science that seeks to expand knowledge and understanding regardless of the short-term application of that knowledge. The topics are presented and arranged in a traditional manner as most biology textbooks and as taught in many colleges. It is mostly a long long list of descriptive paragraphs. This book is written in a manner that it's content will remain relevant long into the future, although I suspect motivated instructors who adopt this book will quickly adapt it to fit their viewpoint on the relevance of topics. ions neutrons neutral atoms isotopes 6. Webtwo sugar monomers that a glycosidic bond links. For example, there was no discussion on epigenetics, -omic studies, non-coding RNA, gene editing by CRISPR-Cas etc. They hold far more fine details than students can absorb (or need), and theres no easy way to tell students to read only selected pages or sections from those books. I have found the content for this purpose mostly comprehensive, with some need to supplement. read more. Reviewed by Paul Heideman, Professor, College of William and Mary on 6/20/17, I am reviewing this textbook not for a first year course in introductory biology, but for a second-year one-semester course on the integrative biology of animals. This text is consistent and organized throughout. These are presented well with all sides considered. With failing vision reading from a standard text book requires good lighting and magnification. Overall, I felt that the authors made wise choices in balancing clarity of illustrations against complexity of an illustration. The organization makes sense and flows well. The book is organized in a very similar manner to most introductory Biology textbooks - with good reason. The font in the online text is easier to read than the font in the pdf. Overall, it a text that is a good value for students to learn basics of biology. I did not find any issues with the interface, and especially liked the option of reading it online. Modularity is consistent and adequately divided throughout. Thus, the frequency of an allele at one end of a distribution will be similar to the frequency of the allele at the other end. Its inaccurate to claim that allele frequencies do not change over the range of a species. I found no evidence of cultural insensitivity. As with other textbooks I have used in the past, students do not read chapters unless you give them some kind of assignment that goes with it. You can even purchase a bound copy from Amazon for around $60, which is very reasonable for a textbook. Those that occurred did not interrupt the flow of reading and understanding. The organization is so similar, in fact, that I have to believe it was intentionally pattered, sometimes chapter-by-chapter, after offerings from major commercial publishers. We are proud to offer the biggest range of coffee machines from all the leading brands of this industry. In general, chapters are arranged in a logical order, and topics flow seamlessly within chapters. In Chapter 18, the text only includes the biological species concept, with no discussion of its weaknesses or limitations. And in the discussion of hypothesis testing only controlled experiments are addressed. Furthermore, in a classroom of 300 students, I probably have 3-12 gender-non-conforming students who feel that statements such as these deny their existence, causing them to readily give up on "science." (ID: 349a8a47e1d944c18f9bdae4af018fe7) electrophoresis technique used to separate DNA fragments according to size helicase For me, a text book is a resource of basic information that allows the students to learn a bit on their own (the critical basics) before applying their knowledge to in class activities. Any possible problems can be easily fixed or updated. In a few cases, I saw Hydrogen ions referred to as protons (and vice versa) without explaining that they were the same thing in the same chapter. In Chapter 11, the text states, Spores are haploid cells that can produce a haploid organism or can fuse with another spore to form a diploid cell. Spores never fuse with other spores to form diploid cells. Intermittently, the text refers to itself, which could be an issue if one has not read the previous information, but this is not frequent. The chapters are divided into topical sections, making it easy to assign or not assign specific topics. Students at this level often feel overwhelmed with the amount of information presented to them. hypothesis variable theory control 6. I think students will appreciate this breakdown and it will help to avoid overwhelming them with new material. A few differences I would like to highlight. WebCh. However, most of the scientific articles cited are more than 10 years old, being the most recent article from 2015. That being said, a knowledgeable instructor should be able to provide that context and, not having the authors' context in the text, may make the naive students' path through the material less overwhelming. Putting these pieces together would help students gain a more unified understanding of cellular respiration as one component of larger biological processes. Some are terrific, and worth a student spending time there to better understand the material. My current use of this textbook has only portions of the text assigned, and this does not seem to be an issue for students. The basics / foundations were covered in an appropriate manner so that the text will not become out of date very quickly. My impression is that with a publication date of 2013 the book is in need of revision now (2018). I selected Cellular Respiration because this is a complex, multi-step concept which is challenging for many students. Atoms that vary in the number of neutrons found in their nuclei are called ________. There were also areas where American Indian culture could have been included but were not. Chapters can be easily integrated into a learning platform to facilitate weekly reading assignments. I did not notice any bias towards or against historical studies, current topics, research, or ideas made apparent. Review Questions at End of Section there is little use of graphical phylogenetic hypotheses (trees) to illustrate evolutionary relationships and to identify the hypothesized origins of key evolutionary and clade-defining characteristics. The video looks current. However, there are several mistakes that do need to be corrected. What is meant by the term molecular clock? This will confuse students, many of whom have trouble grasping induced fit, which is introduced on the next page. the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environments. The terminology and framework are consistent throughout the whole text. Two, some chapters simplify explanations. Ecosystem concepts range from excellent to shallow (or none). The first forms of life on Earth were ________. The authors use a confusing 'straight line' terminology to try to explain monophyly. This makes it easy to expand on particular topics, replace a section with other reading, and tailor the text to the objectives of a course. Another inaccuracy has to do with gender and genetic determinism. The lay out of the text may not allow easy updates. If so, how? Images in the text included a variety of people from different races and backgrounds. Frequently, however, the flow seems stilted and information presented out of context or out of order. Furthermore, the video is really talking about sex, but incorrectly uses the term gender for reasons that are unknown to me. The labeling is