This book is on par in scope with the commonly used Campbell Biology. I would like to see more than headshots of "discoverers", particularly since they are bound to be primarily white men, and more emphasis on the work of culturally diverse teams, reflective of what labs and discoveries look like today. Evolution is mentioned in Ch.1 but is not defined or explained, assuming that students already understand this complex. You can even purchase a bound copy from Amazon for around $60, which is very reasonable for a textbook. Furthermore, the video is really talking about sex, but incorrectly uses the term gender for reasons that are unknown to me. The problem is, I dont think I did a great job and I havent taught it again so modify and refine lessons. I encountered nothing that could be construed as culturally insensitive of offensive in any way. The organization of the book seems like it would allow for this. For future use, I like that I could assign small sections to students. In some instances, the language could be simplified to make the text more accessible and terms better defined. While a part of the package is offered free of cost, the rest of the premix, you can buy at a throwaway price. In the section The process of science in chapter 1, its mentioned that hypotheses could be correct or false. There are no citations within the text to reference where the facts in the text were researched. 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. Not having to worry about printing costs per page allows for more freedom and prevents "widowing and orphaning" of paragraphs that don't belong with the rest of the page content. For example, I object to Phylum Zygomycota being described in a modern textbook, but this is a minor quibble. From Flowering: Circadian rhythm biology, Photoperiod detection, ABC model. The glossary appears comprehensive, however, many duplicates (ie. Link to Learning The vast majority of the content is accurate. Reviewed by John Lepri, Professor (Biology), University of North Carolina at Greensboro on 12/5/16, Spanning 47 chapters, the OpenStax "Biology" production is as comprehensive as its competitors. 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. It focuses on many broad aspects of biology such as Chemistry, Cell biology, Ecology and Geology. The interface is straightforward and gets the job done. Their own figure 1.17 underscores that prokaryotes are not a valid monophyletic group. The applied examples make great connections for students. I believe this will allow for easy alignment into any new or existing Biology course. The chapter appears confused about how time is represented in phylogenetic trees, saying both that trees do and do not have a time axis. Although there were some minor figure errors which I did not find in the traditional textbook, there was effectively no difference in accuracy. I think this question would be more appropriate to ask students after they use this textbook for class. What is meant by the term molecular clock? 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 book overall was very accurate and descriptive. The images are good -- I recognize many of them from Wikipedia and other internet sources -- they are just all done by different people, so they might not use a consistent set of symbols, etc. I found few errors. The Scientific Method Connections help to reinforce the process of science, which is always welcome in an introductory class. Lack references to previous text sections to review basic concepts, like meiosis. I feel the text is quite readable, concepts do not require much interpretation, and students do not appear to get lost in a concept, In no case did I find a chapter that appeared inconsistent with the overall quality of the text., nor clarity of concept, It does fit well into the organization of our curriculum, though I would prefer that the discussions of Evolution be moved to the beginning of the text, and more emphasis put on the role of Evolution in life, As above, I'd prefer that evolution be discussed in the first section, The book is very easy to read, concepts are well presented, and illustrations support the writing very effectively. For instance, all of the trees, flowers, insects, and other populations in a forest form the forests community; in Figure 6.3: Both plants and animals use cellular respiration to derive energy from the organic molecules originally produced by plants; and on page 228: Photosynthesis is essential to all life on earth; both plants and animals depend on it. I have found the content for this purpose mostly comprehensive, with some need to supplement. read more. 4 0 obj I put them up as I go, but remote teaching this year has really shifted my focus. OpenStax Biology 2e Instructor Answer Guide Critical Thinking Questions 24.Describe the different cell types and their functions in sponges. For any of the following that can exist as isomers, state the type of isomerism and draw the structures: 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. 