Exploring the World of Biology

I am using this book as part of the Survey of Science History and Concepts series. So far we have gone through the Mathematics and Physics book and we've just got to chapter two of the Biology book. Overall I'm happy with the books, but I would have preferred a series with a lot more hands on work. I also found some glaring errors in chapter two of the Biology book regarding malaria. The text states that this disease is incurable - I beg to differ since I contracted malaria TWICE while working oversees twenty years ago. It is very treatable if treated quickly and with the correct drugs. There are at least four different malarial parasites that need different treatments. The reason why malaria is still a huge problem in Sub Sahara Africa is because of poverty, lack of infrastructure, and many people do not have access to the treatment or do not get it soon enough - as I saw first hand.
Anyway. Errors like this always make me question the quality of research that was done for the entire book. My confidence in the material has dropped significantly. Regular reviews must be done so that information is kept up to date and is correct!

We used this book as part of the Survey of Science History & Concepts course, but it would be a good intro to Biology for any student who’s interested. These books make good reference material to supplement other science courses as well.

Older and younger students will enjoy this fun book. Serves as a helpful introduction to biology which stimulates the appetite for more learning.

We love all of Tiner's books and have purchased all of them. Our kids are still young, but we use these books as read alouds and for research. They are such an engaging read and packed with great information. I plan to use them with Master Book's Survey of Science History & Concepts when my children are ready for that course.

My son is in elementry school so we are not currently using this as a textbook but, instead, as a reference book. It is written in an approachable, interesting manner.

The books from this series are so fascinating! Kids love them and adults too! Love to leave them around the house and kids pick them up and enjoy learning without knowing it!!!

This book and format helped my son connect to the information much easier, we tried with out it and he was lost but after I bought this book he began to understand.

I wanted to give my son a general understanding of biology before we tred the water of biology in high school. This book helped us both get a better understand and felt the questions at the end of the chapters helped the informtion stick.

I'm currently reviewing this for one of my children and it has good fundamentals on Biology, but some of the Biblical references are incorrect. One example is page 36 of the book where it states that, "The world was in chaos. The word chaos means 'great disorder or confusion.'" in reference to Gen. 1:2. This is absolutely false as 1 Cor. 14:33 states that: For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. The primeval earth was raw and unformed, not chaotic. References to God as the potter in the Bible help explain this. He speaks the material into existence and then forms and shapes it.
Another inconsistency is on page 43 referring to tree ring growth. A picture there indicates that tree rings during spring growth are wider and during summer they are narrower, which would mean more than one ring would form per year, but the article goes on to say that each ring equals one year of growth. The latter is false and it is an assumption like ice core rings, or laminae layers in rock. Tree rings are produced at a variable rate based on the nutrient conditions of the soil and weather conditions, not a constant 1 year 1 ring method.

Some recommendations for the author is to integrate more Biblical references to the material and organize the data into days of creation for days 3, 5, and 6

This book is a great intro to biology for middle schoolers. It is written in a conversational-narrative style. I love how the author ties together sciece and history. My 7th grade daughter studied this all by her own. It is very understandable and easy to use. She completed this in one semester. We also used the worksheets and quizzes provided in the teacher guide. I am looking forward to using more titles in this series.