Biology Textbook Pdf Miller And Levine
Sandra Grady
Basic research on stem cells takes on a special urgency. . . Given the suffering and death caused by these conditions [heart attacks, strokes, paralysis]. . . Many hope to see a day when damage caused by a severe heart attack can be reversed. . .
Politically, those instrumental in putting Miller and Levine Biology together understand how lucky they are to put together a textbook for the captive, young audience mandated to learn biology. They urge:
They urge kids to think for themselves, yet their textbook has subtly worded stances (intentional or not) and makes an unstated point to root out disbelievers of points they consider moot discussions.
Try this setup to be surrounded by all things biology: Have your printed biology textbook in front of you, your iBook on the iPad on your right, and your audiobook on your Learning Ally iPhone app to your left. Oh, and your herbarium on the wall in front of your desk!
(If you want to learn more about Learning Ally and what they and their many wonderful volunteers have done to help dyslexics and those with reading challenges, watch my YouTube video, The Sound of Reading.)
I am trying to find out how others implement the Miller/Levine Biology. What components do you use? Do you do labs from the book or do a separate lab component? Any other supplements? Thanks for any insight.
Since no one is replying, I'll take a stab. However, our experience was a bit unique as we zipped through the book and then moved to Thinkwell Bio and Campbell for AP prep! We did use the virtual labs from M/L but I wouldn't suggest them if you want serious labs. They are very light weight and don't teach much. Yet, they do fulfill a lab component....Just my opinion! The book itself is filled with enough student check-yourself types of things that a Study Guide isn't necessary. Do do all the EOC questions and review material and all will be fine! (Not an AP prep book though.) There is a ton of material on the internet to support any topic your student might struggle with and a simple Google will yield short videos etc. WE had the Kolbe course plans available to us for weekly planning which included extra notes, correlated labs and had tests and answers. These were helpful!
I found a number of syllabi from high schools online using the older edition Miller/Levine book, including a prestigious science magnet school in our area. I found it interesting that none of them cover the entire textbook. The magnet school skips quite a few chapters!
I plan to use the 2010 edition. This book is huge--over 1000 pages, which includes 35 chapters, each with 2-5 sections. There is no possible way to cram all of it in one year. Still, I like it; there are a lot of new online features that have been developed for this text.
1. Narrow down which chapters or units to leave out. I will likely follow the magnet school's lead and leave out most of the animal/plant sections and possibly the endocrine and reproductive sections. And/or I may leave out all human anatomy chapters and use them as a separate course for the future.
Another mom told me that online access to the TE as well as the test bank and a few other resources comes free if you purchase the textbook from Pearson. But first you must open a online account and submit a homeschool affidavit.
One more thing: for those who want a Christian counterpoint to the evolutionary content in Miller & Levine's Biology, AIG sells a book titled Evolution Exposed with a page-by-page reference index to the M/L textbook as a free download. (Scroll down to bottom of the page for the download link.)
Please make sure that you will be able to register as a homeschool teacher on their website after you receive your log-in information. Prentice Hall/Pearson does not have good internal communication, and ordering this book with the online access turned out to be a real headache for me. A representative from the technical assistance department called me a few weeks ago to tell me that they are not able to give homeschool teachers access to the online teacher resources.
For those of you who have used M & L Bio and say that the grade level version is over 1,000 pages long and therefore you must pick and choose the chapters, would you recommend getting the core level version instead? Thanks!
We did receive what online materials they did have at no charge as homeschoolers. However they may have changed their policy. My interactions with PH were similar to dealing with a large government agency - no one knowing exactly what to tell you, different people telling you different things.
We essentially started bio over again using Oak Meadow and Holt Biology. If I were attempting Miller Levine again I would buy whatever support materials were necessary and not count on the online components.
Hopefully others will have a different experience than what Dana had. The updated edition just came out earlier this year, and they didn't have all of the supplements ready. I think some are still in the works, but the key ones are done.
