Have you ever wondered how hard the bench on a covered wagon must have got for those pioneers moving west from the East Coast to Oregon?

Pioneers suffer.

Congratulations, you are a pioneer! This course is the covered wagon. When we went to design this course, we decided early that it shouldn't cost people much (if any) for a text book. There are four options, each will be explained below.
  1. Use a biology book that you already have.
  2. Purchase (for about $14) an online textbook.
  3. Purchase (for about $20) a black and white printed version of #2 in the COS bookstore.
  4. Use a copy of the book in the library at COS.

Option 1.
Although we have put quite a bit of "content" into the web pages on this course, the material is more summary in nature than what you will find in a text book about biology. Nevertheless, the topics covered are in every biology book (or should be!!) and so we feel that if you have a book lying around, it will probably be sufficient to use it. You will have to find the topics covered on the web site in the book, but that should be straight forward.

Option 2.
We have selected and used a text book in making this course. The book is "The Living World" 5th edition, by George Johnson and Jonathan Losos, published by McGraw-Hill. But, we only are using 5 chapters from this book. The printed copy of the book is very expensive (>$100) and we don't recommend that you go out and buy it. McGraw-Hill is pioneering text books online and so we have arranged with them to provide just the 5 chapters we are using. The details are given below, but basically for a small charge (~$14) you can have access to the 5 chapters online and/or in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. There are two options within this option, but you can explore those later. Here is the necessary information to view the details and order your online access:

Company making it available : Primus Inc.
Website to go to: http://ebooks.primisonline.com.
You will need this: ISBN 0390-628557
Here are instructions given to us from the publisher to give to you, the student. They are in MS Word format. If this is a problem, please email me. Instructions for students to order the online book.

Option 3.
We have asked the COS Bookstore to order some printed copies of these 5 chapters. They will be black and white (a small problem) but they will be not too expensive (~$20). The most important diagrams are on this website and in color, so no content would be lost. If you would rather read paper than staring at a screen, this might be your best option. The books are expected in the bookstore by the middle of May. This shouldn't be a problem because you have until the middle of June to work through the material and it shouldn't take that long even at a relaxed pace.

Option 4.
We have placed a copy of the whole book in the COS library. It is on reserve for in-library use only. Ask at the counter, tell them it is for Bio 91, Instructors Goehring and Clarke.

If you have questions or problems, please don't hesitate to contact us.