CONNECTED LEARNING PATH
The authors of Biology: How Life Works rethought the standard pedagogical tools. Each element purposefully relates back to the same set of core concepts, and functions as a connected learning path for students.
Core Concepts at the beginning of each chapter focus on the most important ideas and map to the chapter's numbered sections to give students a preview of the ideas they will be encountering.
Core Concepts Summaries at the end of each chapter remind students of the big picture ideas from the beginning of the chapter, and see them in the context of key supporting ideas.
Quick Checks throughout the chapter ask students to pause and demonstrate they have a full understanding of the topic before they move on to the next idea.
Self-Assessments allow students to see whether or not they have understood the major ideas of the chapter.
Learning doesn't end when the printed chapter ends. Biology: How Life Works takes full advantage of the applied learning that can easily (and more effectively) take place on the web. The online site for Biology: How Life Works features a wealth of media resources, including dynamic, zoomable Visual Synthesis figures, animations, simulations, and more. Organized by Core Concept, these resources serve to reinforce what students have read. Assessments integrated into the media help students make sure they have mastered the core concepts. The online site for Biology: How Life Works is a living asset. All of these learning tools will continue to be developed, taking advantage of current events and expanded ideas.
VISUALIZATIONS AND SIMULATIONS
Visual Synthesis
Visual Synthesis figures are striking examples of integrated text, art, and media. In the book, these two-page figures show how concepts across multiple chapters fit together. Online, students can zoom in and out of dynamic versions of the figures, exploring both the larger ideas and important details as they see how concepts connect and relate. Visual Synthesis figures also serve as launch pads to other
resources on the same topic, including animations, simulations, and assessment questions.
Animations and Simulations
Narrated by Rob Lue, the animations bring biological processes to life, place them in context, and give students an intuitive sense of how these processes work.Simulations allow students to explore biological processes directly and problem solve by doing. Each simulation asks students to work within or break a system, and assessment questions lead students through the system so they can work through a core concept.
The animations and simulations are available independently, but are also integrated into the online, zoomable Visual Synthesis figures. In exploring the Visual Synthesis figure, students can watch animations, answer assessment questions, and interact with simulations to guide them through the illustration.
CASES AND CASE ACTIVITIES
Cases use real and engaging examples to help students connect concepts across chapters.
Each case begins with a two-page essay, providing background and questions about the case's subject. Those questions are answered in subsequent chapters, reinforcing information students have already learned. Eight cases are featured.
Case Activities tie chapter core concepts and cases together, showing students again how what they are learning is relevant to their lives and to a larger picture of biology.
HOW DO WE KNOW? FIGURES AND ACTIVITIES
How Do We Know? figures introduce key experiments in the narrative, then visually unpack the steps of the scientific inquiry.
Online, How Do We Know? activities review the experimental design of the text figure, then ask students to apply what they learned to new experiments, as well as predict how different variables shape the outcome of the experiment.