Open Educational Resources (OER): Life sciences

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

Introduction to the use of computers to automate data analysis or model hypotheses in the field of biology, and its application for molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, neuroscience and evolution.

The pages represent an online biology textbook created by Professor John W. Kimball who taught at Harvard, Tufts, and Phillips Andover Academy before he retired. He now maintains this free biology book, constantly updated and set up for easy browsing and searching.

This 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.

This course is built around six key concepts that provide unifying explanations for how and why structures are formed and processes occur throughout your study of biology. Because it is not possible to cover the breadth of modern molecular biology in one semester, an understanding of these key concepts will provide a basis for extension of your knowledge to biological systems beyond the specifics covered in this course. One of the major goals of the course therefore is for you to not only learn the definitions of the concepts but also learn to recognize when they are operating the process being studied.

Topics covered include: Biological Chemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular biology, and Metabolism.

Health Case Studies is composed of eight separate health case studies. Each case study includes the patient narrative or story that models the best practice (at the time of publishing) in healthcare settings. Associated with each case is a set of specific learning objectives to support learning and facilitate educational strategies and evaluation.

Readers will learn about the nature of health, health education, health promotion and related concepts. This will help to understand the social, psychological and physical components of health.

This textbook will help students learn to assess health behavior choices, apply that information to everyday life for the improvement of individual, family, and community well-being; and identify preconceived ideas about knowledge, values, and behavior that affect health and compare with established research and accepted scientific evidence.

The University of Maryland Global Campus has put together a list of OERs that deal with the topic of anatomy. It includes books, courses, and a 3D model.

Environmental Science is a free and open textbook that enables students to develop a nuanced understanding of today’s most pressing environmental issues. This text helps students grasp the scientific foundation of environmental topics so they can better understand the world around them and their impact upon it. This text draws largely from open sources, in addition to new content from the editor.

Taking into consideration the outstanding importance of studying and applying the biological means to remove or mitigate the harmful effects of global pollution on the natural environment, as direct consequences of quantitative expansion and qualitative diversification of persistent and hazardous contaminants, the present book provides useful information regarding New Approaches and Prospective Applications in Environmental Biotechnology. This volume contains twelve chapters divided in the following three parts: biotechnology for conversion of organic wastes, biodegradation of hazardous contaminants and, finally, biotechnological procedures for environmental protection. Each chapter provides detailed information regarding scientific experiments that were carried out in different parts of the world to test different procedures and methods designed to remove or mitigate the impact of hazardous pollutants on environment. The book is addressed to researchers and students with specialties in biotechnology, bioengineering, ecotoxicology, environmental engineering and all those readers who are interested to improve their knowledge in order to keep the Earth healthy.

TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Climate Change, speakers give talks that boldly illuminate the nature and scale of current-day climate science, policy and ethics. They explore the economics and psychology of individual and collective action — or inaction — on climate change in order to assess the costs of our choices and opportunities for change. Relevant areas of interest, study and coursework include: ecology, atmospheric science, oceanography, glaciology, energy development, environmental policy, science in the media, political science, ethics, sociology, behavioral psychology and cultural studies.

This textbook is designed for introductory environmental studies and science students. The goal is to teach essential ecological concepts by linking them to key environmental issues. The hope is that students can easily understand how firm grounding in these concepts can help them appreciate and hopefully address the biggest environmental threats of our time. After an initial section on the nature of science and an overview of ecology, the textbook is divided into four sections, each addressing a key environmental concern: global climate change, eutrophication, biodiversity loss and food supply and security. After a brief introduction to the environmental concern, the book addresses ecological concepts relevant for understanding the issue. Each section wraps up with a return to the environmental concern and insight into how the ecological concepts learned can be applied to the environmental issue.

This text represents the collaboration of more than 70 authors from multiple countries. Essentials of Exercise and Sport Psychology: An Open Access Textbook brings this diverse set of experts together to provide a free, open, accessible textbook for students studying exercise and sport psychology. Primarily directed at undergraduate students, this well-referenced book is also appropriate for graduate students.

Syllabi and Lab Exercises for SCI 201: Anatomy and Physiology I. This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the structure, function and disorders of the human body. Topics include an overview of the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems, as well as a discussion of tissues and special senses. A three-hour lab session is required each week. Course materials written by Maria Carles and Georgia Thoidis, content uploaded to OER Commons by Victoria Vidal.

This textbook covers some of the basic concepts of fitness and wellness, like muscle strength and endurance, body composition, and weight management.