For example, section 17.3 discussion of next-generation sequencing needs to be updated. The major limitation I see is that there are fewer and lower quality images than with other texts I've used. I encountered no glaring examples of concepts being presented in a sequence that would hinder student comprehension. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . I havent noticed any major interface problems with the .pdf or the online version (viewed in Chrome). This is fairly common in most textbooks, but many General Biology courses will cover the plant unit and the animal unit in two distinct parts of the course. At approximately 1,500 pages, the book is slightly longer than other books weve used, but the additional length may be due to the organization and inclusion of glossaries at the end of each chapter. It was accurate and error free, to my knowledge. science that seeks to expand knowledge and understanding regardless of the short-term application of that knowledge. 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. If you are looking for a reputed brand such as the Atlantis Coffee Vending Machine Noida, you are unlikely to be disappointed. The chapters are divided into topical sections, making it easy to assign or not assign specific topics. If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, For the most part the concepts and topics are up-to-date. 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. The addition of vocabulary terms and definitions at the end of each chapter aid in clarifying any concerns with terminology. Page 344 has a link to a Khan Academy video that is ostensibly supposed to be about sex-linked traits. This text was broken into subjects similar to other textbooks, so converting my study guides to match OpenStax was usually fairly straightforward. It will be interesting to try to adapt these sections to a lecture format. Many online books and journals offer this feature.. The electronic version of the textbook was easily read on a Mac, PC, and on various tablets and phones. 54 27 100 108 5. read more. Non-major students who dislike biology After having used the book for majors biology course for the last 4 semester, I have pleased to say that I content is simple yet efficient and effective. It covers all the topics in sufficient detail for the student to succeed. I use Openstax Biology 2e as a textbook for my AP Bio and dual credit class. The answer is that they cannot do it and are constantly dying. I found no evidence of cultural insensitivity. Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. I did not notice anything glaringly outdated, but given the speed of new research, it is likely that regular updates will be needed to keep the book current. I have the .pdf file from Openstax broken down into chapters, which I share with my class over google classroom. Which one of the three heat transfer processes best describes this action of the blood? The text is visually appealing; section titles and sub-section titles are easy to see (green text). Ive been editing them a bit to make it easier for kids to type directly into boxes as we use google docs/google classroom. The evolution section is a particular bad spot, which is inexcusable. Some terms were utilized in strange ways, and I felt some of the definitions could be altered a little to be more precise. The index is easy to use in both the PDF and online The facts that are presented are unlikely to change to an extent that would require a major revision any time soon. The topical treatment by chapter and the sections within chapters allow for modular assignment of material. The resolution of the figures is not great when you zoom into study the details. Some of these are laced with ads that might indicate endorsement by a school or faculty and could be offensive to a student. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. There are few images of people in the text. It does occasionally hang while loading if the internet connection is slow, but thats to be expected. 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. All the components of the textbook, including the terminology and framework, are consistent throughout. There are no problems regarding cultural insensitivity. The authors use a confusing 'straight line' terminology to try to explain monophyly. There is no superfluous verbiage. The book is divided into topical subsections much like mainstream print books of its kind. In the real world students will not have the luxury of being exposed to monolithic writing styles therefore what better place to prepare students for life than the introductory Biology textbook! The major complaint from the students who are non-majors in biology is that the material (at least a large portion of it) has no relevance to their field of study. 54 27 100 108 5. All of these interfaces are image heavy. End-of-chapter questions are included for students to check their understanding. Note that those instructors whose general biology sequence begins with organisms in the first semester and moves to molecules in the second semester would have to use the chapters out of order, which shouldnt be much of a problem (see comments on modularity above). The index is helpful but there is no glossary. I tried several times to access the Instructor Power Points that are supposedly available, and I could not get the website to work. My students who use the PDF and iBook versions report that they like being able to search for topics. Svante Paabos TED talk,) are a great perk. Biology 2e seems to go into slightly more detail in some places, especially in regard to molecular biology. OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For example, the terrestrial biomes section on temperate forests has some information that is omitted and therefore is misleading. are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written There are a few areas that I am pleasantly surprised by the detail included, but other areas where I am a little surprised to see detail lacking. I did not notice anything culturally insensitive or offensive. I think that in an introductory course, it is more important to convey the more general, big picture of concepts without adding confusion with over-exertion of details. 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. 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. The book had a slightly heavier bias toward molecular techniques rather than organismal or behavioral science, but that field appears to be the current zeitgeist, maintaining the book's relevancy. Since the text is foundational, many of the subjects aren't changing rapidly. Perhaps the diverse and multi-author origin of the book's content ensured the excellence of the book in this regard. There will be some chapters that will need to be updated in a few years. The fact that it is open source textbook, allows it to be readily modified or updated by individual instructors. Vending Services (Noida)Shop 8, Hans Plaza (Bhaktwar Mkt. Since this is an introductory biology textbook, the topics are rather standardized across textbooks in this market. ions neutrons neutral atoms isotopes 6. at the end of the book). At room temperature, its pressure is 180 atm. The cell is in a quiescent (inactive) stage that occurs when cells exit the cell cycle. A G0 cell is far from quiescent metabolically and this term will mislead students. They have provided the square for accessing videos, and also provide a link to videos, but sometimes the link to the videos is not available on a pc computer. For example, in the photosynthesis chapter, the explanation of the light reactions is much more straightforward than in my book. The information provided is up to date and comparable to similar texts. The index has links to the relevant sections, which is helpful, and each chapter contains a Key Words section. I worry a bit that students used to traditional science books will initially find this open source book dry and unappealing, but I think they will soon be won over by the just-the-facts approach (and I truly mean that in a good way). External supplementary links are provided and augment the text. Cultural issues are handled appropriately. These topics including sequencing, genomics and genomics techniques, epigenetics and genome editing. Overall, I highly recommend the book. 