There is very little discussion of this domain in the text. In particular, they praise Biology for its convenience, affordability, and succinctness. Working towards a more culturally relevant content would be appropriate. On page 496, the explanation of punctuated equilibrium is very weak. Compare heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures. knowledge and comprehension for Bloom's taxonomy). Reviewed by Stan Guffey, Faculty Scholar, University of Tennessee on 6/20/17, Biology (OpenStax) is as comprehensive as, and follows the general topical format of a commercially available introductory biology textbook designed for life science majors. A two-column format may be more appropriate. Some of the text in images is a little hard to read. The text is relevant, and it should remain so for some time. This error appears to be due to a change in the figure from the first edition which was not accompanied by a corresponding change to the caption.) Biology was very comprehensive in its covering of general biology topics and the "Link to Learning" feature allows the learner to expand the concept. For the most part topics are presented in a logical sequence, except for the Evolution chapters. As a result, she determines that plants grow better when exposed to music. This book focuses on proper concepts and details, not extraneous stuff. I did not detect any major errors. Inclusion of well-labeled figures, tables, and charts throughout the text to compare and contrast structures and to help students visualize processes are particularly helpful. Chapters can be taken out of order. Descriptions of complex processes (especially of genetics and physiology) are also clear and easy to understand. Biologists refer to this fit as adaptation, and it is a consequence of evolution by Most of the images are clear and appropriately arranged. Biology 2e seems to go into slightly more detail in some places, especially in regard to molecular biology. biology astronomy physics Each chapter has a number of small photographs, Creative Commons Attribution License Headings and subheadings are clearly labeled so sections can be found easily. Evolution is mentioned in Ch.1 but is not defined or explained, assuming that students already understand this complex. I found it to be broad in scope but still provided the depth you would want in a major's level Biology course. Additionally, I like the summary tables at the end of many sections and/or chapters (particularly cells and membranes). There are no issues with the download at any time and website does reminder the reader to use the chrome or any other web browser than IE. The overall organization of topics and concepts within the textbook is similar to current commercial introductory biology textbooks. Therefore, the physiology section could be edited to recognize that sex steroids are not the domain of one sex specifically, as both estrogens and androgens play important roles in all humans and animals, regardless of sex or gender. I would agree that the relevance is one of the strengths of the textbook. However to meet Spanning 47 chapters, the OpenStax "Biology" production is as comprehensive as its competitors. On the other hand if the authors wanted to dwell on minutia they could say that catabolic reactions also require input of energy to overcome the energy of activation. The text uses the terms primitive and advanced for extant taxa. Thanks again for all of these! The text in that section was correct, but an incorrect figure can easily confuse students who are not familiar with the topic. However, I now realize that instructors are encouraged to cut irrelevant material and use relevant material to their coursework. The text is easy to read with consistent flow and rationale. It is refreshing to see a discussion of epigenetics in detail as this is often missing from upper level genetics text books. consent of Rice University. I plan on doing this with my course this semester. Which of the following sciences is not considered a natural science? The text provides students with current, relevant information in a progression of topics and concepts based on empirical data and basic science. While not in detail, most of the material covered gives the reader a basic understanding of various biological processes. After chapter questions give a start to learning to take the assessment but various levels of blooms taxonomy questions can be added to promote / advance the critical thinking skills. This is a problem throughout the text. read more. This textbook is extremely comprehensive, almost too comprehensive. AAAS's Vision and Change concepts and competencies were not a theme in the book. 2 Review Questions - Biology 2e | OpenStax Review Questions Review Questions Highlights 4. While the textbook appears to be clear to me (someone with a PhD in biology), I wonder if it would be clear to my students? Each chapter consists a number of sections - this makes it easy for the student to break the material up into manageable chunks. It was initially well-written, and has benefitted from additional suggestions and corrections by users. Author (s) OpenStax. However, there is quite a bit of variability from section to section in the number of review questions provided. The online, open-source nature of the book should allow for content to be refreshed on an as-needed basis. read more. 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. I could find no errors in grammar in the text. It would be nice if, when using the online version of the textbook (rather than pdf), one could click on the figures to view them enlarged in a separate window. For example, why does a business major need to know about RNA transcription or the different parts of the translation machinery. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Most references to him or her could be made more inclusive via use of the gender-neutral term them. Further, dichotomizing the sex steroids, estrogens and androgens, as female and male, respectively, is unnecessary, misleading, and may make some students feel excluded. Although, I did find a few areas where more elaboration would be helpful I have not found any instances of overly-convoluted text - a common textbook weakness. I First half of the book fits seamlessly with any generalized schedule. The terms sometimes can be used before they are fully defined, and some of the figures appeared before the text, which can be confusing to students as they pace through the book. The text book is easy to navigate with essential and well chosen figures and links to outside resources, some very good and simple animations. No instances of cultural insensitivity were apparent. The information builds on previous chapters in a manner that deepens student knowledge. Just something to think about if you want to use it for seated sections on campus. In some cases, the inconsistencies appear to be associated with oversimplification. Consistency is generally good but need some help in few instances. There is a comprehensive table of contents, index, and "Key Terms" page for each section. This helps students connect what they are learning with their lives. glycogen. These bonds, along with hydrogen bonds, help form the three-dimensional structure of the proteins in our cells that is necessary for their proper function. In fact, interactions between R-groups on amino acids are more important than Van der Waals attractions in stabilizing 3D structure in proteins. It has a good online index that is searchable. Navigation within the digital book was problem-free. The text is available in multiple formats: online, pdf, app, print, and iBook. This seems like a great book for freshman because often at that stage the students are interested in science but are unsure of what branch of science they want to go into. I am not as excited about the flow of information in this text, but it can be rearranged to fit individual college's needs. The text is not culturally insensitive, and material can easily be supplemented with current news articles and essays addressing the moral and ethical implications of current findings and technologies. For many students, it will be a slog to get through, and they will struggle to identify key concepts on their own Chapter 23 provides a foundation. For the most part the content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. I did not observe any culturally insensitive content. On page 94, the term homology is used but not clearly defined or explained. This text is a nice way to help students organize those core ideas, all in one place. 