ZOO 4307C
Vertebrate Biodiversity
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Prof: Dr. Gerlach / Fall 2022
May 1, 2023
Super interesting content and delivery
You basically learn the evolution and categorization for groups of vertebrates, you don't need to know species specific information but more general group traits and how they have changed over time.
My favorite professor, really enjoys the content and breaks complex topics down well.
It does require weekly studying for the lab quizzes and the tests are not multiple choice so my best advice is that you enjoy the content enough to study it.
Class Ratings
Prof: Dr. Gerlach / Fall 2021
Dec 13, 2021
This course was like taking 2-3 classes at one time. The lab portion of the course is very heavy, including a pre lab, lab assignment, and lab quiz every single week. There was way too many assignments to focus on throughout the entire course. There was 2 papers which seemed irrelevant. There was a semester long INaturalist project which required very detailed descriptions for each species found. There was an assignment on each lecture day even though the lecture wasn't even held in person. We still had to meet on zoom to present/watch "get to know a vertebrate" - another project. I would have rather just had lecture in person and not have to listen to presentations 2 days a week for the whole semester.
I was really excited for the content of this class but it ended up feeling more like an anatomy/evolution course. Parts of the material seemed irrelevant as it focused on extremely large complex phylogenies and fossil groups
She was good at lecturing and you could tell she enjoyed teaching the material, but was not very receptive to students concerns. She asked about halfway through the course what could be done to improve the course and many students showed their concern for the insane amount of work for the class and she pretty much dismissed it
That it was not really focused on biodiversity but on anatomy/evolution. I wish I knew how bad the labs and lab quizzes are as I had another lab class right after this course and it was miserable.
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