Concepts of Biology

Reviewed by Matthew Fisher, Biology Instructor, Oregon Coast Community College on 8/15/17

Comprehensiveness rating: 5

Concepts of Biology is perhaps the most comprehensive introductory textbook that I have encountered. Every topic that you would expect in a general biology textbook is present, from chemistry to ecology. I liked that the text included topics sometimes missed in other texts, such as biotechnology and physiology. While the text is designed to be a pared down version intended for non-majors, it is still fairly lengthy. If you download the text as a PDF it is 621 pages (although some of that is empty space due to formatting issues).

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I found no inaccurate information. To be best of my knowledge, the content is factual and objective.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This textbook has up-to-date information. An example would be the discussion of protists. Some textbooks still refer to this group as a kingdom but this text deftly handles the revisions in taxonomy that are occurring without providing too much information (information that is is likely to change in the near future as taxonomic revisions continue).

Clarity rating: 3

Overall, the textbook adequately explains the content and provides sufficient supplementary figures. However, there are some major problems in the beginning portions of the text that are hard to overlook. When compared to traditional textbooks, these are major short-comings and that is why I give the text a "3" for this category.

For example, in chapter 2 there are several examples of jargon being used without proper explanation. These include the use of "polymer", a term that is repeatedly used but never explained. Also, in the same chapter they never bother to explain what an organic molecule is! During the discussion of phospholipids and steroids, no figures are presented to assist in the explanation. I have never seen a textbook that doesn't provide a diagram to help explain the amphipathic nature of phospholipids. This chapter in particular could have used a lot more figures (for example, they attempt to explain things like pleated sheets without the use of illustrations). In addition, steroids are simply described as having a "ring structure," which of course could also be used to describe sugars. There are a few other instances similar to this, but they are all found in Unit 1.

If I were to adopt this textbook for my class, I would absolutely have to fix these problems first.

Consistency rating: 4

Overall, the writing, formatting, and style are consistent from chapter to chapter, despite the various authors. However, as noted in my comments for the "Clarity" section, there were significant problems that only arose in Unit 1. The only other issue that I noticed was that the number of review questions at the end of each section widely varied. For equal amounts of content, sometimes there would only be 1 or 2 review questions, and other times perhaps 6 or 7.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook appropriately separates the content into units of reasonable length. A positive feature of this text is that you don't have to scroll for days to reach the end of each unit. From firsthand experience, I know that students appreciate that.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Overall, the textbook does a great job of organizing the content. Personally, I feel that the chapters on DNA and gene expression should occur before the units on genetics, but most textbooks don't organize it that way so I did not let it affect my evaluation of this text. However, in Unit 1 (again) I was left scratching my head. The text doesn't introduce the term "cellular respiration" until after its discussion on glycolysis. The text fails to contextualize why glycolysis is important and the different ways in which it is used. The text goes on to explain the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation, but again fails to explicitly tie all of the processes together under the umbrella of "cellular respiration".

I was also perplexed as to why waxes were included with steroids in the same subheading. Waxes are much more similar to fats than steroids. Lastly, a subsection titled "facilitated transport" was included in the section on passive transport, suggesting to the reader that it is not also important (vital, in fact) for active transport.

Interface rating: 4

Overall, the interface is excellent. I gave the text a rating of 4 because a few figures had text that was very small and hard to read compared to the main text. See figure 7 in section 1.1, for example.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Overall, the grammar was excellent. However, in Unit 1, the author(s) really struggled with topic sentences. For example, the topic sentence for the first paragraph in a subsection on hydrogen bonds reads, "Ionic and covalent bonds are strong bonds that require considerable energy to break." It's not until the 4th sentence that hydrogen bonds are actually mentioned!

Cultural Relevance rating: 2

With regard to photographs/portraits of people, the text shows almost exclusively white men. The only two pictures used for the "Careers in Action" section were white men. Of the pictures/portraits were they explicitly highlighted scientists, all were white males except for one which included a white female. This may be the only textbook that I have seen that has not included a picture of Rosalind Franklin when discussing DNA, doing so would have balanced the scales. Overall, this textbook was done a poor job of highlighting people of color and women. They should specifically highlight scientists that fit these descriptions, in addition to showing pictures of racially diverse people in the "Careers in Action" section.

Overall, this is a strong textbook and has many positive attributes. If the corrections to Unit 1 were made and the text included a more racially and gender-balanced focus, then it would be superior to traditional textbooks.

One final note: the addition of review questions at the end of each module are great, in theory, but almost all of the multiple choice questions require only simple recall from students. Including questions higher up on Bloom's taxonomy would demonstrate to students that they are expected to synthesize, apply, and otherwise critically think about the material.