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. After each section, you can click the link and it brings you to a relevant video, activity, etc. 19. Any ethical issues (for example, reproductive technologies) were handled carefully but with technical accuracy. I could see having to recreate a few key figures to use this textbook. Complete the following page as thoroughly as possible. Chapter 7 was broken down into small, manageable sub-sections which could be easily assigned to students. is positive and it is certainly a book I would consider using in my general biology course sequence, not only because of cost considerations (the web and PDF versions are free and even the printed version is inexpensive). (Fig 7.4 claims to show a phosphorylation reaction in which the third phosphate of ATP attaches to a protein. I never noticed any obvious inconsistencies in terminology that affected understanding. Some of the language is loose: "Need for osmoregulation" implies that osmoregulation happens because it needs to happen, instead of correctly stating that "osmoregulation happens" because of all the partnering proteins, the membranes, the solutes, the pumps, etc. Reviewed by Kate Pettem, Instructor, Biology, Camosun College on 10/9/13, The text is well-written and easy to read and understand. I checked several other sources just to be sure and can find no confirmation of this claim). I selected Cellular Respiration because this is a complex, multi-step concept which is challenging for many students. On page 481, the text fails to explain why a mutation may be neutral. 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. 2nd Edition. The body of this chapter is readily understandable, with a level of clarity similar to other texts. 12. 2 Review Questions - Biology 2e | OpenStax Review Questions Review Questions Highlights 4. Over the first 16 chapters, the text is consistent in its framework, as well as in its design. In addition, chapters are grouped under 8 units, from "The Chemistry of Life" to "Ecology.". 17. Notes on Specific Sections Headings and subheadings are clearly labeled so sections can be found easily. Rather poor in 7, 12-15 and 17. Interface is overall clearly laid out, but is not particularly engaging visually I liked the fact that there was a glossary of terms in each section, The information provided is up to date and comparable to similar texts. Likewise, the inclusion of the Chapter Summaries and Key Word definitions were highly beneficial. Additional supporting materials with simulations and problem sets. P.464 I think a microarray image is very important here. Non-major students who dislike biology The majority of the photos in this textbook are images adopted from American-based resources. There are typographical errors that can be easily corrected during a revision. I found it had enough depth for a majors course while being accessible for non-majors. Each chapter has a number of small photographs, Overall, I found this to be an exceptional textbook option for the cost. While I feel some of the topics and concepts are broken up over more than one chapter, there is ample opportunity to pick and choose which sections to use. However, The themes of epigenetics, genomic research, non-coding RNA, and CRISPR-Cas gene editing were not discussed and need to be perhaps added on with additional course materials. It is likely that an instructor adopting this text, seeking the best possible learning environment for her students, will use many resources from other publishers, in effect, shifting the financial backing for resources to publishers who charge considerably prices to access their products. I think visibility might be even more of an issue on a cell phone, which I know many students use to view their digital texts. For example, there is one instance in which a figure caption did not match the figure. If you are a competent instructor who tends to use the textbook as a supplemental resource for your students, rather than the main way of obtaining information, this will meet your needs. One thing that was kind of annoying is that you encounter hyperlinks for figure and you click it and it really doesnt do much. I feel the text is mostly accurate, but as in any large text, the occasional error slips by editors now and then. Short answer: not at this time. The book is organized in a very similar manner to most introductory Biology textbooks - with good reason. I dont see any glaring errors in terms of subjects that are missing from the text. For example the authors point out the differences between T-helper cells such as TH1, Th2 and Regulatory T-cells. =AEN>B`i/TeA! q^E3H6_i7GQA&lgX Nitrogen fixation and plant defenses are not well explained, and deamination and cation exchange dont come up in a search. A suggested and testable explanation for an event is called a ________. Want to cite, share, or modify this book? 9781947172517. This is a shame and could wind up creating misconceptions about the current study of animal behavior. Cloud Technical and Community College on 4/11/17, This text book is as comprehensive as the McGraw Hill and Pearson texts that we have been using. In another comparison, human to yeast sequencing shows a difference in the 44th position. This suggests that humans and yeast are as closely related as humans and rhesus monkeys. The topics that travel into an introductory biology text are topics that are rarely controversial or inadequately supported by scientific vetting. Sometimes, after opening an outside resource (following a link) with the PDF version and then clicking the back arrow when you are done, you were taken back to the beginning of the text, and you would then have to find the chapter/page that you had left, but this only happened a couple of times. Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The contents on the left side of the page make navigation very easy and you can easily switch to different sections to find the information that you need. This text book is an excellent teaching tool. The index at the end of the book and the glossary-key terms- at the end of each chapter are both very comprehensive as well. The Review Questions and Critical Thinking questions were excellent and very useful to reinforce the content. The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. My suggestion would be not to completely overhaul the text exactly but maybe update the ancillary materials in a way that teachers and students are introduced to new discoveries and new techniques on regular basis. The latter include art connection questions (which refer to diagrams in the chapter), multiple choice review questions and free response critical thinking questions. plants microorganisms birds dinosaurs 5. For my course, "Integrative Biology: Animals" at the sophomore level, this book should be a useful resource for students. The topics are arranged in a typically progression and build on one another in a traditional fashion. Updating with new information should be relatively straightforward, but as with all texts, the challenge will be to maintain brevity. 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. No culturally insensitive or offensive material was encountered. Each carbon atom can bond with as many as________ other atom(s) or molecule(s). Thus, we found sentence syntax and structure could be improved in places. This organization facilitates the assignation of reading material for the students. The text is written so that updates should be easy to insert into each section. Finally, the sections on eukaryotic transcription, translation, and gene regulation (Ch 15 & 16) provide sufficient background for students to understand why all cells in an animal can have all the same genes but nonetheless have very different patterns of gene expression and function. citation tool such as, Authors: Mary Ann Clark, Matthew Douglas, Jung Choi. It also is relatively current, and includes some relatively recent knowledge, but the time for a major update is approaching. I did not find instructional resources, but I assume that if I had purchased the text I would have been granted access to them. As I mentioned earlier, I have concerns about the "facts only" approach that is used in some of the sections I reviewed. Putting these pieces together would help students gain a more unified understanding of cellular respiration as one component of larger biological processes. For example, there is no reference to CRISPR-cas9 gene editing. There seems to be less volume of coverage of Ecology/Evolution compared to Organismal It compares well in this regard with widely used textbooks such as Campbell Biology, Biological Science by The majority of the learning outcomes at the beginning of the chapter are done well and the visual connection and review questions at the end of the chapter assess lower order cognitive skills. There is one image of a white woman scientist and there are two dark-complexioned individuals with skin conditions. Its not clear that the author understands it, frankly. This is inevitable to some extent in any text, but the editors have some smoothing out to do. WebCh. Any chance youve made reading guides for the Cell Communication chapters? The text is relatively up-to-date, certainly adequately so. 122 an entire sentence was inside the parentheses. Given that this is a text for two semester introductory sequence in biology for undergraduates, it appears to be very comprehensive. In contrast to some introductory biology textbooks that focus almost exclusively on humans, this text consistently includes examples from all three domains of life, making the content more applicable to students with interests in different areas of biology. 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? I noted several examples and I am sure that there are many more. The text includes examples of diverse organisms from around the world. I compare the chapter from Biology 2e to both the first edition Openstax Biology and a traditional introductory text from a major publisher. This text covers all subject matter used in a one semester introductory biology course. Content seems up to date, relative to the content level. I really like the model of open and free materials and admire the work, but the quality is really low. The type of logical thinking that uses related observations to arrive at a general conclusion is called ________. The line width of text on the pdf download was a little wide for easy scanning, I would prefer a two column per page format, but that may simply be personal preference. Why are two base pairs (T-A and incorrectly labeled C-G) shown? This text book is as comprehensive as the McGraw Hill and Pearson texts that we have been using. and Biology by Russell et al. Many online books and journals offer this feature.. The