. It includes both the cell biology and organismal biology required of a 2-semester biology post-secondary sequence. Reviewed by Joseph Ly, Lecturer, St. Ambrose University on 10/26/18, Is able to cover aspects of biology very well. This is important because it provides a framework for learning, allowing students to comprehend how the material links to the larger subject of study. Each carbon atom can bond with as many as________ other atom(s) or molecule(s). citation tool such as, Authors: Mary Ann Clark, Matthew Douglas, Jung Choi. Intermittently, the text refers to itself, which could be an issue if one has not read the previous information, but this is not frequent. A quibble I have with this and most other textbooks is that the energy of a phosphate bond is described solely in terms of the chemistry. 2nd Edition. One of the great benefits of this textbook is its ability to be updated without the need for students to purchase a new edition. To submit a correction, 1. The diagrams of almost every human body system had outlines that suggested long, straight noses,, non-ethnic hair styles, and no disabilities (e.g., someone using a wheelchair). Our mission is to improve educational access and learning for everyone. For example, chapters I noticed a couple of issues, like introducing a concept before it has been defined or explained. Each section is very short. The flow and organization is comparable to other texts in the market. The text that I perused did not contain any grammatical errors. This book follow the traditional, and most widely used, manner of organization for the sequence of chapters and topics, which allows for a logical flow of content. Sometimes a bit on the technical side, but the publisher book had the same issue. glycosidic bond. Students struggle with tree-thinking, a necessary skill for anyone who plans to continue in biology. It compares well in this regard with widely used textbooks such as Campbell Biology, Biological Science by Freeman et al. Figures and images are places between paragraphs. It is the opinion of this reviewer that these differences in writing styles are not a hindrance to learning rather an opportunity to prepare students for the real world. Figures were overly simplified, yet serve the purpose. The text is clear but perhaps a little dry and sparse. We have a two part biology series for majors and pre-nursing students that should have a good grounding in biology. In another case, for videos on enzyme function, the web page opened, but the enzyme videos were not visible on my old MacBook Pro running Safari 9.0.3. Many students imagine that diffusion explains the spread of molecules of dye in a beaker of water or the movement of molecules of scent in a room and this example feeds this misconception. Many seven-year-olds could correct the authors on this one. The text is easily readable and helps make complex topics easier to navigate. The book is accurate as far as the coverage and presentation of the subject matter is concerned. Show more water molecules in shell of hydration image fig. Only issues I've found are in the accuracy of illustrations -- several are mis-labeled. Overall, this chapter was accurate, with concepts clearly described. Figure numbers are in an orange/brown and stand out (easy to find). This is a good book for an introductory level class, covering all material that would traditionally be presented in a one or two semester series. Due to its ease of use- chapters can be assigned out of order to tailor the individual needs. The text book uses accessible prose while at the same time expecting the student to remain current with the material learned in previous chapters. 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. I have smaller, one week chunks and this book will still allow for that approach, using chapters or parts of chapters each week, as well as taking parts of chapters in isolation, or in conjunction with other chapter parts. I have reviewed the content online and also in PDF format and in both cases I did not encounter any issues with the text, figures or any html links. The textbook may need some improvements with clarity. Though relevant, it may need revisions to trends in the future. On page 496, the explanation of punctuated equilibrium is very weak. The chapter summaries and key terms are nice editions for students and illustrations are clear and professional. Its detailed enough to provide a good foundation for introductory I found my topic if the end of the keyword was different from the text but a misspelling in the middle of the word returned no matching results. As no comprehensive textbook like this is ever completely error-free despite the best of intentions, I am sure there are some inadvertent mistakes. Depending on your choice, you can also buy our Tata Tea Bags. I compare the chapter from Biology 2e to both the first edition Openstax Biology and a traditional introductory text from a major publisher. Terminology and organization is consistent. I encountered no interface issues other than that of slowness of loading. Overall the content accuracy was on par with an introductory course. I appreciated the additional learning links included within the chapter, particularly the one detailing transcription and translation, allowing students to practice this concept in a manner likely to be encountered on an in-class evaluation or in other evaluations the student may encounter later in their career. Some other errors included some minor semantics issues within a few of the chapters, including the genetics and immune system chapters. Other sections are excessively technical and will probably confuse students. Carrying capacity is a feature of a populations environment, not of the population. From this perspective, I would have actually preferred if the text was less modular. Since the text is foundational, many of the subjects aren't changing rapidly. It's professional and well-written, and while the visuals (though accurate) may be less polished than a traditional textbook, I think the fact that it's free more than makes up for that lack. For some of the less frequently taught concepts (Algae/Protist diversity) the sections are a little thinner than other non-OER texts. 