Spring 2027

Introduction to Animal Sciences

Introduction to Animal Sciences covers anatomy, physiology, nutrition, reproduction, genetics, management, welfare, and behavior of domesticated animals, emphasizing food animals' contributions to humans.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Vanessa Leone

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Eric Ronk

The course covered a large amount of material daily, requiring students to review lectures after each class to keep up with the specific exam content.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Articulate a uniform background of animal agriculture including animal growth, nutrition, reproduction, behavior, and breeds to facilitate learning in subsequent animal science courses

  • Accurately use terminology associated with animal agriculture including but not limited to animals, management practices, industry, and equipment

  • Identify major animal groups and breeds in the topic areas of companion, service, draft, food, and biomedical, their uses, and their care

  • Critically analyze past, current, and future controversial issues in animal agriculture and demonstrate capacity for ethical reasoning and action

  • Situate common contemporary animal production systems within the context of economic, social, and environmental sustainability

  • Characterize the impacts of animal agriculture at global, national, regional, and local levels

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ANSCI/DYSCI 101 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

DAVID KENNETH COMBS is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ERIC RONK is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARK E. COOK is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Eric Ronk

Students found the class interesting but difficult, especially without an agriculture background, due to the specific and memorization-heavy nature of the tests.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.07 GPA, 41.6% A/AB (n=125 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.26 GPA, 57.8% A/AB (n=135 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.10 GPA, 49.1% A/AB (n=165 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Eric Ronk

The course covered a large amount of material daily, requiring students to review lectures after each class to keep up with the specific exam content.

Past student reviews · Eric Ronk

One student noted that Eric Ronk read from slides and recommended working with the material independently to do well on exams.

Topics

  • Animal anatomy, physiology, nutrition, reproduction, genetics, management, welfare, and behavior
  • Food animal production and human contributions
  • Sustainability in animal production systems

Skills

  • Use animal agriculture terminology
  • Identify animal groups, breeds, and uses
  • Apply ethical reasoning to agricultural issues

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ANSCI/DYSCI 101 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Animal Sciences

Recorded 2026-10-14
ANSCI/DYSCI 101 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Animal Sciences

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:292:005198",
    "course_id": "ANSCI/DYSCI 101",
    "course_uid": "course_41f98d76088bbd875d578e96",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005198",
    "source_subject_id": "292",
    "title": "Introduction to Animal Sciences",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:604:005198",
    "course_id": "ANSCI/DYSCI 101",
    "course_uid": "course_41f98d76088bbd875d578e96",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005198",
    "source_subject_id": "604",
    "title": "Introduction to Animal Sciences",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "1ccd716ee6f43e9c9277bc06a85d79f7b628660c9c015d91a1cc00b5c1c3a1a1",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}