Human Anatomy and Physiology Preparatory Course
The reference material is very well organized with clearly outline objectives. Each chapter is well outlined and indexed. It is designed to support a preparatory course and this may be very useful for students planning to take a 100 level Anatomy and Physiology course but it would not be enough background to prepare a student for a 200 level course without some additional support.
The topic introductions are very basic and an instructor might find that more work would need to be done to have a student prepared to understand the complexities of membrane transport or protein structure.
Introductory chemistry is covered at a very basic level as are cellular organelles. Cellular respiration is not covered nor are concepts like transcription and translation.
The content is good. There are a few places where it is simplified enough that an instructor might want to make sure that the student did not come away with assumptions that were not correct.
For example atomic weight and mass number are presented as equivalent. This is not correct. However, most of the issues are with a beginning explanation that was very simple and it is hard to do that when the process or structure is not as simple.
The content is basic enough that it is unlikely to date quickly. It is very clearly written and very well supported with good diagrams.
This text is very readable.
The framework is clear and very consistent.
The text is very well organized into units. It would be very reasonable to give as pre-reading. An instructor could also easily add in the detail required to support their course if need be. The text is nicely formatted.
The organization is standard for an introductory textbook and flows logically.
There were a few minor issues with some of the visuals e.g. figure 3.18 is missing some bonds, but overall the visuals are clear. Navigating the chapters is easy. Accessing the quizzes is also straightforward and well-explained.
No grammatical errors were noted
The text did not appear to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. The basic chemistry presented did not lend itself to the use of inclusive examples. It was a very basic introduction and did not provide much in the way of contextual narrative.
This would not be a candidate for a text for a term long class that was a prerequisite for Anatomy and Physiology but it was not designed to do that. It is designed to be a brief introduction to some of the topics that Anatomy and Physiology students need.