Introduction

Biology of Animals & Plants

Online Text

Welcome to an experiment.  You are going to be a subject in an ongoing test of what may be a common feature of courses in the future:  textbooks that are accessible online.  Being an early effort, this will lack some of the "bells and whistles" that we eventually intend, such as greater interactivity, animations, and customized place marks.  In their places, at least for now, is a wide variety of links to broaden the material.  What this version also lacks is a price.  There is a CD-ROM version available (still much cheaper than a typical textbook), but the online version is free.

The older version of the course used a special edition of Biology - Understanding Life by Sandra Alters.  Some of the organization here may reflect that, although the information has been gathered from many sources.  The book in its current form is not really based upon it - it just covers many of the same topics.

 USING THE ONLINE TEXTBOOK

You may want to bookmark, using that option in your browser, to save your place according to which chapter and section you may be reading, or you may just want to bookmark the Table of Contents / Site Map and find your place from there each time.  You probably don't want to bookmark this particular page - once you've read the introduction, there's not much point to coming back...

The text of the online book will follow class material from a "classic" approach to basic biology, expanding on it somewhat and connecting it to links from around the internet - information sources, further information, sometimes just pictures, anything that should help explain and expand what is being covered.  Please report any "dead" links (but keep in mind that not all dead links are permanently gone) to the e-mail link at the bottom of each page.

The links are meant to take the place of what would be captioned pictures, charts, graphs, and tables in a bound book (as well as other slants on the text material)  - the links are there to help you understand the text!  Go take a look - they will open in separate windows, so you won't lose your place in the text by exploring them.

This may be difficult for you to adapt to, but just think - years from now, when your children or grandchildren are reading their online texts, you can tell them that you helped develop one of the first basic-information textbooks ever written!  It won't quite be like having ridden with the Wright Brothers, but it might be a fun fact to tell.

GO ON TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS / 
SITE MAP