Content viewed appears to be accurate and unbiased. In order to understand animal function, students must understand that the fundamental molecular tool kit of animals is largely present in single-celled eukaryotes. WebAnswers will vary. Managed to relate content between the chapters and provided an evolutionary context to the topics. and you must attribute OpenStax. Chapters can be taken out of order. The references to recent research areas is an asset. Here also, we are willing to provide you with the support that you need. The only issue is that the chapter numbers and pages differ between the pdf and the read online versions. A few of these external resources are Flash, which may not be accessible to some students. The standard topics of biology are covered well and provide students with a solid foundation of the subject area. We biologists study the diversity of life! I found the online interface difficult to use, because the pages load slowly and only one section of a chapter was visible on the page at a time. 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. Finally, some chapters have abstracts and other chapter dont. You cannot refer to solutions as hypertonic, isotonic, and hypotonic except in comparison to other solutions. Alternate ISBN (s) 9781506699851. Specifically, the large majority of the Career Connection pieces have no photograph at all; this would have been an easy way to add diverse role models. I encountered almost no places in the textbook that reference previous or later sections of the textbook. We are proud to offer the biggest range of coffee machines from all the leading brands of this industry. On page 54, this sentence requires a fuller explanation: Cells can only survive freezing if the water in them is temporarily replaced by another liquid like glycerol. Nitrogen fixation and plant defenses are not well explained, and deamination and cation exchange dont come up in a search. One of the most attractive features of an open source text is that it can be more readily revised that hard copy since it is a web-based text. I liked that current research examples were used, such as HPV infected cells in the cell division chapter, and neurons from Huntingtons patients in the Mendelian genetics chapter. 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. There were biological examples from across the globe. The Inheritance chapters stood out as chapters that had significantly less detail than common commercial textbooks-- a big disappointment if you love that topic and also a missed opportunity to provide more information about inheritance in humans. The book has minimal errors and seems to present a balanced overview of controversial topics with links to outside sources and videos for more information. I dont see any glaring errors in terms of subjects that are missing from the text. I do think that the book would benefit from integrating more questions throughout the text to check student understanding throughout the chapters instead of having the majority of questions at the end of the chapters. The online version has additional organizational features that connect glossary terms with each subsection, rather than an entire chapter or even at the end of the book. 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. This textbook is mostly suitable for 100 level introductory biology for non-majors. I personally do not find those to be too distracting since this book would be utilized in a beginning course, although I do feel they should be addressed to avoid misinformation. 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. Furthermore, there are a great many photos in which the hand of a human being is shown as holding a sample, such as holding a test tube or holding an animal studied in the field. WebBiology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. They are a strength of this text and, in many places, serve as the focus for the author's discussion of the topic. Reviewed by Jessalyn Sabin, Instructor, Hibbing Community College on 6/10/15, This textbook was comprehensively organized and populated with topics. We did find a few conceptual errors with minor errors scattered throughout. The questions at the end of sections are helpful to student learning. As with any textbook, minor errors have made their way into the book. read more. At the level of details, I found a few places in the text in which terms were used before they were defined, though in such cases they were usually defined in the following paragraph/page. The book itself is generally free of grammatical errors. (a) element; (b) element; (c) compound; (d) mixture; (e) compound; (f) compound; (g) compound; (h) mixture. I found only one photograph of a named female scientist, Elizabeth Blackburn, in Figure 14.16. In any case it is an instructors responsibility to supplement with the latest understanding and findings as they may pertain to a course. While not in detail, most of the material covered gives the reader a basic understanding of various biological processes. In the sections I plan to use, there is consistency. The listing of key words with definitions at the end of each chapter is a useful feature, since students can reference key words for that specific chapter easily and quickly. The text is very consistent in terms of terminology and framework. (I use the phrases appear to be, light-skinned, and male-presenting because I do not presume to know how all the people in all the photographs identify.) I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting and easy this book was to read. Biology was very comprehensive in its covering of general biology topics and the "Link to Learning" feature allows the learner to expand the concept. This review is based on close examination and reading of all or sections of 27 chapters (1,4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 43, 44, 45, 46, and 47). Overall, this chapter is consistent in its use of terminology and concepts. It appears the text has been crafted to meet the needs of a general/non-major biology course that might be more human-biology based as well as a more typical (in my experience) two semester foundational course for biology majors. As mentioned above, changes in our understanding of biology are happening quickly, but those can be incorporated into the the framework of this textbook in a straightforward way. While it is challenging to cover all Biology content in an introductory text, the book is an excellent substitute for the previous Biology text we were using. Some of the links on the textbook take you to trusted sources such as Khan Academy and TED talks, but others dont look very reliable to me. However, within individual chapters, the topics may not always be presented in the most logical order. Some of the videos for the pc computer, cannot be accessed however. Some even request that I print the chapters for them (which I do.). Chapters are broken down into easy-to-assign modules. 54 27 100 108 5. I personally would put mitosis and meiosis and heredity before metabolism but was able to rearrange chapter orders with no difficulties. Webtwo sugar monomers that a glycosidic bond links. enzyme. These chapters provide sufficient background, though they will be best if supplemented with a laboratory text that provides more details and images. read more. bond formed by a dehydration reaction between two monosaccharides with eliminating a water molecule. On the positive side, the section on global climate change is quite welcome as being highly relevant. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . Ive been using them for my class even before adopting the book The free cost to students is the biggest plus and means the book is equally and equitably accessible to all students, and can be easily navigated or downloaded in a variety of formats to suit personal preferences. However, there is quite a bit of variability from section to section in the number of review questions provided. Very good easy to read book. As an older reader, the small artwork was a challenge for me to work out, but expanding the magnification of what I see on the screen certainly helped. The genetics section of this book appears to be consistent. It is as culturally relevant as would be expected for an introductory biology textbook. We recommend using a It is linear, without unnecessary bifurcations. Where this text could be improved is in providing more practice questions and tutorials for students to check their understanding. 