Spring 2027

Extinction of Species

Comprehensive study of species extinction ecology, causes, consequences, habitat alteration, socio-economic pressures, and conservation strategies.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Karie Cherwin

The lecture sequence was disorganized and lacked direction, consisting of guest lectures chopped into units. Discussion sections were solely student-led, which one student found was not ideal, while the content itself was described as easy.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the ecological and evolutionary processes shaping the distribution of species diversity globally

  • Explain how human activities can threaten species with extinction

  • Identify genetic problems and management in small populations

  • Discuss social and political dimensions to conservation problems and solutions

  • Identify the basic components of the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) and how the ESA has been applied to the conservation of species

  • Evaluate and create conservation strategies for at-risk species

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing and ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151, (ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102),BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 130, or (BIOCORE 381 and 382)

ENVIRST/F&WECOL/ZOOLOGY 360 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

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ELENA WEST is recorded teaching in Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KARIE CHERWIN is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023. 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

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Karie Cherwin

One student enjoyed the mix of lectures and media content, while another found the guest lecture format disorganized. Reviews differed significantly on the instructor's effectiveness, with one praising her knowledge and another criticizing the lack of direction.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.60 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=191 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.49 GPA, 68.5% A/AB (n=184 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.50 GPA, 69.0% A/AB (n=210 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Karie Cherwin

The lecture sequence was disorganized and lacked direction, consisting of guest lectures chopped into units. Discussion sections were solely student-led, which one student found was not ideal, while the content itself was described as easy.

Past student reviews · Karie Cherwin

Dr. Cherwin read slides rather than presenting them, making lectures boring. She was not highly involved, leading to delayed grading and disorganized announcements that relied heavily on TAs.

Topics

  • Individual species ecology, habitat alteration, and degradation.
  • Socio-economic pressures and conservation techniques and strategies.
  • US Endangered Species Act components and application.
  • Genetic problems and management in small populations.

Skills

  • Describing ecological and evolutionary processes of species diversity and explaining human threats to species.
  • Identifying genetic issues in small populations and components of the US Endangered Species Act.
  • Discussing socio-political conservation dimensions and evaluating or creating conservation strategies.

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

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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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
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "1f4b6a205b5d626dd8f1ce33cb645bc0041cb19875e5d601050c75b0cd541f24",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}