Intriguing, Often Surprising Q Questions Motivate Readers

Q questions spark students’ interest and encourage critical thinking. These questions prompt students to consider how biology is a part of their life and the world around them. Corresponding Animations are available in LaunchPad.

Engaging Examples Showcase Biology in Everyday Life

What Is Life? A Guide to Biology threads fascinating, relevant, contemporary examples of the science throughout each chapter. Jay Phelan expertly uses analogies and interesting examples to get students to care about biology.

The following chapter features are built around key learning goals from Vision & Change:

• StreetBio demonstrates the fun & practicality of biology, helping students apply the scientific knowledge they learn to improve their own lives.
• This Is How We Do It helps students develop the ability to apply the process of science by showing how scientists have approached an intriguing question.
• Graphic Content helps students learn to interpret visual displays of quantitative information and think critically about evidence

All of these features have corresponding assessment activities in LaunchPad. They can be assigned for a grade to ensure students spend the time they need on the content.

Striking images appear as unit openers and are combined with illustrations of biological processes, concepts, and experimental techniques to engage the imagination of the student.

Fresh and easy-to-understand figures bring the concepts to life. Collaboratively developed by the author and scientific illustrators, the text and illustrations are seamlessly integrated, effective learning tools.

Each chapter is broken down into a series of short, accessible sections. This gives instructors flexibility in what they cover and makes the content easier for students to absorb.

Each section of the chapter includes a concise, memorable summary of key ideas. This gives students a checkpoint to test their understanding and ensure that they know what they need before moving on.

Each chapter includes Key Terms and Check Your Understanding questions written by Jay Phelan himself.

Put "testing to learn" into action. Based on research, LearningCurve really works: Game-like quizzing motivates students and adapts to their needs based on their performance. It is the perfect tool to get them to engage before class, and review after! Additional reporting tools and metrics help teachers get a handle on what their class knows and doesn’t know.