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. Both online and .pdf versions have links embedded in the Table of Contents, making it easy to skip around through the book as needed. :8N9! However, they are inconsistent in the quality of the website links. These are helpful in linking the topics covered to real world issues. The problems I read through struck me as sensible and mostly straightforward. The text is not bogged down with technical jargon, but subject-specific terminology is used were appropriate with adequate introduction to the material. Reviewed by Jessalyn Sabin, Instructor, Hibbing Community College on 6/10/15, This textbook was comprehensively organized and populated with topics. 5. I really enjoy that the learning objectives are broken down by section to facilitate the discussion of one or more sections at a time rather than the entire chapter content. Reviewed by Mark Wagner, Instructor/Life Sciences, Portland Community College on 6/14/21, I found the book to cover the topics in good depth, definitely a lower division, major-level text The term Agnatha was abandoned long ago, as jawless fishes include cyclostomes and ostracoderms and are not a clade. Students will be confused and uncertain how the two strands are represented. Often in printed textbooks the material can be outdated by several years. When acids are added to a solution, the pH should ________. I did not read any insensitive or offensive language in the chapters I reviewed. Few chapter, though, like Gene expression might need more detail/clarity. Sample answer: Gatorade contains water, sugar, dextrose, citric acid, salt, sodium chloride, monopotassium phosphate, and sucrose acetate isobutyrate. If you are looking for a reputed brand such as the Atlantis Coffee Vending Machine Noida, you are unlikely to be disappointed. 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. Reviewed by Chris Pantazis, Assistant Professor of Biology, John Tyler Community College on 3/24/20, All areas of introductory biology were covered. I see where you have some OpenStax reading worksheets. There is a comprehensive table of contents, index, and "Key Terms" page for each section. I noticed no grammatical errors in this chapter, though I have noticed a couple minor typos throughout the book. The text covers the appropriate breadth of material in appropriate depth for an introductory biology class. Overall, I felt that the authors made wise choices in balancing clarity of illustrations against complexity of an illustration. The textbook is divisible into smaller reading sections and it is self-referential. The text does not dive into the controversy, merely puts forward the biological information as it should. One unfortunate (in my mind) example is that a photo featuring Watson and Crick is present, yet there is no photo of Rosalind Franklin (though her name is mentioned in the text). I have personally adopted the Openstax Biology textbook, which I assign to my introductory biology students as a reference text. glycogen. The book accurately covers different aspects of biology. better use of color). This textbook reads much like any other textbook. Usually they are much narrower than the text, and there does not seem to be a way to enlarge them other than increasing browser magnification. Learning objectives presented at the start of each section are also very useful for students to focus their reading. As stated above, for those areas in biology where there have been significant advances over the past decade or so (e.g. 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. catalyst in a biochemical reaction that is usually a complex or conjugated protein. read more. The text is lucid and concise in use of language, and overall well written. However, I can't say for sure that one order is better than the other for student learning. It covered all of the subject areas that my current General Biology textbook covers. These were foundational and references in many other chapters without explanation. 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. 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. As I would expect, this chapter is organized in a logical, straightforward manner. 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. It would be nice to see more career examples and spotlights on diverse scientists, but this would make the text hard to keep updated and current, so I can understand it not being done. Overall, I think it is a good text. The text is well-written and easy to read and understand. 1. Text was written clearly and was fairly engaging to read. The placement of the chapter within the larger text makes sense, following a section on the introduction to metabolism, and preceding a section on photosynthesis. Some of the figures credit the authors, yet the authors are not listed in the reference section of the text, so there is no way to confirm their credibility or to look them up. Students struggle with tree-thinking, a necessary skill for anyone who plans to continue in biology. I did not see any inaccuracies in my use of the book; however, there were few references available (at least that I could find). 