PDF of the text is over 1500 pages in length, making it very long (by print standards). The OpenStax Biology book has units and chapters that cover all of the major topics that one would consider for a general or introductory Biology course. The text is very concise--I would estimate that the chapters are probably half as long as traditional texts (hard to tell exactly because of the online format). I really appreciate the efforts of OpenStax and the authors to provide such a helpful resource for free. End-of-chapter questions are included for students to check their understanding. The introductory material needs to provide recall or review of previously covered material so that students are not constantly referring back to previous chapters in order to comprehend the new material. Vending Services Offers Top-Quality Tea Coffee Vending Machine, Amazon Instant Tea coffee Premixes, And Water Dispensers. The links to talks given by leading researchers (e.g. I would say that the standard commercial texts error on the side of being too detail heavy and encyclopedic and this text errors on the side of being too shallow . In the section The process of science in chapter 1, its mentioned that hypotheses could be correct or false. 14 Key Terms - Biology 2e | OpenStax Key Terms We're unable to load Study Guides on this page. read more. 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. 'L}|Cv~^Uw|azPobk`byO!`*Sw4vn\eSe{#u1LA1t1&l8$)a"=W4j]lk\gx ay)&~g88 a^WuF+W;lQ*aRtuz.'WrNfr65I| With the general misunderstandings of the biological concepts of race, integrating the scientific answer to "are there human races?" Each chapter is divided into several smaller sections and each section has their own learning goals. This will confuse students, many of whom have trouble grasping induced fit, which is introduced on the next page. I dont see any glaring errors in terms of subjects that are missing from the text. Students will be confused and uncertain how the two strands are represented. Its the lignified schlerenchyma cells. This book will work taken as a whole, or taken in parts. Text Book is relevant to the western standards. I could not image how to part of a chapter to cover the basics of a topic. Have the text as both an online and pdf document is helpful because if student needed to increase the size of the image, they could always look at the other version. It provides a path to cut student cost while still maintaining rigor. Similarly, an instructor would need to be able to fill in more details and context for many of the topics by consulting other texts or teaching materials. The index is helpful but there is no glossary. The units on evolutionary processes (unit 4), biological diversity (unit 5) and ecology (unit 8), are hard to follow and may confuse students. Later in the same chapter, sociobiology is presented as a field of study, but the modern fields that actually focus on evolutionary explanations of behavior (e.g., Neuroethology; Behavioral Ecology) are not. The Table of contents is easy to access (always on the top navigation bar) and so with a click a student go right to the assigned chapter or section. However, a significant strength is that the online, editable nature of the book enables an instructor to edit the text to best fit their course. I really liked the integration of links to animations and videos in the text. One example will suffice: there is no mention of the CRISPR-cas9 gene editing method which even the general public is aware of now because of extensive media coverage of the work of Dr. Jennifer Doudna and others. The topics are presented in a logical order, and they generally build from micro to macro. As noted above, the chapters can be covered in any order as instructors prefer, but the overall outline of the units and chapters fits perfectly with any standard biology course taught over one or two terms. Every summer, a new PDF of Biology is released and print stock is updated for the following Fall. I liked the clarity of this text. Since evolution is such an important theme in Biology and a chosen connecting theme in this book by the authors, Chapter 1 should cover evolution in some detail instead of leaving this essential topic to a later chapter. There are a few issues with image resolution; however, this was only a minor concern. This text is a nice way to help students organize those core ideas, all in one place. Given the fact the book is written by a variety of authors in different subject areas, I found the book's consistency to be quite impressive. 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. In my first year of using this OER, I regret to report that I didnt have time to explore the links embedded in the text. However, unlike most textbooks, it is simple for anyone to submit a correction, so these errors are corrected more efficiently than can be done for most textbooks. There are very few grammatical or typographical errors, and these can easily be fixed in subsequent versions. Reviewed by Katelyn Butler, Assistant Professor of Bioogy, Anderson University on 1/9/19, Overall, this book covers the essentials required by an introductory biology textbook. While the overall clarity is good, the use of jargon in places could be confusing to students. Other The text appears to be very comprehensive. The content of the text does have some inaccurate sections. There were no major differences I observed between 1e and 2e. We are being encouraged to go to more OER classes. I found it very easy to divide the readings into manageable segments that provide clarity and promote student understanding. This textbook includes more depth than the current publisher's edition. 