of the questions are there so you may have to either guess on a few questions or actually read some of the content. Labs are also time-consuming and mostly done as groups, and only somewhat helped in learning concepts. There aren’t as many extra credit opportunities as 7A had, just the syllabus quiz, LA/TA/instructor evals, and mini midterms. Mini midterms consist of a reflection survey and a mini midterm that allow you to earn some extra points on the midterm up to 123/120 points. There is no mini final.
Kane uploaded prelecture slides at the beginning of the week, but she wouldn’t post a complete set of the slides she showed in lecture, even though she usually showed new slides so unless you wanted to watch the recording, you were left with an incomplete slideshow. Kane was also really bad at explaining anything and asking her questions often left me more confused. While she posted practice questions for the midterms and final, there was no answer key, and we were instead told to compare answers with classmates. Even the “feedback” you get on the midterm questions is useless; it consists of telling you the learning objective for the question and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll be told that the question is based on the week 2 lab. The grading for the midterms and finals took a really long time considering that the tests are all MC and done on CCLE which has the capacity to grade MC questions right away. Kane is also not an accommodating person and is extremely unapproachable. She’s often rude and expected us to have good wifi all the time even though she knew most of us were using unreliable wifi networks on campus. Sometimes in lecture, she’d have us go into breakout rooms and talk, but then she’d get annoyed if no one was sharing a screen even if we told her about wifi issues. She would also go overtime for almost every lecture and sometimes even have clicker questions for us to do after class was supposed to end so even if you left the zoom on time, you’d have to keep the app open to make sure you answered at least 75% of questions. Overall, I would strongly recommend taking this class with a different professor and only with Kane if you’re desperate to finish prereqs or have no other choice.

Professor Kane was nice, but not the best at explaining topics clearly.

I had to attend lecture outside half of the time because I had class right after this, so the wifi was bad and I would give up on listening to lecture halfway through. Kane was an okay professor, but the class was kind of boring. At least the tests weren't too hard, and it was open-book. Our discussion sections were almost 2 hours, but I often had to email my TA to let her know I'm going to turn in the lab worksheet a little late because I couldn't finish during class. They were ridiculously long, in my opinion.
In terms of asking for help, I would go to office hours and LA workshops, but the LA workshops were more helpful. When I asked Kane a question during office hours, she would sometimes get confused herself and tries to reason through it and take me in circles, ultimately giving a weak answer. The class overall wasn't too bad, though, so don't worry.

Out of all the classes I have taken at UCLA, this was the best class I have taken so far. Professor Kane is such a great professor. She loves what she's doing, she's fair, and she's very real. I always looked forward to her lectures. They were easy to follow with well-prepared slides.

Her tests were extremely fair. The tests reflect exactly what was taught in class. If you make some flashcards and attend the review session that she holds before each exam, you will be more than fine. She even posts a study guide for you to use to help you study, and I used that to make my flashcards. There are two midterms and the final. The median score was an 87% on Midterm 1, an 82% on Midterm 2, and an 86% on the final.

She puts a ton of grades in the grade book, so you have a lot of room to make up points if you don't do well on a lab/exam. There are weekly activities online that are very easy and are graded on completion, which is a huge grade booster. There are online quizzes each week that are easy (disclaimer: I did read the textbook, so if you don't, I'm not sure if they'll still be easy). Attendance is mandatory and you get points for attending each lecture and answering the iClicker questions. We also had three opportunities for a total of 12(?) extra credit points throughout the quarter.

Labs are very easy and do not require a ton of work. As with most courses, the labs are not the most interesting and sometimes drag on. The work for lab is minimal, though, and it's graded pretty leniently.

I cannot recommend this course enough! If you have the opportunity to take a class with Dr. Kane, I highly suggest you take it! Coming to her lecture directly after a draining Math 31B lecture would always boost my spirits and remind me why I'm at UCLA.

easy A. take take take the online class.