Bis2a 0.0 preface to biostax for bis2a at uc davis v1.2  (Page 2/3)

Biology can be easily customized using our online platform. Simply select the content most relevant to your current semester and create a textbook that speaks directly to the needs of your class. Biology is organized as a collection of sections that can be rearranged, modified, and enhanced through localized examples or to incorporate a specific theme of your course. This customization feature will help bring biology to life for your students and will ensure that your textbook truly reflects the goals of your course.

Curation

To broaden access and encourage community curation, Biology is “open source” licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license. The scientific community is invited to submit examples, emerging research, and other feedback to enhance and strengthen the material and keep it current and relevant for today’s students. Submit your suggestions to info@openstaxcollege.org, and check in on edition status, alternate versions, errata, and news on the StaxDash at http://openstaxcollege.org.

A special thanks

Cost

Our textbooks are available for free online, and in low-cost print and e-book editions.

About biology

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

Coverage and scope

Biology meets the scope and sequence of a typical two semester biology course for biology majors, pre-med majors, and science majors. In developing Biology , we listened to hundreds of General Biology instructors who readily provided feedback about their courses, students, challenges, and hopes for innovation. The expense of textbooks and related items did prove to be a barrier to learning. But more importantly, these teachers suggested improvements for the textbook, which would ultimately lead to more meaningful and memorable learning experiences for students.

The result is a book that addresses a core organizational reality of the course and its materials – the sheer breadth of the topical coverage. We provide a thorough treatment of biology’s foundational concepts while condensing selected topics in response to the market’s request for a textbook with a scope that is manageable for instructors and students alike. We also strive to make biology, as a discipline, interesting and accessible to students. In addition to a comprehensive coverage of core concepts and foundational research, we have incorporated features that draw learners into the discipline in meaningful ways.