Biology with ESP CD-ROM and OLC passcard

The new seventh edition of Biology by best-selling author/expert Sylvia Mader, has integrated outstanding new elements giving it a quality unmatched by any other biology text. With its complete, comprehensive coverage of core biology concepts, students at all levels will benefit from its use.

For more than 20 years Dr. Mader has successfully helped students learn the structure and function of the human body. A brilliant and prolific writer, Dr. Mader was a respected and well-loved biology instructor before she began her writing career. Her descriptive writing style, carefully constructed pedagogy, and accent on key terms and concepts provides students with a firm grasp on how their bodies function. In her twenty-year career with McGraw-Hill, she has written an impressive collection of textbooks including Inquiry into Life, tenth edition, Human Biology, seventh edition, and Understanding Human Anatomy and Physiology, third edition. Throughout the years, her goal remains the same-"to give students what they need to best understand biology."

This text is color customizable so you can create a text that fits your course perfectly.

The course covered only the first 2 units (first 17 chapters) so I will only speak to that. This text, with CD ROM (2) and internet learning center is GREAT! Looking at the entire package this is a great way to learn biology. The material covered in those first 17 chapters are exactly what one needs to know - elementary biochem; cell structure; genetics; gene expression; biotech. The illustrations are great and consistent (eg., phosphate groups are always orange-yellow) throughout the text. Actually, I would say that it is about the best illustrated text I have ever seen in my life. The on-line quizes (about 64 questions/chapter) let you know if you have really mastered the material or not. Independent questions at the end of every chapter all have answers in the appendix - so again you can check your understanding. The web site has shockwave art match the parts of the cell to the labels all as part of a package to independently learn biology.

I would say it would be helpful to have a year of college chemistry before plunging into this course - but the chemistry is not too sophisticated. The focus is on essentials - but with understanding. For people considering a switch into biology and want to study independently, I reccomend this book highly. I do not easily give 5 stars - but this book earns it.
January 23, 2003