About OpenStax

OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University, and it’s our mission to improve student access to education. Our first openly licensed college textbook was published in 2012, and our library has since scaled to over 20 books for college and AP courses used by hundreds of thousands of students. Our adaptive learning technology, designed to improve learning outcomes through personalized educational paths, is being piloted in college courses throughout the country. Through our partnerships with philanthropic foundations and our alliance with other educational resource organizations, OpenStax is breaking down the most common barriers to learning and empowering students and instructors to succeed.

About OpenStax’s Resources

About Biology

Biology is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

Coverage and Scope

In developing Biology, we listened to hundreds of General Biology instructors who readily provided feedback about their courses, students, challenges, and hopes for innovation. The expense of textbooks and related items did prove to be a barrier to learning. But more importantly, these teachers suggested improvements for the textbook, which would ultimately lead to more meaningful and memorable learning experiences for students.

The result is a book that addresses a core organizational reality of the course and its materials—the sheer breadth of the topical coverage. We provide a thorough treatment of biology’s foundational concepts while condensing selected topics in response to the market’s request for a textbook with a scope that is manageable for instructors and students alike. We also strive to make biology, as a discipline, interesting and accessible to students. In addition to a comprehensive coverage of core concepts and foundational research, we have incorporated features that draw learners into the discipline in meaningful ways.

The pedagogical choices, chapter arrangements, and learning objective fulfillment were developed and vetted with the feedback of another one hundred reviewers, who thoroughly read the material and offered detailed critical commentary.

• Unit 1: The Chemistry of Life. Our opening unit introduces students to the sciences, including the scientific method and the fundamental concepts of chemistry and physics that provide a framework within which learners comprehend biological processes.
• Unit 2: The Cell. Students will gain solid understanding of the structures, functions, and processes of the most basic unit of life: the cell.
• Unit 3: Genetics. Our comprehensive genetics unit takes learners from the earliest experiments that revealed the basis of genetics through the intricacies of DNA to current applications in the emerging studies of biotechnology and genomics.
• Unit 4: Evolutionary Processes. The core concepts of evolution are discussed in this unit with examples illustrating evolutionary processes. Additionally, the evolutionary basis of biology reappears throughout the textbook in general discussion and is reinforced through special call-out features highlighting specific evolution-based topics.
• Unit 5: Biological Diversity. The diversity of life is explored with detailed study of various organisms and discussion of emerging phylogenetic relationships. This unit moves from viruses to living organisms like bacteria, discusses the organisms formerly grouped as protists, and devotes multiple chapters to plant and animal life.
• Unit 6: Plant Structure and Function. Our plant unit thoroughly covers the fundamental knowledge of plant life essential to an introductory biology course.
• Unit 7: Animal Structure and Function. An introduction to the form and function of the animal body is followed by chapters on specific body systems and processes. This unit touches on the biology of all organisms while maintaining an engaging focus on human anatomy and physiology that helps students connect to the topics.
• Unit 8: Ecology. Ecological concepts are broadly covered in this unit, with features highlighting localized, real-world issues of conservation and biodiversity.