introductory biology

I want to share this senior student comment (with permission) after reading the new section that my intro bio students will read soon. The section deals with human evolution and race. I think this student’s comments are insightful and could stimulate more STEM courses to embrace, rather than avoid, topics of race, sex/gender (Chapter 15.5 + ELSI) and the anthrome (Chapter 30.4 + ELSI). If we want to recruit/retain a diverse population of STEM majors, we must fill the void felt by this student, and many others.

Biology faculty member Doug Luckie has used ICB for a few years, and has collected student learning outcomes showing that changing textbooks has a significant impact. Using three different assessment instruments (Biology Concept Inventory, MCAT, card sorting), his students out performed students using a traditional textbook. His students also did better in upper level courses. You can read the full story at their peer-reviewed publication.

We published an essay in Life Sciences Education showing the impact our integrated approach has had on teaching introductory biology. You can read the open access article here.
http://www.lifescied.org/content/15/4/es7.full

Our book has been adopted by 24 colleges or universities, and 9 high schools. See the map for details. http://integratingconcepts.org/?q=node/19