Biology
Adopted at NSCC
List of Biology Open Textbooks already adopted at NSCC.
Courses
Biology Course Hub Site (CC BY)
Links to the course sites for Biology courses taught at Keene State College in Keene, NH.
Introduction to Biology (CC BY-NC-SA)
This introductory course defines biology and its relationship to other sciences. We examine the overarching theories of life from biological research and also explore the fundamental concepts and principles of the study of living organisms and their interaction with the environment. We will examine how life is organized into hierarchical levels; how living organisms use and produce energy; how life grows, develops, and reproduces; how life responds to the environment to maintain internal stability; and how life evolves and adapts to the environment.
Modern Biology (CC BY-NC-SA)
The Modern Biology course covers specialized and somewhat advanced topics in the fields of cellular biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics. It does not cover organismal biology or taxonomy. The course is carefully planned to provide the background that biology students will need for advanced biology classes. Non-biology majors will also find this course useful as it explains many of the concepts and techniques currently discussed in the popular press.
The Story of the Wooly Mammoth (CC BY)
A resource pack consisting of three lessons, set out over three detailed presentations accompanied by student worksheets, that focus on the extinction of the Woolly Mammoth as a means of teaching students about Biodiversity and Interdependence.
To Bee or not to Bee (CC BY)
A series of workshops that aims to express the importance of bees to our planet by teaching about pollination, bee diversity, and the adaptions that honey bees have made in their hives to allow them to be efficient in their jobs. There are three detailed lesson plans based on the following topics: pollination, bee diversity, and hexagons in the beehive.
Open Textbooks
Applied Bioinformatics (CC BY)
From Oregon State University. Please note that this is the first edition of the text. Applied Bioinformatics is frequently updated, and the current edition may be downloaded from the Applied Bioinformatics site.
Biology LibreTexts Library (CC BY-NC-SA)
A collection of open textbooks, assignments, and other educational resources on biology subjects.
Library Skills for 2nd Year Biological Sciences (CC BY)
This tutorial covers the library skills required for students in 200-level Biological Sciences courses with these objectives:
- Understand the difference between popular and scholarly sources and know the different types of scholarly sources
- Know how to read a scholarly article
- Learn how to effectively search for articles and access library material from home
- Know how to properly cite sources and avoid plagiarism
A Primer for Computational Biology (CC BY-NC-SA)
This book aims to teach these basics of scientific computing: skills that even in fields such as computer science are often gained informally over a long period of time. This book is intended for readers who have passing familiarity with computing. While these concepts will likely be useful to researchers in many fields, I frame most of the discussion and examples in the analysis of biological data, and thus assume some basic biological knowledge, including concepts such as genes, genomes, and proteins.
Images
Animal Dissection Images (CC BY-SA)
A collection of animal dissection images created by BCIT. Images include bony fish, clams, dogfish, frogsm pigeons, rats, and squids.
Bioscience Image Library (CC0)
The Biology Image Library is a growing collection of over 900 text-supported microscopic and macroscopic images and videos drawn from commercially prepared slide collections and live specimens commonly used in the study of Biology, Botany, Zoology, Histology and Microbiology.
Pacific Open Images (CC BY-NC-SA)
These open images were created by faculty at the University of the Pacific.
Supplementary Materials
Animal Dissection Images Library (CC BY)
A collection of dissection images from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Bioinformatics & Raspberry Pi (CC BY)
The 4273π project provides materials for teaching and learning bioinformatics, including an SD card image for the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer. The resource is tailored for bioinformatics use and includes open educational resources for computational biology.
Supercytes (CC BY-NC-SA)
Supercytes is a card game and resource pack (with animated cartoons) about having fun with Biology and encouraging an early interest in science. The resource is designed for use in schools (ages 9-18) (or school science clubs).
Videos
Biology textbook playlist (CC BY)
A YouTube playlist containing a collection of biology-related videos.
iBiology (CC BY-NC-ND)
Open-access free videos that convey the excitement of modern biology and the process by which scientific discoveries are made. The aim is to let you meet the leading scientists in biology, so that you can find out how they think about scientific questions and conduct their research, and can get a sense of their personalities, opinions, and perspectives.