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. For some of the less frequently taught concepts (Algae/Protist diversity) the sections are a little thinner than other non-OER texts. While other recent textbooks also have taken this approach, it is important that we move forward and write textbooks that are consistent with what is well known now about evolutionary history. This will also help to keep the use of jargon and technical language in context. Protists are another trouble spot, but the authors do a good job discussing the modern perspective on the protists. Due to the nature of a general biology course, there are certainly chapters that should be covered before other chapters. Content viewed appears to be accurate and unbiased. These are some tough topics for students that could be explained more clearly with more examples. 14 Key Terms - Biology 2e | OpenStax Key Terms We're unable to load Study Guides on this page. Topics are presented in logical flow, and very much like in other biology textbooks. Reviewed by Dara Wegman-Geedey, Professor of Biology, Augustana College on 6/19/18, Given that this is a text for two semester introductory sequence in biology for undergraduates, it appears to be very comprehensive. Use of bolded key words helps readers pick out important terms. The book overall was very accurate and descriptive. Thanks! Overall figures / images were good and clearly demonstrated the concepts, although occasionally they look somewhat unprofessional when compared to other similar texts. It is possible to use this book in place of more expensive textbooks because it is suitable for the introductory biology course for which it was written. Each chapter also includes a list of key terms basically, a mini-glossary at the end just before the chapter summary. The book downloads easily, and can be viewed and searched online easily. Other However, I did not encounter anything glaring. I didn't notice any issues. The figures in the online version are too small. 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. One of the best features is the Everyday Connection sections, which are imaginative and will be interesting to students. Especially for multi-step processes like glycolysis and the citric acid cycle, these tools will be useful for visualizing each stage. read more. Our resource for Biology includes answers to chapter exercises, as well as detailed information to walk you through the process step by step. The links are in the above post, as either google doc files or as pdf. For example, the text describing the citric acid cycle outlines seven steps, but these are not indicated on the accompanying figure. The one for chapter 10 is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1omaQkYWGthrr6-vL4zK09U2DufGDXx1iLYxqV0ygYh4/edit?usp=sharing. So it will remain relevant for the long term, as general biology subjects do not change very much anymore. Often in printed textbooks the material can be outdated by several years. I did not detect any major errors. For example, the section on global climate change could include information on rising sea levels and how island nations and their culture will be eliminated. As this book is designed to provide foundational knowledge rather than understanding of current research, I dont think it is necessary to highlight extremely recent findings. The section on prokaryotic cells does not mention the circular shape of their DNA, but it is then eluded to in the section on eukaryotic cells. WebBiology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The structure of the text is similar to most text books for this level of biology and the units are divided appropriately. Some current topics, such as epigenetics and biotechnology, were covered very well and We also offer the Coffee Machine Free Service. Most require that students explain or apply a concept from the textbook. Additionally, the end of each chapter features a list of key terms. Overall, this chapter is consistent in its use of terminology and concepts. I also found the instructor resources to be consistent. WebBiology 2e (2nd Edition) Book Edition. There is no theme of how science works or is done. The significance of these comparisons is not explained. 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. On page 90, the text states, Being the outermost structure in animal cells, the plasma membrane is responsible for the transport of materials and cellular recognition and it is involved in cell-to-cell communication. Why only animal cells? However, modern genetics is a rapidly changing field and many of those topics (listed below) are either not included or not included in depth. For many students the sections are a little thinner than other non-OER texts Matthew., chapters are grouped under 8 units, from `` the Chemistry of Life '' to are... Syntax and structure could be easily corrected during a revision any glaring errors in terms of subjects are... Biotechnology, were covered very well and we also offer the Coffee free! Out the differences between T-helper cells such as, authors: Mary Clark... 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