not clear in many figures, the font type is distracting, labels have shadows, and they are distorted or blurry. The links to learning videos are often from utube with no evidence that they come from scientific peer reviewed sources. Images, tables, and boxes were all presented well and without distortion. Specifically, the large majority of the Career Connection pieces have no photograph at all; this would have been an easy way to add diverse role models. These topics are presented in similar ways in most genetics and biology textbooks and havent changed much in the years that I have been teaching. Few chapter, though, like Gene expression might need more detail/clarity. Many topics are covered at a moderate level of depth with additional links provided to content from other sections of the text in the 'connections' sections. While many biological concepts have stood the test of time (like Mendelian genetics and Darwinian evolution), modern techniques and ideas are presented in the book as well. It would be nice if there were links within each section that took you to other sections. There are some nuances of classification and speaking in generalities that could lead the learner to think in terms of absolutes where that may not be the case (ie. Our young women need more role models in the STEM fields. It provides a path to cut student cost while still maintaining rigor. The content of the text does have some inaccurate sections. I think the logical way to organize these concepts is to give the definition of evolution first and then list and explain the mechanisms that lead to evolution, being natural selection one of them [and here is what all the concepts related to NS are given, in a single place]. Overall, grammar in the text is strong. Hopefully this is not an issue when the pdf is accessed from a desktopI'd have preferred to have all animations open in a new window. Comprehensiveness in an introductory biology textbook is a daunting The Career Connection sections are good, although they are definitely American and not Canadian. Support resources at the end of the text are thorough and well organized. On page 481, the text fails to explain why a mutation may be neutral. read more. Overall the content accuracy was on par with an introductory course. Key terms are defined at the end of each chapter. On page 176, this sentence is very poorly written, with a full and confusing sentence in brackets: Photosynthesis is the primary pathway in which photosynthetic organisms like plants (the majority of global synthesis is done by planktonic algae) harvest the suns energy and convert it into carbohydrates. The short video is correctly labeled as dispersion in Wikipedia rather than as diffusion. The text is very consistent in terms of terminology and framework. After each section, you can click the link and it brings you to a relevant video, activity, etc. Each carbon atom can bond with as many as________ other atom(s) or molecule(s). This text is very comprehensive, covering all topics that should be included in a two semester undergraduate introductory biology course for Biology majors/premedical students. I do wish there was more content on plant biology. The text covers most necessary areas, but not always with clarity or accuracy. It covered all of the subject areas that my current General Biology textbook covers. Cultural issues are handled appropriately. After comparing this text to my current majors-level textbook, I would strongly recommend this text with a 4 star rating. There is a comprehensive table of contents, index, and "Key Terms" page for each section. Also newer information is missing in some of the chapters. The correct answer was identified as A. While that answer is obviously more correct than the others, it is certainly incomplete and misleading. Text didnt self-reference too much, which is very useful for classes that only cover part of the text. Each chapter subsection starts with 3-5 clear and concise learning outcomes. This text, while far from being obsolete, probably needs an update as it was finished in 2018. The information builds on previous chapters in a manner that deepens student knowledge. These have all been a work in progress. For example, I would introduce DNA structure, replication, central dogma and gene expression (chapters 14-16) before classical genetics (chapter 12), and I think that would work fine with the way this text is written. Of course other organizing principles are possible, and perhaps desirable; for example the AAAS Vision and Change core concepts in biology. This books covers the minimal basics, but not in great detail and isn't comprehensive by any means. No overt grammatical errors were observed, but frequent minor grammatical errors are smattered throughout that may cause confusion, particularly in a student who is struggling with the material or in a student who is a non-native English speaker. Not sure how often they update, but it would be easy to do in an online platform. As no comprehensive textbook like this is ever completely error-free despite the best of intentions, I am sure there are some inadvertent mistakes. With an introductory-level biology text, it is important to achieve a balance between the length of the text & number of topics and the inclusion of the most recent technological advances. In addition, it streamlines many of the chapters to cover just the essentials, so it is half the length of a publisher textbook. The organization of the text makes it easy to assign very specific chapters and subsections according to the goals of the course, and to read these sections out of order. The prose is consistent and accessible to students. It doesn't work very well. The navigation is a bit easier with the downloaded version, as the online version is divided into units, so if you just give your student a chapter to look at, you may need to tell them which unit the chapter is listed under. The chapters are divided into sections and subheadings. Section headings and learning objectives are useful in breaking up the material into smaller, more digestible components. The book is nicely comprehensive in its overall selection of units and chaptersall the basic components of any standard semester-long or year-long general biology course for majors or a mixed nonmajors/majors audience. (ID: 349a8a47e1d944c18f9bdae4af018fe7) electrophoresis technique used to separate DNA fragments according to size helicase Scientists are not ones to dress up language, aiming instead to say things as precisely as possible. A second way I was disappointed was in the handling of biological sex. The addition of key terms at the end of the chapters also adds a bonus summary for students to use as a resource to gauge their understanding of course concepts. The content, as least in the chapters I cover, is extremely similar to my current majors level text (Campbell Biology 10th Ed., Reece et. Poor use of page space / too much white space also makes this text a poor fit for reading online, particularly on devices such as iPad, tablet, eReaders where screen size is smaller and the text /content is intended to fill the entire screen space. There could be more cultural references in the examples of careers sections. Overall this text covers each topic in adequate detail and provides enough detail and content for a two semester coverage of biology for majors, especially if this text is used alongside additional instructor input and labs. 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