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. No internal links were dead or misdirected, and figures were clear. Some other errors included some minor semantics issues within a few of the chapters, including the genetics and immune system chapters. I use Openstax Biology 2e as a textbook for my AP Bio and dual credit class. The integration of career connections are an added bonus. read more. The reviewers noticed that care was taken to include recent findings (for example, neurogenesis and BrdU labeling; epigenetics; personalized medicine). I found it had enough depth for a majors course while being accessible for non-majors. I found the index and glossary complete; it was easy to find topics of interest and the completeness of the topics matched my expectations from the index. Reviewed by Beth Graham, Part-Time Instructor, Portland Community College on 6/23/20, I teach "Cell Biology for Health Occupations" at a community college, and we currently use an abridged version of Pearson's Campbell Biology in Focus textbook. I am signed up for OpenStax. It is provides a baseline for the essential content for a Biology course. Since this is an introductory biology textbook, the topics are rather standardized across textbooks in this market. For example, chapters on Chemistry and Biological molecules both explain important fundamentals and provide adequate detail to maintain interest and give context to these topics. Each chapter ends with a list of key terms and a summary, plus questions. In Chapter 3, the Evolution Connection on cytochrome C is not well explained: When human and rhesus monkey sequences were compared, the single difference found was in one amino acid. The index and glossary are fine. Once again, however, the dynamic nature of the text proves to be its strength, as the community of users actively submit suggested corrections to address potential errors in concepts, typos, art, wording, review questions, and broken links. Nitrogen fixation and plant defenses are not well explained, and deamination and cation exchange dont come up in a search. The significance of these comparisons is not explained. Joint and body movement illustrations and descriptions are very detailed But this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it should make it easy for all instructors (regardless of their teaching style) to make the change and substitute this book for an equivalent print text. The chapters are divided into topical sections, making it easy to assign or not assign specific topics. Webtwo sugar monomers that a glycosidic bond links. read more. From nutrient and water uptake transport: root absorption, cation exchange, active transport into root hair I think the entire first paragraph of chapter 7 needs a do over. The contents list expands readily, and the names of the chapters mirrors those in the competitor texts. Each carbon atom can bond with as many as________ other atom(s) or molecule(s). 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). These sections make the material more relevant to students, and help them shift focus from the proximate, detail-oriented perspective to the ultimate, big-picture perspective. Atoms that vary in the number of neutrons found in their nuclei are called ________. Some of them (Figure 5.11, Figure 18.6) are truly awful. Easy to navigate the contents list, especially when downloaded as PDF, and very easy to switch from one section to another. The layout and flow of the text (intro paragraph, learning objectives, text, etc) was consistent throughout. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understandand applykey concepts. Difficult concepts can be presented in image form as supplemental material. Support resources at the end of I currently teach 9th grade Biology. They should be discussed along with cytokines. Within each chapter, the fundamental concepts and principles are addressed in a factual manner. It shows biology in light of evolution and in light of molecular biology. I have used chapter 1-16 of this book for a 100-level community college class "Integrated Chemistry and Cellular Biology for Healthcare Professionals". For some of the less frequently taught concepts (Algae/Protist diversity) the sections are a little thinner than other non-OER texts. There is no adaptive learning software like publishers use. The text contains few grammatical and spelling errors. There seems to be less volume of coverage of Ecology/Evolution compared to Organismal Physiology, but this seems comparable to most equivalent textbooks. As I looked at the units, their order, and the titles, I found a very familiar feel, like I could have been looking at the table of contents of several well-known commercial textbooks. The textbook is comprehensive; the extent and depth of the topics and concepts covered are at the level required in an introductory course for biology majors. Presentation is straightforward, but I find that supplementing with additional web based teaching tutorials and videos, compliments this basic text. The book is inclusive, I did not see any cultural biases. All topics are covered appropriately. Overall, the text is accurate. None of the existing textbooks for zoology cover this material well enough to be worth the cost to students. The organization is on par with other majors level biology texts. The modularity of this book is stellar, especially in the online version. This book does do a good job of being modular. This is a place where I feel the book was really lacking. However, I have a lot of reservations. I would feel confident in this textbooks ability to provide scientifically sound ideas to my students. This seems to be representative of the textbook more broadly. 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. The glossary appears comprehensive, however, many duplicates (ie. For the most part, the content is up-to-date, but I did find a few sections that already needed updating. WebAnswer Both systems involve chemical messengers that must interact with receptors in order to have an effect. Images in the text also do not make a very good use of space. Figures were overly simplified, yet serve the purpose. The writing style is easy to read and is well written for the freshman/sophomore level. 6. For example, at the time of this review in December 2016, statistics and citations in the book date primarily to 2012 and earlier, and some recently hot topics like CRISPR are not yet covered. 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