Biological Science

How can we teach students to think like scientists instead of relying on memorization?
• A unique emphasis on the process of scientific discovery and experimental design teaches students how to think like scientists as they are learning fundamental biology concepts.
o The Socratic approach of the narrative (and in selected figures and tables) challenges the student to consider the scientific method and think critically about the basis for what we now consider “facts.”
o Experiment Boxes simulate and reinforce the hypothesis-testing process of scientific discovery, helping students to easily navigate through the logic of the question, hypothesis, and test. Each experiment box includes a question that asks students to analyze the design of the experiment.
o Experiment Questions and Exercises take the hypothesis-testing approach one step further by challenging students to fill in blank spaces with null hypotheses, predicted outcomes, and conclusions. New to this edition are questions that ask students to critically evaluate the researcher’s experimental design.
How can we help novice learners become better prepared for future coursework and beyond?
• Intertwined, color-coded “learning threads” helps students first recognize essential information and then assess whether they truly understand it.
o The Gold thread helps students pick out important ideas while reading and again when studying for exams.
 Key Concepts and important factual information are highlighted within the prose while retaining the engaging, storytelling narrative.
 Summary Tables pull information together into a compact format for easy review.
o The Blue thread helps students test their understanding as they are reading the text.
 “You should be able to …” activities appear in Check Your Understanding boxes and are also highlighted within the prose, inviting students to apply their knowledge to new situations.
 Caption Questions and Exercises challenge students to critically examine information in figures and tables.
o Gold and Blue threads are brought together in Check Your Understanding boxes and Chapter Summaries.
 Check Your Understanding boxes present easy-to-use, bulleted lists of “If you understand…” learning objectives paired with “You should be able to…” integrative self-assessment activities.
 Chapter Summaries include their own “You should be able to…” activities to prompt students to revisit the major themes of the chapter and synthesize the information.

How can we support students as they make the transition from memorization to higher-order thinking?
• Selected discussions have been streamlined, with more concise language, bulleted lists that "chunk" information and ideas, and shorter paragraphs that retain Scott Freeman's friendly writing style.
• An increased number of Summary Tables pull information together into a compact format that is easy for students to review and synthesize.
• An increased number of Experiment Box questions and exercises encourage students to analyze aspects of experimental design.
• “You should be able to…” questions are more evenly distributed throughout chapters and along Bloom’s Taxonomy scale, to build confidence in students and provide them with higher-order thinking questions that will help them prepare for exams.
• Suggested answers to all Blue thread questions are provided in the back of the book, for easy student access.
• Each chapter ends with a more succinct Summary of Key Concepts, which review important concepts in short, manageable bullet points.
• An expanded BioSkills appendix includes questions and exercises that help students learn and practice foundational skills. New to this edition are BioSkills appendices on using the metric system, common Latin and Greek word roots, techniques for isolating and visualizing cell components, cell and tissue culture, and model organisms.

How can we help students keep sight of “big picture” relationships among biological concepts?
• Four remarkable Big Picture concept maps help students synthesize information across the chapters on Energy, Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology. These visual overviews are reinforced with Check Your Understanding exercises.
• A new section in Chapter 1 introduces five characteristics shared by all living organisms: energy, cells, information processing, replication, and evolution. These five themes are revisited throughout the book.

How can we make biology concepts more accessible and engaging to visual learners?
• Newly redesigned phylogenetic trees present information in a more reader-friendly, U-shaped, top-to-bottom format, the same way trees are most commonly depicted in the scientific literature.
• An expanded number of figure caption questions and exercises focus on interpreting data sets and graphs.
• Selected figures and photos have been enlarged to increase the visual appeal of the figure and to make the details easier to see.
• Molecular icons have been simplified to give them more dimension and clarity without sacrificing accurate representation of size and mass.
• Arrows have replaced the “pointer hands” from previous editions to make figure annotations simpler and more precise.