Biology: A Community Context

by National Science Foundation and John Penick

Using this unique, inquiry-based approach, students learn the concepts of biology in the context of their own lives and communities. The instructional design asks them to challenge their assumptions... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0078306949
• ISBN13: 9780078306945
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Glencoe
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 2.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.3" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

One of the best biology books I have had to read.

One of the best biology books I have ever read...Made me be interested in biology again. Very interesting the way they approached subjects in biology.

socially conscious and politically correct, but not hard science

This is not a biology book; it is an exercise in consciousness-raising, written to accompany a series of videos. Each section opens with instructions such as "while you watch the video, note ..." The first section is ostensibly "Matter & Energy" but the opening topic is "The Biology of Trash" & the first video is the saga of the garbage barge Mobro. The text reads, "You may be asking, 'Why should I study garbage? The answer is simple: because gargabe is part of biology." Page 28 contains an overt anti-smoking message. Section 2 is about industrial pollution; section 3's video is based on a film by the Zero Population Growth organization. Many people oppose overflowing garbage, smoking, pollution, and overpopulation, but these are social concerns, NOT biological science. The videos were not available for viewing, but if their content can be inferred from the text, the book has a political subtext. The section 6 video deals with the case of a murderer whose defense was that he had been exposed to toxic insecticides. (I looked up the case on the internet.) The jury didn't buy it, but this text SEEMS to be sympathetic to that defense. Section 7 deals with "biodiversity." The accompanying question, on page 427 is "How did the video increase your appreciation of the need to maintain and respect diversity among humans?" Section 8 lauds teh Earth Summit and the UN Environment Program and asks the question, "What right do we have to develop, or even explore, the planets?" (page 497) I compared this book to two other biology textbooks. They both emphasized such things as cell structure, chemistry, and the classification of plants and animals. This book is one of a series of colorfully illustrated texts from the same publisher, all of which emphasize "issues," giving the impression that such concerns are more important than factual knowledge. Apparently, a great many people agree. A reviewer of the paperback edition of this book gave it a 5-star rating for exactly that reason! I do not know if the paperback edition requires the videos, but this edition is not a self-contained text, as a good textbook ought to be. I give it a 3-star rating ONLY because it DOES contain a minimum of the basics of biological science, and a good teacher can emphasize this if he or she so chooses. However, I would not select this text for any serious academic study. It is very poor preparation for a college course in biology.