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BSCS Biology: A Molecular Approach
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Reviewer:
Ruth Gleicher
Niles West High School and Ida Crown Jewish Academy
Skokie, Illinois
Textbook Name: BSCS Biology: A Molecular Approach
Authors: Mark Bloom and John Greenberg
Copyright: 2001
Cost: $59.97
Publisher:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Publisher's Web Site:
 Glencoe Online
Strengths:
This book's organizational style is its greatest asset. It incorporates physiological adaptations of living organisms as the student learns about basic biological processes. When students learn about enzymes, for example, they read about the digestive systems of various organisms. When students study transport, such as osmosis and diffusion, they also learn about the excretory and respiratory systems and transport systems in plants and in animals. The text beautifully displays the importance of making "big picture" connections. I like the way the text explains DNA replication in the chapter on cell cycle, so that students connect replication to the S phase of interphase. It discusses meiosis in connection with plant and animal reproduction.
The labs are outstanding and appear in the back of the textbook; therefore, students do not need to remember to bring a separate book to class on lab days. Students can see the direct connection to the labs they are doing and the material introduced in each chapter. BSCS is the group that first introduced inquiry labs to science educators, and this book still uses that approach in its investigations.
Every chapter includes word etymologies. This helps students learn some important prefixes and suffixes so that they won't be so afraid of biological vocabulary.
Many textbooks have questions at the end of every section within a chapter, but the "Check and Challenge" questions in this text are excellent. They assess overall concepts and challenge students to make the necessary connections to achieve competent understanding of the material.
Weaknesses:
The book's strength can also be its weakness. Although the text incorporates and connects biological concepts to living systems, students may become confused and may never connect all of the systems within an organism to the organism's total anatomical and physiological adaptations. Although students learn about the different mammalian systems as they study various biological concepts, they may never see the big picture of mammalian physiology as a whole. Teachers can remedy this problem, however, by assigning dissections during second semester.
The text often uses terms that do not appear in other books. Instead of describing dehydration or condensation synthesis reactions, the book calls them biosynthesis reactions. Again, this isn't a terrible flaw, but repetition of biological language helps students acquire literacy and fluency necessary for future study in the biological sciences.
The biggest weakness is in the lack of online ancillary material. No interactive Web pages support the text for the students or for teachers. Unlike other textbooks, this one comes with no CD-ROM with images or animations.
Ancillaries:
Test Bank: This is a very good collection of multiple-choice questions. The bank uses the ExamView® Pro hardware that is also used by the Exploring Life and the Miller and Levine textbooks. This allows a teacher with any or all of these test banks to generate one test using any questions found in their test bank resources.
Overhead Transparencies: These are okay, but many of us use PowerPoint presentations for our lectures; so unless you scan the images or want to use an overhead projector, this ancillary is outdated. Not every image is available in this transparency package.
Teacher's Edition: This excellent tool has everything you could want in one book. Preparation of solutions for labs, suggested teaching schedules, and chapter-at-a-glance overviews are just some of the extras.
Lab Investigations: These are included in the textbook.
Teacher's Resource Book: Teachers can find supplemental topics, extended lab activities, and current literature from Science magazine. This is a useful supplement, but teachers should realize that the Science articles are only current for a year or so after publication, so by now most of these articles are dated.
Summary: I use this textbook to teach first-year honors biology students and find it to be an excellent tool for above-level students. Many other books I've looked at are either too bulky, too basic, or the vocabulary is too difficult for first-year students. Although this book is not perfect, I think it's the best book for honors biology students.
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