Reddit reviews Biology

The undergrad department head, Dr. Lubischer, doesn't really pick the book... the course coordinator does. That would be Dr. Black and Dr. Niedzlek-Feaver. I've worked closely with both professors and they're trying to save students money. Dr. Black often makes the book completely optional in her DE course (the one I am most familiar with), and will provide material from it in lieu of requiring the book itself. As far as in class courses- it is generally helpful but even in her advanced courses (BIO 370/375) she never required the text. If you knew someone with it you could photocopy any important pages, or you could share books.

But why Brooker at all? Because it's an improvement from Campbell's Biology. Campbell's is a better textbook with more information, but is much more expensive. New editions, iirc, are around $250+ with the online section/CD/thing. And there is a new edition every ~2yrs. And some students really do learn better when they can read the text in conjunction with lectures, not to mention the university itself requires textbooks for most 100 level introduction courses. It's meant to be a stepping stone from high school level material into college level, and most students cannot adequately learn a broad topic like general biology from lectures alone.

Brooker is a much cheaper and easier to access textbook, and I agree with the department on their choice. However, you don't ever want to buy it new unless you have to for some god-awful reason. You can buy this book for around $3 + shipping on Amazon.

And I'll be honest with you. I've taught this course (and may be teaching it next semester, hi prospective students!), and the book is not required. You can get it at the DH Hill Circulation desk when you need it for tests or what not- because I know you won't be reading this every day, I know I didn't. You could also use CK-12, or a copy of Campbell's (which are super cheap used). Why those books? Well... I helped develop some of the 181/183 sections and those are the books we used to correlate information we wanted to add into the course where Brooker was lacking.


If you want to be mad about pricing, be mad about the lab manual. But remember, the money made from that goes back into buying supplies for that semester or next semester's lab, if there is any profit Dr. Black sees very little. The Biology department is POOR AS SHIT right now, which is why I get paid peanuts this year vs. 3 years ago. Specimens and most other bio lab materials are much more expensive than chemicals and can only be used once, it really sucks.