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). The text has some good features. read more, I found the book to cover the topics in good depth, definitely a lower division, major-level text, While I found a few instances where I disagree with the text, but they are minor. In terms of comprehensiveness, Biology 2e is very thorough. Where in a phylogenetic tree would you expect to find the organism that had evolved most recently? (ID: 349a8a47e1d944c18f9bdae4af018fe7) electrophoresis technique used to separate DNA fragments according to size helicase Topic completely missing from the book or coverage is so poor it is unusable, in my analysis were: 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. There are roles for deterministic processes and stochastic processes. Also within chapters are QR codes and URLs that take the reader to animations and movies on the OpenStax website. Among the three domains, the archaea are not given adequate treatment. While it is not as polished as a traditional text, I feel that the advantages it offers far outweigh the costs. Consistency in the artwork could be improved such that visuals within and across chapters are more similar (e.g., plasma membrane visuals). I did not see any grammatical issues while skimming the text. The book follows the sequence and structure of other traditional biology textbooks that I have seen. The writing style is easy to read and is well written for the freshman/sophomore level. The clarity of the text is very well done. I found chapters and subheadings on nearly every topic that I expected to see in a biology text for majors. Few minor errors are present in some materials. This textbook is comparable to several widely used college-level textbooks such as Campbell Biology, Biological Science by Freeman et al. From this perspective, I would have actually preferred if the text was less modular. For Integrative Biology: Animals, I need a biology textbook with three types of However, the authors did an excellent job of looking at a global perspective when reviewing conservation issues and biodiversity on other continents. Putting these pieces together would help students gain a more unified understanding of cellular respiration as one component of larger biological processes. There are currently ongoing rapid changes in our understanding of some aspects of biology, such as whether the three domain model for life is correct. Figure 3.32 is not helpful and does not show H-bonding or antiparallel arrangement clearly. 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. However, since the publication date is 2013 and completion of the book was perhaps a year or two before that date the text does not include newer advances in some fast-moving areas like molecular genetics. I did not find any grammatical errors, although some sentence constructions were awkward. Biology (OpenStax) is as comprehensive as, and follows the general topical format of a commercially available introductory biology textbook designed for life science majors. During my review, I noticed some things i would correct. Overall, I found this chapter to be of high quality. On page 24, the term germline cells is used but is not clearly defined. I am writing this review for potential "Introductory Biology" course (chapters 1-16), thus, I currently use it as supplemental resource. Page 344 has a link to a Khan Academy video that is ostensibly supposed to be about sex-linked traits. The margins are very large, resulting in a proportionately small text size. The textbook contains current information and up-dated material. Given that many students struggle with thoroughly understanding evolutionary processes and have misconceptions regarding evolution, this does seem to be an oversight. However, within individual chapters, the topics may not always be presented in the most logical order. In the sections I read closely and thoroughly I found no errors. You can just click on the links, they are google doc files. WebCh. As the text states, the ATP yield from a single molecule of glucose will be variable, so I can appreciate some reluctance to nail down a specific number. The reviewers did not notice any bias in the text. I also think that the consistent lumping of Archaea and Bacteria together as prokaryotes is out-of-date (see my comments on this above). This text ties together conceptual understand and application to the real-world in a way that I feel will benefit many first year Biology students. Often these links provide cutting edge insight into both the research and application to make the 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. This book focuses on proper concepts and details, not extraneous stuff. The relevance of this textbook is and will be fantastic, as new examples can be addressed in a relatively short period of time, keeping the text fresh and relevant. 122 an entire sentence was inside the parentheses. 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. The framework and organization allows this to be a resource that professors could actually use as well. The major textbooks in Biology offer numerous, diverse learning resources, including audience response programs, test banks, adaptive learning software, etc. External supplementary links are provided and augment the text. 