Jul 26 2007
Free Educational Resource
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Textbooks are not cheap and in a time when schools just aren’t getting the funding they need, every penny counts. Free Biology Book is, you guessed it, a free biology textbook that is available online. The book strives to explain and teach all biology topics in over 1800 “question and answer” scenarios. I like the idea of having textbook available online free of charge and accessible to all students, but I can’t help but wonder if some of the answers and explanations are a bit too condensed for some students. Regardless, this remains a resource that all students should bookmark and return to for assistance in their academic careers.
Official Statement:
Authors Publish Innovative Biology Textbook Online and For Free
Biology teachers and students worldwide can now use a complete and real (ISBN assigned) Biology textbook published online by the authors. All of the 636 pages of the book is online.
The “Free Biology Book” (www.freebiologybook.com) is a full Biology textbook encompassing all Biology subjects for secondary education: Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Zoology, Physiology, Embryology, Botanics, Genetics, Evolution, Ecology and Diseases. Each of such Biology subjects is divided in several and well-organized chapters.
The main attraction of the online book is the way the content is exposed, each chapter made of a logical sequence of questions and answers. From the beginning to the end of the Q&A sequence, the text goes from introductory issues to deeper explanation of the chapter topic. It is then very easy to learn Biology reading the “Free Biology Book” (www.freebiologybook.com) since the knowledge is built question by question in small blocks of content.
Another innovation of the project is that it does not directly show illustrations. Instead, for each chapter the reader is suggested to click on links that open Google Images pages that show lots of pictures about what is being studied.
The intention of the authors, both are medical doctors, that published their real book online and for free is to allow students and teachers throughout the world to have access to a complete online Biology book. Students can use it at home or school and teachers can even take it as guideline to build their Biology courses.
