Biology (A Community Context)

South-Western's BIOLOGY: A COMMUNITY CONTEXT™ is an inquiry-based learning approach that connects biology to you and your community.In the eight units of this text, you investigate the key biological concepts behind issues that affect you.• Video segments present the issues.• You use a BioLog to record your observations, data, questions, and conclusions.• And you work together in small groups and as a whole class brainstorming issues, asking questions, setting up and conducting investigations, sharing results, and making decisions.Here's a sample of what you'll experience:• In Unit 1: Matter and Energy for Life, you build your own compost column or a class compost pile to discover the changes in matter and energy over time.• In Unit 2: Ecosystems, you grow bean and pea seeds to discover ideal conditions for growth.• In Unit 3: Populations, you culture your own population to understand its unique survival needs and possible interactions with other populations.• In Unit 4: Homeostasis, you observe how different organisms ingest and digest food.• In Unit 5: Inheritance, you extract and observe real DNA from plant and animal cells.• In Unit 6: Behavior and the Nervous System, you experience the limits of your own performance in learning simple tasks.• In Unit 7: Biodiversity, you discover what other organisms besides you also go to school.• In Unit 8: The Biosphere, you play the role of an archeologist in the year 4000 AD and examine the impact of humans on the earth.