2. Please check your connection and try again. This alone happens at a frequency of perhaps 1 in 20000, and there are a great number of additional ways in which a persons chromosomes might not follow the statistically most common pattern. The text content is generally relevant and up-to-date. But I'll need student feedback to assess whether it reads clearly to students. Especially for multi-step processes like glycolysis and the citric acid cycle, these tools will be useful for visualizing each stage. For additional free and open resources, visit http://www.openstax.org/. Among the three domains, the archaea are not given adequate treatment. The chapters could be easily reorganized into smaller subunits as needed for a class. Pinacocytes are epithelial-like cells, form the outermost layer of sponges, and enclose a jelly-like substance called mesohyl. Coffee premix powders make it easier to prepare hot, brewing, and enriching cups of coffee. Van der Waals attractions can occur between any two or more molecules and are dependent on slight fluctuations of the electron densities, which are not always symmetrical around an atom. Chapter 23 provides a foundation. I liked the fact that there was a glossary of terms in each section, rather than a full glossary at the end of the chapter, because I think it will help students organize the information and help them to understand the material better as a consequence. Im sure there were many others. These provide real world examples as to why they are learning these topics and how they can be applied to a career or are being used by other scientists and professionals. I did notice a few grammatical errors, but it wasn't terrible. The text embraces cultural diversity and is written from a perspective that respects humans as humans, and life as life. The text is well-written and easy to read and understand. Chapter 17 appears to be in need of updating. The text includes information on various jobs in biology, as well as information on many human health conditions. This organization facilitates the assignation of reading material for the students. While this provides a concise orientation to ATP, why not take the opportunity to link to the more detailed description of ATP provided in chapter 6 here? The chapters are divided into topical sections, making it easy to assign or not assign specific topics. On page 24, the term germline cells is used but is not clearly defined. The 4 rating is because there isn't the same consistent visual "language" in the illustrations as there is in a commercial textbook. It does occasionally hang while loading if the internet connection is slow, but thats to be expected. One aspect I really like of the text is all of the website links built right into the chapters. The index is easy to use in both the PDF and online format. For example, I didn't find any mention of drift, mutation, or gene flow. It doesn't work very well. There are many examples (e.g., government regulations such as the FDA, examples of careers) that are American and explicitly not Canadian. We are being encouraged to go to more OER classes. The sentence structure and paragraph flow and logical and easy to follow. Please check your connection and try again. Given that this is a text for two semester introductory sequence in biology for undergraduates, it appears to be very comprehensive. At the end of the textbook, appendices (e.g., periodic table, metric system) and a comprehensive index are included. I thought the explanations were very specific and well versed. This textbook was comprehensively organized and populated with topics. The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. I did not notice cultural insensitive in this book; it includes mention of women scientists (Figure 14.16 Elizabeth Blackburn, telomerase) and discussion some genetic disease that occur more frequently in particular populations. The bar codes associated with each Link to Learning were fantastic and an excellent addition to the textbook to add additional information. Reviewed by Emma Murray, Instructor (Biology for majors), Aims Community College on 7/23/19, 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. American Biology Teacher 56:7, 405-407. Notes on Specific Sections I also found the instructor resources to be consistent. For Integrative Biology: Animals, I need a biology textbook with three types of 6. The textbook is aimed to provide fundamental knowledge at a general reading level. The answer guide available to verified instructors (verification is simple and takes about a day or two) is useful. Diffusion plays a key role in the movement of molecules across plasma membranes, which are only 8 nm thick. A person notices that her houseplants that are regularly exposed to music seem to grow more quickly than those in rooms with no music. The text is organized in a way that most introductory instructors would be familiar with. There were also areas where American Indian culture could have been included but were not. Currently available textbooks have made huge strides in producing carefully rendered and accurate illustrations and animations that are produced by talented teams of artists and animators. Students should be able to build upon their knowledge and comprehension as they proceed through the course. The authors 'talk' to the students and the text feels welcoming and understandable. There are numerous areas that could be improved, but none that I have seen that stand out as warranting complaint. The factual context of the writing made for very quick reading. I think students would grasp the concept better. The organization of the book follows a well established and familiar pattern, with the chapters organized into sections as in many other well known general biology textbooks, e.g. The organization of the book is intuitive and I can easily find information and readings associated with class topics through the table of contents. A few are important to correct, especially given that we push students to understand the need for precise use of science terminology and vocabulary (e.g., Section 34.2 is titled "Nutrition and Energy Production," which might confuse a student who has learned that "energy can neither be created nor destroyed."). The Career Connection sections are good, although they are definitely American and not Canadian. Paternal leakage means that not every mitochondrial DNA is from the female. The Biology 2e text has done an excellent job of "breaking up" the reading material into manageable sections split with images, videos, and links to outside sources that deepen student knowledge and facilitate engagement with the material. On page 243, the text states, Every