Spring 2027

Terrestrial Vertebrates: Life History and Ecology

Study of life history, ecology, distribution, and taxonomy of terrestrial vertebrates, focusing on Wisconsin species and conservation threats while covering major North American families and global groups.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Jim Berkelman4.1/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.20 GPA, 53.3% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 58.7% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.20 GPA, 59.4% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Provide examples of species for each major terrestrial vertebrate order, including basic life history information associated with each example

  • Identify the geographic area where major terrestrial vertebrate orders reach their greatest abundance and the approximate number of extant species in each major order

  • Compare and contrast key morphological, physiological, and behavioral differences that contribute to broad life history strategies among terrestrial vertebrate classes and that contribute to distinctions among selected finer scale taxa

  • Compare and contrast the body plan, behavioral and physiological adaptations, geographic distribution, and traits contributing to abundance or rarity for terrestrial vertebrate species found in Wisconsin

  • Identify and provide the scientific name of all mammals, reptiles, and amphibians in Wisconsin and identify and provide the common name of a subset of Wisconsin birds

  • Identify, by sound, all Wisconsin anurans (frogs and toads) and a selection of birds

  • Identify the majority of Wisconsin mammal species from the skull alone, or from a combination of skull plus skin

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151, (ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102), (BIOCORE 381 and 382), or graduate/professional standing

F&WECOL 306

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Jim Berkelman

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.19/5 from 85 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.20 GPA, 53.3% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 58.7% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.20 GPA, 59.4% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JIM BERKELMAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. 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
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 220
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 220
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 220

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.20 GPA, 53.3% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 58.7% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.20 GPA, 59.4% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Reptile, amphibian, bird, and mammal life history, ecology, distribution, and taxonomy.
  • Wisconsin species conservation threats, major North American families, and major global vertebrate groups.
  • Geographic areas of greatest abundance and species richness for major terrestrial vertebrate orders.

Skills

  • Identify Wisconsin mammals, reptiles, and amphibians by scientific name and a subset of birds by common name.
  • Identify the majority of Wisconsin mammal species from skulls or combinations of skull and skin.
  • Identify all Wisconsin anurans and a selection of birds by sound.
  • Compare morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits contributing to life history strategies across vertebrate classes.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.06 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · 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

1280 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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
F&WECOL 306 · Spring 2027

Terrestrial Vertebrates: Life History and Ecology

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:396:019126",
    "course_id": "F&WECOL 306",
    "course_uid": "course_1d3e2bec854d0f8a95e8ea43",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "019126",
    "source_subject_id": "396",
    "title": "Terrestrial Vertebrates: Life History and Ecology",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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No records available.

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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "84d93ceb4e1459b27d98ba82b6aae395efe96ad4443952acedbe001a579c8f69",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}