3. Wait for the confirmation email that your account has been approved. (If you don't get a confirmation within 48 hours, email them...I kept waiting and never heard back. Turns out they never got my original affidavit and I had to resubmit it. It went through within 24 hours the second time.)
5. Place your order. Be sure to have the exact ISBN number for the version of the book you want. There are many many versions! (If you're not sure, check here and here.) I ordered the student textbook (on level) with biology.com 6-year student access. ISBN: 9780133690095
It will show up as $299.95. Do not panic. Click on the button "Special Terms." Scroll down and click the free option (I think it was option A, but please double check.) Update your cart. Verify that the teacher's pack is now at $0.
Handmaiden - thank you so much for taking the time to post that detailed information. This has helped me so much. I'm still close to hyperventilating every time I think about actually teaching biology to a high schooler, but just knowing which books I'll be using helps quite a bit!
I bought a used copy (I think c. 2001), and we used the section on the human body and created an anatomy unit from it, since Apologia Biology does not cover anatomy. How we used it: we read; I made tests from the end-of-chapter reviews; and we did some of the lab/experiments in the book, plus looked for ideas online or from other resources.
It is indeed a meaty text! And while I missed the Christian perspective from Apologia, I FAR preferred the layout, abundance of visuals and sidebars, and the to-the-point writing style of the Miller-Levine to Apologia. I also preferred that the Miller-Levine because (while it DOES have vocabulary) it did not make vocabulary terms the FOCUS the way Apologia does -- rather, the focus is on illustrating and understanding processes.
As far as scheduling, we did the 6 chapters on the human body in something like 12-15 weeks. In some ways, I wish we had just gone with the Miller-Levine for our entire Biology rather than the Apologia.... ce le guerre...
If you go with the older "Dragonfly" on the cover version, there are tons of web resources from the author to accompany it at his website (including chapter self-tests; teaching links; archived Scienc Online articles for further research; add additional resources); use the table of contents as your jumping off point to explore his web resourcs.
BEST of luck, whatever you decide! Warmest regards, Lori D.
I did extensive research last year on Biology textbooks and ordered M&L before it was released. It is an excellent (and very beautiful) book. I ordered directly from Pearson, and while I had to verify my homeschool status once by phone, I have had access to any and all teacher materials since then.
1) Don't purchase the Untamed Science videos, as they are available free on the website. Most chapters are really fun to watch, and especially good for convincing a self professed "non-science" type that science can be interesting.
2) Use the supplemental website extensively. It is very well done. You won't have to use every component, because they are going for the different learning styles, but the animations are especially useful.
3) The virtual labs were not available yet when I purchased the course, so I bought the regular lab manual. I think that we were able to accomplish about half of the labs using materials from Carolina and Home Science Tools. It wasn't too much of an outlay (except for the microscope). I supplemented with some of the "Quick Labs" from the text. My goal is at least one lab per chapter. Next time through with 2nd child, I will probably buy another lab manual to add to my repetoire (and continue using this one).
4) I spent quite a bit of time last summer going through each chapter (text and on-line) to identify which activities to complete. Do NOT attempt to have your child answer every question, do every Unit Project, etc. We do almost all of the "Analyzing Data" sections and answer the Standardized Test Prep questions. I do not have my daughter try to answer the Chapter Mystery questions, but she watches the Intro video and then reads the sections. If you have time to do some of these, they are interesting research "prompts."
5) I found that the Study Guide was useful for my extremely busy daughter. She has assembled detailed notes by completing it, but did not have to handwrite every word, or draw every detailed diagram (could just fill in pertinent notes).
6) You can use "Grade Tracker" on the website to monitor which concepts are difficult for your child. You will first have to set up a "class" at the beginning of the year and have him or her log in as a student.
7) We used the "Biology & Society" sections for my humanities focused 9th grader to do some writing and thinking. We went out to find journal articles, books like "Politically Incorrect Guide to Science," etc. to get opposing viewpoints on stem cells, genetically modified food, the status of endangered animals, etc.