Biology

Neil A. Campbell, Jane B. Reece, Martha R. Taylor, Eric J. Simon, Jean L. Dickey Biology: Concepts and Connections 6/E Addison-Wesley and Benjamin Cummings, Publishers.

We will continue to use Edition 6 through the 2011-2012 Academic year.

This is a college level introduction to biology for non-science majors; the text includes access to a companion website with interactive simulations of biological processes and quizzes for student review (no longer includes these on the CD-ROM). If you buy the text used, you may need to purchase access to the companion site separately.

Much of the difficulty of learning biology lies in mastering the vocabulary. Like all sciences, biology has its own specific terms for the objects, methods, and concepts which it comprises. So pay attention to all those bold-faced words; if you don't understand them from the context, check in the glossary at the back of the text, or in the dictionary. Be sure to do the drill work in the study guide. If a term still doesn't make sense, ask about it in class.

Like all teachers, the authors of your textbook need to present a lot of material as succinctly as possible. Besides having an agenda (to persuade you that biological diversity can be accounted for by the the current model of evolution processes), they also suffer from the need to organize their material so that you can learn something in a reasonable amount of time. Consequently, they often present as straightforward and simple fact generalizations which ignore exceptions and controversy. Part of my job will be to offer alternatives to their presentation, or to expand it with more examples, so you see some of the complexity behind the summaries. This does't mean that we will cover it all! If you run across a topic you want to investigate more, let me know. We may try to work it into the course if there is time, or I can work with you on an independent project.

Also required is the Student Study Guide 6/E. This workbook includes summaries of the material, multiple choice and open essay questions, and diagrams which you can label. I will be assigning homework from both the text and study guide.

© 2011 This course is offered through Scholars Online, a non-profit organization supporting classical Christian education through Internet-based courses. Permission to copy course content (lessons and labs) for personal study is granted to students currently or formerly enrolled in the course through Scholars Online. Reproduction for any other purpose, without the express written consent of the author, is prohibited.