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BSCS Biology: A Molecular Approach

BSCS Blue Version, 9th edition, Introductory biology, honors level; Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2006.

New to the Ninth Edition: One-stop Internet Resources at www.BSCSblue.com that include online study tools, online research, an interactive online student edition, an online bulletin board for teachers, and Teaching Today -- Professional Development for teachers.

The Teacher's Resource Book is now comprised of three publications -- Practicing Scientific Methods: Labs and Analysis of Scientific Writing, Current Research and Inquiry in Biology, and Blackline Masters. The Overhead Transparencies book makes up the fourth ancillary.

Practicing Scientific Methods: Labs and Analysis of Scientific Writing provides content correlations to the AP Biology course topics on page VI. Ward's catalog information has been updated.

Current Research and Inquiry in Biology features seven new Science and Scientific American articles in the Current Literature section, and provides content correlations to the AP Biology course topics on page VI.

New to the Student Edition: An English/Spanish glossary, updated content that includes current developments in research, and an expanded index with additional topics from the text and more cross-referencing.

BSCS Blue Version Ninth Edition continues the tradition of offering a unique, inquiry based approach, and now includes even more Pre-AP strategies. These strategies

Encourage students to draw inferences;
Ask students questions using the following six levels of questioning: knowledge recall, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation;
Encourage students to use double-entry notebooks or journals;
Implement the yes-but strategy for analyzing an argument; and
Synthesize perspectives from different points of view.

BSCS Biology: A Molecular Approach (BSCS Blue Version) prepares honors or gifted students for the biology of the future by challenging them to think scientifically, to integrate concepts, to analyze data, and to explore complex issues. Inquiry-based learning, a molecular perspective on the major concepts in biology, and a focus on the nature and methods of science have been mainstays of Blue Version since the first edition was released in 1963. The ninth edition incorporates new perspectives and understandings across major subdisciplines of biology such as genetics, cell biology, development, systematics, behavior, immunology, and evolution - the central organizing theme of biology.

As with BSCS's other biology programs, Blue Version provides an alternative to the presentation of vocabulary and isolated facts by using inquiry to present biology as an experimental science. Blue Version also recognizes the role that biology will play in the lives of students, who need an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of biological technology as they make decisions about everything from food products to medical care. By presenting science as a way of exploring the drama and beauty of the living world, students come to use scientific inquiry as a means to investigate the biological bases of problems in medicine, agriculture and conservation, which will provide a context in which students can appreciate the relationship of biology to personal and societal issues.

Blue Version begins with a focus on the content of biology at the level of organization of molecules. The threads of molecular biology and the theory of evolution by natural selection tie together the chapters as the emphasis changes gradually from molecules to cells, individuals, populations, and finally to the biosphere. Seven unifying principles serve as a framework for conceptual biology.

Key Features:

Inquiry-based: students learn science by doing science
Laboratories and hands-on activities
"Connections" sections that reinforce unifying biological themes
"Theory boxes" describe a theory that has been important in the research and development of that area of biology
"Word etymologies" provide the meanings of word roots that students will encounter in repeated contexts
"Chemistry tips" give chemistry background information in the margins
"Challenges" sections link biological content to issues in research, public policy, discoveries, and careers
"Web resources" direct students to key sites on the Internet for further explanation and indivdual research

Audience:
Honors, gifted or advanced (e.g., second course) high school biology

Components:

Student Text
Teachers Annotated Edition
Teachers Resource Book - three books (including supplementary topics, current literature, extended laboratory program)
Computer test bank
Overhead transparency booklet.

Publisher:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
8787 Orion Place
Columbus, OH 43240-4027
(800) 848-1567
www.BSCSblue.com

Content:
Biological content is linked to seven major concepts: evolution; interactions and interdependence; genetic continuity and reproduction; growth, development and differentiation; energy, matter and organization; maintenance of a dynamic equilibrium; and science, technology and society. For more detailed information, see the Table of Contents.

Pedagogy:
Students learn science by doing science, focusing both on the abilities and understandings of inquiry, the dominant instructional and learning theme in Blue Version.

More Detail:
Correlation with the National Science Education Standards.

Revision Ideas:
If you use this program and have discovered errors or have suggestions for improvement, please e-mail them to us at highschool@bscs.org. We rely on our colleagues to help us make future editions of BSCS curricula the best they can be.

For more information:
Contact BSCS by e-mail at highschool@bscs.org or write to us at:

BSCS
Attn: Blue Version
5415 Mark Dabling Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918-3842

This project originally received funding from the National Science Foundation