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. Indexes and glossaries are good, which is important because definitions are often not given in the text. read more. I found it had enough depth for a majors course while being accessible for non-majors. How do the various kinds of microscopes differ as tools in the study of cells? The text appears to be culturally sensitive, but there are not very many examples of the importance of biodiversity to a variety of groups of people across the globe. In my review, I focused mainly on Units 1 3 (Chemistry, The Cell, and Genetics) as those encompass the topics that I typically address in the first semester of General Bio. The text is easily divisible into smaller reading sections just by including the link to the text in a syllabus and specifiying which sections need to be read. The text provides students with current, relevant information in a progression of topics and concepts based on empirical data and basic science. OpenStax Reading Guides. 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."). As a longtime user of a textbook that is well-respected by biologists and other colleges, but a struggle for many introductory science students to read, this book was a breath of fresh air! I found no problems with the accuracy of major concepts or with the more specific steps of cellular respiration. I like how vocabulary words are in bold as this makes it easy for students to make flash cards. In addition, it streamlines many of the chapters to cover just the essentials, so it is half the length of a publisher textbook. format. The chapters that I have read through follow the same/similar format and feel like a cohesive text. For additional free and open resources, visit http://www.openstax.org/. There are many cases in which the authors refer to plants and animals, rather than including all relevant taxa. Authors also mention many ways that biological studies can help society. Reviewed by Kuo-Hsing Kuo, Associate Professor, University of Northern British Columbia on 10/9/13, The text appears to be very comprehensive. Reviewed by Emily Jane McTavish, Asst. Professor, Science Dept. This books covers the minimal basics, but not in great detail and isn't comprehensive by any means. I think that this omission by Biology 2e makes it difficult to frame how absolutely important oxidative phosphorylation is in terms of energy yield, and also to compare the efficiency of aerobic to anaerobic respiration. With the general misunderstandings of the biological concepts of race, integrating the scientific answer to "are there human races?" then you must include on every physical page the following attribution: If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, In the sections I read closely and thoroughly I found no errors. There were a variety of small errors in content matter, which included some small mislabeling and repetition of images. The website was easy to use and search. Intermittently, the text refers to itself, which could be an issue if one has not read the previous information, but this is not frequent. Examples used earlier in a given chapter may be revisited later in that same chapter or unit, facilitating continuity and flow. The target audience is of a generation that grew up with the internet, Youtube and social media. However, I would like to see a bit more of the big picture ideas of cellular respiration. You can even purchase a bound copy from Amazon for around $60, which is very reasonable for a textbook. I see where you have some OpenStax reading worksheets. I have to say I was disappointed in multiple ways. The section dedicated to gene therapy is very short and there's no specific mention to CRISPR. The PDF of the text is over 1500 pages in length, making it very long (by print standards). 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 major limitation I see is that there are fewer and lower quality images than with other texts I've used. I honestly do not think that the author has a clear understanding of this important topic. the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environments. The comprehensiveness varies but is overall mostly appropriate. The external link is no help because it uses a completely different scheme. I did not notice grammatical errors, although there are occasional typos. The text describes the reactions in steps, but they are not accompanied by labels on the figure, which I think is a shame. The online, open-source nature of the book should allow for content to be refreshed on an as-needed basis. The section on the terrestrial biomes discusses only the temperate forests of the eastern part of the U.S. Some are terrific, and worth a student spending time there to better understand the material. Most of the images are clear and appropriately arranged. In truth, both fields are equally rigorous and important, they just study different parts of our world. 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. Special interest topics also fail to mention Canadian content (for example, laws governing reproductive technologies and designer babies). I taught an earth science class last year for the first time and was thinking about compiling those resources. The book is very well organized, with all of the typical topics for non-majors biology classes present. 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 . From nutrient and water uptake transport: root absorption, cation exchange, active transport into root hair Diversity of life and physiology get a lot of attention and surprising detail for an introductory textbook. I think students would grasp the concept better. 9. Pinacocytes are epithelial-like cells, form the outermost layer of sponges, and enclose a jelly-like substance called mesohyl. For instance different aspects regarding natural selection are found in three sections in two different chapters, being the sections: understanding evolution, population genetics, and adaptive evolution. I also do not like being required to download some videos through links, but would rather watch the video within the website. The chapter appears confused about how time is represented in phylogenetic trees, saying both that trees do and do not have a time axis. glycogen. I am writing this review of the genetics unit from Biology 2e (chapters 11-17) in the context of potentially using this book for an introductory level, one semester genetics course for majors. I think this book has great potential and I really want to adopt this book in order to save students money. Some of the links would not open, such as a video link illustrating the fluidity of membranes. Water is the most abundant molecule in the Earths atmosphere. Graphics How is this concept related to the neutral theory of evolution? I found few errors. Do you look forward to treating your guests and customers to piping hot cups of coffee? The consistency in terminology and flow of content is solid throughout. I also found the instructor resources to be consistent. In Fig 5.11 the diagram depicting osmosis is misleading due to the depiction of the height of water following its movement across the membrane. These were foundational and references in many other chapters without explanation. I personally prefer navigating a physical text to a pdf, however I have observed that students take naturally to the digital format, and stand to benefit from the convenience of carrying their books digitally wherever they go. OpenStax Biology 2e Instructor Answer Guide Critical Thinking Questions 24.Describe the different cell types and their functions in sponges. 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