A Criterion for Biology Textbook Selection

1976 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 477-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Leonard ◽  
Lawrence F. Lowery
Keyword(s):  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Textbook Selection

Textbook Selection

1926 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 619
Author(s):  
Julian E. Butterworth ◽  
R. H. Frazen ◽  
F. B. Knight
Keyword(s):  
Textbook Selection

scholarly journals Conceptual Demography in Upper Secondary Chemistry and Biology Textbooks’ Descriptions of Protein Synthesis: A Matter of Context?

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. ar51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara J. Wahlberg ◽  
Niklas M. Gericke
Keyword(s):  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Secondary Chemistry ◽  
Biology Textbooks ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Chemistry Textbooks ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Technical Terms

This study investigates how the domain-specific language of molecular life science is mediated by the comparative contexts of chemistry and biology education. We study upper secondary chemistry and biology textbook sections on protein synthesis to reveal the conceptual demography of concepts central to the communication of this subject. The term “conceptual demography” refers to the frequency, distribution, and internal relationships between technical terms mediating a potential conceptual meaning of a phenomenon. Data were collected through a content analysis approach inspired by text summarization and text mining techniques. Chemistry textbooks were found to present protein synthesis using a mechanistic approach, whereas biology textbooks use a conceptual approach. The chemistry texts make no clear distinction between core terms and peripheral terms but use them equally frequently and give equal attention to all relationships, whereas biology textbooks focus on core terms and mention and relate them to each other more frequently than peripheral terms. Moreover, chemistry textbooks typically segment the text, focusing on a couple of technical terms at a time, whereas biology textbooks focus on overarching structures of the protein synthesis. We argue that it might be fruitful for students to learn protein synthesis from both contexts to build a meaningful understanding.

Textbook Selection: Perils and Pointers

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 343-345
Author(s):  
Margaret Parsons ◽  
Helen S O'Shea
Keyword(s):  
Textbook Selection

Natural selection and adaptation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Lewens
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Skin Pigmentation ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Relationship

Students of the natural world have long remarked on the fact that animals and plants are well suited to the demands of their environments. ‘Adaptation’, as it is used in modern biology, can name both the process by which organisms acquire this functional match, and the products of that process. Eyes, wings, beaks, camouflaging skin pigmentation and so forth, are all ‘adaptations’ in this second sense. Modern biological orthodoxy follows Darwin in giving a central role to natural selection in explaining the production of adaptations such as these. This much is uncontroversial. But a number of more contentious conceptual questions are raised when we look in more detail at the relationship between natural selection and adaptation. One of these questions concerns how we should define adaptation. It is tempting to characterize adaptations as functional traits – eyes are for seeing, large beaks are for cracking tough seed-casings. This in turn has led many commentators in biology and philosophy to define adaptations as those traits which have been shaped by natural selection for their respective tasks. Others – especially biologists – have complained that such a definition trivializes Darwin’s claim that natural selection explains adaptation. This claim was meant to be an important discovery, not a definitional consequence of the meaning of ‘adaptation’. These worries naturally lead on to the issues of how natural selection itself is to be understood, how it is meant to explain adaptation, and how it should be distinguished from other important evolutionary processes. These topics have a historical dimension: is Darwin’s understanding of natural selection, and its relationship to adaptation, the same as that of today’s evolutionary biology? Textbook presentations often say yes, and this is surely legitimate if we make the comparison in broad terms. But differences emerge when we look in more detail. Darwin, for example, seems to make the ‘struggle for existence’ an essential element of natural selection. It is not clear whether this is the case in modern presentations. And Darwin’s presentation is largely neutral on the inheritance mechanism that accounts for parent/offspring resemblance, while modern presentations sometimes insist that natural selection always implies a genetic underpinning to inheritance.

Textbook Selection: A Multistep Approach

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Lowry ◽  
William C. Moser
Keyword(s):  
Textbook Selection

What's Important in Selecting a Biology Textbook?

1993 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Leonard ◽  
John E. Penick
Keyword(s):  
Biology Textbook

Objective Features of Introductory Psychology Textbooks as Related to Professors' Impressions

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Weiten
Keyword(s):  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Pedagogical Quality ◽  
Informed Decisions ◽  
Textbook Selection ◽  
Shed Light

A sample of 43 introductory psychology texts was identified and 29 objective features were measured (e.g., manuscript length and number of references), yielding normative and comparative data. These text variables were regressed on professors' ratings of the books' level of discourse, scholarship, capacity to engage student interest, and pedagogical quality. The predictors accounted for substantial portions of the variance. The comparative data may help professors make better informed decisions about textbook selection. The regression analyses shed light on how professors' perceptions of texts may be shaped.

Using M&M's to Model Sanger's Dideoxy DNA Sequencing Method

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. 516-522
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Conley ◽  
Alex J. Meisel ◽  
James J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequencing ◽  
Student Understanding ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
College Biology ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Sequencing Method ◽  
Relevant Section ◽  
Sequencing Process

This lesson is designed to facilitate student understanding of the molecular structure of DNA, the cellular processes involved in DNA replication, and how these principles were applied to develop a method to determine the nucleotide sequence of DNA. The lesson employs an active and cooperative learning approach accomplished via a modified jigsaw exercise. The specific replication/sequencing process in this lesson is Sanger's dideoxy method of DNA sequencing. In conjunction with related lessons in lecture and lab, students read the relevant section of an appropriate introductory biology textbook and/or view videos explaining how Sanger's dideoxy chain-termination sequencing method works. Students working in four teams (A, C, G, and T) then use green, blue, brown, and red M&M's as nucleotides to build a model of the process. Plain M&M's represent deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs), while peanut M&M's represent the “terminator” dideoxynucleotide triphosphates (ddNTPs). The lesson addresses Next Generation Science Standards and learning goals typically found in college biology courses at introductory and advanced levels.

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