Biological Science Volume 1 (5th Edition)

This book is definitely worth the money. I am the type of person who learns better from reading than listening to (mostly) boring lectures. For that type of person this book is perfect. It is one of the best science books I've ever used. The main thing to say about this book is that it is very readable. The chapters are relatively short (15-25 pages) and are broken up into nice length subsections. The illustrations only help to understand concepts introduced in the text. I think the book does a great job of what it intended to; Give a good introduction to a very broad range of biological subjects without sacrificing the details.

I love biology and the book was a huge help in my lecture class this year. The layout flowed well from one section to the next, and from all the chapters we covered there was very little extraneous data. Everything we needed to know what contained in the chapters and detailed enough to understand the basic concepts. The study questions at the end of the chapter also helped with the basic understanding of the material. The CD-ROM was extremely helpful with studying for tests or clarifying a chapter that was a bit confusing. For each concept there is a PDF worksheet, a pre-quiz, an animation with video and audio and text, and a post quiz. The CD-Rom was the biggest help in studying for my final, I'm more confident that I will pass because of this CD-ROM. And on the web tutorial browser used, I had ZERO problems with the program working within my Mozilla Firefox browser. No Netscape needed. The book isn't perfect for everyone. If your teacher strays from the book in lectures, you may need other sources to help clarify some concepts. My teachers never strayed farther than their own experiences in the field that were very closely related to the topics we were studying at the time. Most cases, the book will be all you need for raw information and the CD-ROM can help clarify a topic even more and help you study for your tests. Don't be afraid of the book, it's large but very much worth the money.

I've only used volume one of this book, but I liked it so much that as soon as i get a chance, I'm going to order the next two volumes. It was a FABULOUS help in learning about glycolysis and photosynthesis...the pictures are incredibly helpful. I would highly recommend this book!

Although the material in this book is challenging, it throughly explains the material at hand. The CD-ROM is very useful and explained the material in simple terms.

I think this text is very well done. The writing is clear and the examples and graphics are very useful. The CD rom, although it does need some massaging to work (requires Netscape 4 or 5, and shockwave I forget which), the necessary programs are included on the CD. Once it's up and running, it's great! The tutorials and activities are very useful in clarifying the information- it even shows a movie of Mitosis and Meiosis happening side by side, to illustrate the similarities and differences- something which otherwise is difficult to envision and comprehend at the intro level. The web resources that also come with this book are very useful. The CD rom is repeated there (so you don't have to "downgrade" your software), plus it has quite a bit of extra material.I would use this text if I were teaching an college, or even high school, intro bio course.