single atom of matter and energy is conserved, recycling over and over infinitely. No, this is not so. The overall order of the chapters seems to me to reflect an "order of discovery" approach that I have seen in the Campbell book (Mendelian genetics before DNA, speciation before population genetics). I checked several other sources just to be sure and can find no confirmation of this claim). One way that heat is transferred from place to place inside the human body is by the flow of blood. read more. This would be what good instructors always do, but new instructors often have to take more of their clues from the text. read more. This is a laudable grade for the first iteration of an enormous community project. While I think the traditional text did a better job of framing the big-picture perspective of cellular respiration, the depth offered by Openstax is beyond reproach. That may be true for most humans, but some humans have 45 or 47. If xenon has an atomic number of 54 and a mass number of 108, how many neutrons does it have? In Chapter 18, the text only includes the biological species concept, with no discussion of its weaknesses or limitations. I use Openstax Biology 2e as a textbook for my AP Bio and dual credit class. The text reads well with no blatant grammatical errors. Several features are included to help the learner and educator alike. Second half an easily be taught out of order while keeping the integrity of the textbook order. You might want to consider having the figure become larger in a popup or opening a new window. The text could have certainly benefited from using the pictures of scientists to give a human face to the work presented. This book will serve the purpose of introductory biology and could very well be used in place of the expensive textbooks. Organization of the chapters for a biology course that covers: molecules, cells, energy, cell reproduction and genetics, this text follows the conventional organization. The text and figure reinforce a common and significant student error that prevents clear understanding of this key concept. Content seems up to date, relative to the content level. They aren't just in the book, they are incorporated into the discussion. This is likely a consequence of using open-access images rather than art created specifically for a textbook. Your guests may need piping hot cups of coffee, or a refreshing dose of cold coffee. read more. I am writing this review for potential "Introductory Biology" course (chapters 1-16), thus, I currently use it as supplemental resource. The text is divisible into many reading sections within each chapter. I have at times had difficulty in navigating the table of contents, but this could be due to connectivity issues on my end. It is provides a baseline for the essential content for a Biology course. The authors use a confusing 'straight line' terminology to try to explain monophyly. I have had no issues with the interface on my computer or phone. The links that I clicked to external sites all worked well. The book highlights different career paths for students in each respective field of biology using engaging real-world examples, and explicitly calls out areas that cause frequent confusion for students (for example, the difference between weather and climate when discussing climate change, and common misunderstandings about the process of evolution. Students who did these problems would gain in understanding, but I think the questions are not especially strong with respect to developing new skills at applying the concepts, doing broader analysis, or synthesizing ideas. 2 Review Questions - Biology 2e | OpenStax Review Questions Review Questions Highlights 4. For example the authors point out the differences between T-helper cells such as TH1, Th2 and Regulatory T-cells. This book is readily available online and provides the same diversity as other freshman text books with current and up to date images and tables. End of chapter problems. For my purposes, the text covers these topics at the right breadth and depth. Topics are broken up enough so that particular areas could be omitted if needed without making a chapter or coverage of a topic incomplete. We biologists know that chromosomes do not entirely "determine" a person's sex. Discussion of modern genetics is appropriate in detail. I have found the content for this purpose mostly comprehensive, with some need to supplement. Like most Biology textbooks, this was hit or miss for me. Each chapter and sections within chapters can easily stand alone and be assigned at any point within the semester without much problem. I havent gotten that far ahead, though Ill probably be skipping that one for now since I dont plan to cover it until next semester. I did not read any insensitive or offensive language in the chapters I reviewed. But, in the case of mitosis, the lack of a good figure of the mitotic spindle is notable. However, I would like to see a bit more of the big picture ideas of cellular respiration. The textbook is broadly set-up to explain the subject of biology starting from broad (chemistry/building blocks of life) to specific (organ systems) and going from simple (cells) to complex (ecology) and therefore is structured in a way that inherently builds off of the concepts from previous chapters. It is good to be able to search the documents easily because they are online. Reviewed by Jonathan Karpel, Associate Professor, Southern Utah U on 8/2/18, Yes, this text is much like any of the regular, paper general biology textbooks. I'm also not clear if students would have access to the answers for the review questions as I couldn't find it. Reviewed by Mark Wagner, Instructor/Life Sciences, Portland Community College on 1/10/21, The text integrates in-depth concepts over a broad range of topics. These were foundational and references in many other chapters without explanation. ISBN. For example the term collagen appears well before it is described in any detail, and viruses were presented before chapters on molecular genetics. 