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. read more. Figures should be introduced after text throughout each section. There were a variety of small errors in content matter, which included some small mislabeling and repetition of images. I do think that changes to the layout and would make this book more accessible. Error p. 322 color is spelled with the American spelling. Images, tables, and boxes were all presented well and without distortion. But it does allow the reader to come to their own conclusion. Figure 1.16 is one example where the display issues make the figure almost useless. There is not a glossary, which would be helpful, but new terms are generally in bold. Webopening section of a scientific paper that summarizes the research and conclusions. Much of the time, the text took on a more conversational tone than I was expecting, which I feel will appeal to readers. It's hard to say how quickly these current examples will become obsolete, but this would be a problem with any textbook that uses current examples. Additionally, the search feature is somewhat fuzzy. Which of the following sciences is not considered a natural science? I did not find any culturally insensitive material. I would love to see a version that takes advantage of the electronic format more and becomes a little more interactive. Yes it is but a lack of internal referencing is evident. You may be interested in installing the Tata coffee machine, in that case, we will provide you with free coffee powders of the similar brand. The content is as accurate as I expect from a biology textbook. Consistency is generally good but need some help in few instances. I am optimistic that this book will be quite useful for me and my students. I appreciate the highlighted boxes that provide additional information, such as the Visual, Everyday, and Career Connections. 5. I do have a couple that I need to add to this page. I found that the level of detail is appropriate for a lower level undergraduate biology course. There are several instances of subtle inaccuracies, which is expected in any textbook. Reviewed by Shaun Blevins, Adjunct Professor, OhioLink on 8/15/19, This textbook provides an excellent discourse on the many foundational ideas of Biology. Sanger sequencing is described in chapter 14 as being widely used today (p. 385). Here are some examples; Im sure there are many more. WebBiology 2e (2nd Edition) Book Edition. In the sections of my review below, I discuss the information my students need in relation to the content of this text. (a) element; (b) element; (c) compound; (d) mixture; (e) compound; (f) compound; (g) compound; (h) mixture. High quality in every sense, cover to cover. Because the book provides only survey-level detail, occasionally concepts are over-simplified, but I did not notice major factual errors. I think that the chapter glossaries and ample index do a good job with the jargon. There are very few grammatical or typographical errors, and these can easily be fixed in subsequent versions. The text generally takes a traditional approach to behavior, with insufficient discussion of behavioral ecology. 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 could find only a few minor grammatical issues. I think the layout is consistent within this text. I did not find any obviously inaccurate information in the book, so I would agree with the statement that the content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. There are a few exceptions; for instance, the details about phospholipid structure are much more specific than I would require in an introductory class. I would also recommend reminding readers where the answers to the comprehension questions can be found (i.e. For example, there is one instance in which a figure caption did not match the figure. hi, i am a student and i have been using your reading guides to help me with my reading assignments for this book and they have been extremely helpful! I recommend this book highly. Further, some comprehension questions at the end of chapters would continue on the next page making it hard to understand what the answer choices were. As such the text was lacking in examples and depicting a diverse cultural tone and images when possible. The material is presented in a logical and consistent manner to facilitate effective learning and understanding. read more. In Section 10.1 (p. 280) on genomic DNA, the text makes a distinction between character and trait (a tricky concept for many students) but then conflates the two on the following page (referring to hair color as a trait instead of a character). As my class has a focus on biotechnology, this will be the first time it is included in a 'general use' textbook. Additionally, when describing the different types of RNA that can be found in a cell, not only does the text mention mRNA and tRNA, but additionally rRNA, which some introductory books leave out. 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. This textbook includes more depth than the current publisher's edition. We focus on clientele satisfaction. The index at the start of the text is very useful for navigation. I did find a couple of minor errors that are not related to conceptual issues. Atoms that vary in the number of neutrons found in their nuclei are called ________. I also found the instructor resources to be consistent. The chemistry chapter and many others have animations to help teach concepts that are better learned through visualizations, but some chapters do not have interactive animations that are very helpful in learning tough concepts like chemical bonding, building a molecule or diffusion and osmosis. Acids and bases will neutralize each other. Atoms that vary in the number of neutrons found in their nuclei are called ________. 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. Text ties together conceptual understand and application to the comprehension Questions can outdated! 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