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. The text integrates in-depth concepts over a broad range of topics. 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. Another example occurs in the chapter on cells. It does contain some of the video links from the text. The text is very well organized and the material flows well. 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. On page 503, the text states, Evolutionary theory states that humans, beetles, plants, and bacteria all share a common ancestor, but that millions of years of evolution have shaped each of these organisms into the forms seen today. No, billions of years. Lack references to previous text sections to review basic concepts, like meiosis. I love that there are instructor resources available. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understandand applykey concepts. Reviewed by Laurie Lawson, Associate Professor, Tidewater Community College on 1/30/23, This online textbook covers most chapters for the biology 101 and 102 courses taught at TCC. In some cases, the inconsistencies appear to be associated with oversimplification. This would allow the subject matter to be distributed among two or more courses easily. This textbook is comparable to several widely used college-level textbooks such as Campbell Biology, Biological Science by Freeman et al. 4 0 obj 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. However, the Art Connection figures, in general, were very low resolution and many appeared blurry and difficult to read. The textbook explains very complex topics in a comprehensive manner and appears to be designed for early term biology and 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 The text is divided logically and often, providing a break for students reading. There are no grammatical errors, and the language is not overly complicated in terms of sentence structure and organization. This text was written in a more straight-forward manner than my current text that I am using. Page 149). We are proud to offer the biggest range of coffee machines from all the leading brands of this industry. The book is comprehensive and suitable for use in a 2-semester (year long) college-level biology/science majors general biology sequence. A few are poor. Carrying capacity is a feature of a populations environment, not of the population. Pinacocytes are epithelial-like cells, form the outermost layer of sponges, and enclose a jelly-like substance called mesohyl. Then, waste no time, come knocking to us at the Vending Services. This text will get a General Biology student through just fine, and I think that students will appreciate how accessible the links and external content is. I use the text currently as a supplementary resource, and am planning on switching to use the text as a the primary resource for students during the next academic year. The overall clarity if the text is equivalent to other introductory level biology textbooks, but one feature that I feel elevates this text beyond average is the inclusion of several "Visual Connection" items in each chapter. Some of the content, such as mitosis and meiosis, are separated into different chapters, which is different from some of the standard texts used (e.g. In general, each Unit/Chapter could stand alone is independent from the textbook as a whole. Please check your connection and try again. Diversity of life and physiology get a lot of attention and surprising detail for an introductory textbook. Paternal leakage means that not every mitochondrial DNA is from the female. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. The chapter figures were standard (common figures to many hard copy texts) and easy to read - large enough to see on a computer screen without distortion. All texts tend to emphasize some areas over others, and this is no exception. The text follows the many models of material sequence available in this market. The Art Connection headings seem unnecessary. One feature I like is that students can explore these concepts in greater depth by following in-text links to online resources. The section dedicated to gene therapy is very short and there's no specific mention to CRISPR. No small amount of science is discovery science, research that while firmly embedded in existing theories, questions, and hypotheses, is not driven by a particular specific hypothesis. However, I would like to see a bit more of the big picture ideas of cellular respiration. The information and real life examples provided in the text are both up-to-date and relevant. Whereas those books provide too much information, which can overwhelm, I wonder if this book could be a little too scant, which may make the facts feel irrelevant. I plan on doing this with my course this semester. Each unit contains chapters that have subsections that are easy to find and pull apart. The variation of individuals within a species is due to genetic factors, environmental factors, and their interactions. I offer more details on comprehensiveness and other topics in my additional comments at the end of this review. There are a number of concepts or topics that are very poorly explained. However, no zoology textbook Ive found since R. MacNeil Alexanders Animals of the 1990s has attempted to fully integrate these molecular details of function with protist structure. Very easy to browse and assign in pcs. 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. In the survey of the major groups of organisms (Protists, Fungi, etc.) Reviewed by Joseph Ly, Lecturer, St. Ambrose University on 10/26/18, Is able to cover aspects of biology very well. In another example, 7.11 and 7.12 both refer to pH gradients across the mitochondrial membrane. Yes, this text is much like any of the regular, paper general biology textbooks. The text was not culturally insensitive or offensive but the inclusion of races and ethnicities was lacking. In chapter 42, both B and T cells play significant roles in immune responses. This is well done and contributes to student learning as concepts will build upon one another as higher levels of organization are discussed. Our young women need more role models in the STEM fields. The organization and flow are exactly what many introductory biology teachers would expect in terms of major topics/themes and their ordering if one is used to a number of the major commercial offerings: topics progress from molecules to cells to organisms to ecosystems. I found chapters and subheadings on nearly every topic that I expected to see in a biology text for majors. I found that the level of detail is appropriate for a lower level undergraduate biology course. It covers all the topics in sufficient detail for the student to succeed. While it puts major discoveries into some historical context (Mendel is discussed at length) it forgoes that context in more recent discoveries (epigenetic and its historical context). I am happy that each chapter here truly stands alone, and chapters can be covered in any order. Reviewed by Joan Sharp, Senior Lecturer, Simon Fraser University on 10/9/13, The text covers most necessary areas, but not always with clarity or accuracy. Its the lignified schlerenchyma cells. The text is comprehensive in its coverage of the typical materials for a non-majors introductory biology course at the 100 level. If assigning page number it is important to remember that view online page number may not match with PDF version. 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. 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