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. It has a good online index that is searchable. Numerous other ways of logically organizing chapters are certainly possible, but that employed in this text flow nicely. Images and figures need revision as many are displaying with poor resolution in the pdf version. However, I wonder if there might be a better way to organize some material. For new instructors, I would also feel like they would need an alternative textbook, at least for reference since this book has so much less depth on most topics. However, the authors missed an opportunity to discuss how conservation and population control impact, influence, and are lead by local societies. I really appreciate the efforts of OpenStax and the authors to provide such a helpful resource for free. This book will suffice in a 2 semester biology course. Short answer: not at this time. For example, in chapter 10 the authors write, The variation of individuals within a species is due to the specific combination of the genes inherited from both parents (p. 281). The type of logical thinking that uses related observations to arrive at a general conclusion is called ________. WebPANOPEN + OPENSTAX BIOLOGY ACCESS CODE 17th Edition ISBN: 9781944519766 BIOLOGY 2E 2nd Edition ISBN: 9781506699851 BIOLOGY 13th Edition ISBN: 2810017676413 BIOLOGY FOR AP COURSES (OER) 17th Edition ISBN: 9781947172401 EBK BIOLOGY 2nd Edition ISBN: 9781947172524 Homework Help by Science Subjects I liked that chapters were separated into a handful of subsections with a concise heading -- some other texts seem to over-partition concepts which can prevent a novice from understanding the connections between sections. Want to cite, share, or modify this book? In particular, they praise Biology for its convenience, affordability, and succinctness. I was pleased that key female scientists were mentioned. The index at the start of the text is very useful for navigation. The book is well organized and the table of contents is through to allow students the ability to quickly view each topic covered. I did not find any inaccuracies or errors in my review of this textbook. The book included biological themes beginning at the cellular level and progressing all the Professor, Science Dept. Some of the online-version images seemed small at first, so they did need to be opened in a new tab, but that was easily accomplished and did not disrupt or confuse me as the reader. The external link is no help because it uses a completely different scheme. Also the writing style needs to be kept the same throughout the text. Yes, this text is much like any of the regular, paper general biology textbooks. The topics are all relevant. Compared to conventional textbooks, it is typically accurate and perhaps a little above average in freshness. This review was collaboratively written by Dr. Heidi Sleister and Dr. Debora Christensen. It seems clear that different chapters are written by different peoplesome of the chapters (for example, on the immune system) are exceptionally detailed, whereas others (e.g., on evolution and speciation) are a bit more bare-bones, but all the bases are covered. The unit and chapter breakdown was very well done and organized appropriately. I also like the connections to diet and nutrition throughout Chapters 2 4. It covers all the topics in sufficient detail for the student to succeed. It covers the main topics such as genetics, evolution, and cell biology in sufficient detail. Reviewed by Karen Sirum, Associate Professor, Bowling Green State University on 2/1/18, Core concepts for introductory level college course are addressed in sufficient detail, without overly complicating the material for this audience. Links are clearly visible yet subtle, and the small Evolution Connection boxes and the like are small enough to not disrupt the flow of the regular text. Figure 3.32 is not helpful and does not show H-bonding or antiparallel arrangement clearly. then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution: Use the information below to generate a citation. Do you look forward to treating your guests and customers to piping hot cups of coffee? Likewise, the inclusion of the Chapter Summaries and Key Word definitions were highly beneficial. Navigation is obvious, reliable, intuitive, and resembles a traditional hard copy text, so that it should feel familiar to most students. I like that the chapters are fairly short. This is commonly a distraction that is minimized in this textbook. In truth, both fields are equally rigorous and important, they just study different parts of our world. I thought this was very poor. Overall, this book provides what I need content-wise for my introductory courses. While not in detail, most of the material covered gives the reader a basic understanding of various biological processes. It would then fall on the instructor to really add a lot of depth and context for the content into their class in lectures and active learning activities. Biology is an extremely broad subject area to Images are simple and clear. Students would benefit from learning about totipotency and tissue culture, development and growth, phytohormones and associated signaling mechanisms etc., in plants, Each chapter is provided with much useful key terms and definitions, chapter summary and review questions. I selected Cellular Respiration because this is a complex, multi-step concept which is challenging for many students. There are several instances of subtle inaccuracies, which is expected in any textbook. For example, why does a business major need to know about RNA transcription or the different parts of the translation machinery. Potassium has an atomic number of 19. For the most part this textbook is consistent in use of terminology. Web resources have a notoriously short longevity and links to external sources need updating, so their inclusion makes regular updating essential if only for that reason. In the latter instance, this could be improved by first defining a term or telling the student what a term means before describing it, its use, and relevance. There is a comprehensive table of contents, index, and "Key Terms" page for each section. This textbook has some such examples which is commendable. This text book follows the usual pattern of chapters in covering the subject of general biology. There are a few errors or misstatements in this book, but they are few and far between. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. One inconsistency of note is the use, or lack of use, of graphical phylogenetic hypotheses. When the authors have constructed their own images, they are rather basic by modern standards, but that is not a bad thing in my view.
The Quilt Company Karen Montgomery,
Shooting In Kent Wa Last Night,
Consumer Council Spam Calls,
Tyreek Hill Favorite Food,
Zendaya Publicist Stephen,
Articles O
