Jump to content

Menu

How excited should I be about this free textbook? (Campbell/Reece 7th Edition)


Recommended Posts

We visited a used bookstore that has a big "FREE" bin at the front, and I picked up a seventh edition of Campbell's Biology. 

Can I use this in a few years for my kid to take AP Bio? 

Or...is this mostly just a nice paperweight to have on hand as a reference?

 

Here I was thinking "awesome, this is newer than the one I used in 1990!"  :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which one? Concepts and Connections? Or just Biology? :) If it's the latter I think that's such a great thing to have. :)

Nothing wring with Concepts and Connections. I like that one too but it's the latter that is used in AP Bio IIRC.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's the big old Biology one. I have been looking around to find a used version and I couldn't believe this was FREEEEEEEEE...

I actually didn't know Concepts and Connections existed before doing a search of this forum to see how valuable My Precious textbook is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your textbook is the gold standard, but Biology has done some changing in the last 11 years since it was published. Also, the AP Biology exam changed last year-ish and I'm sure a current book would have some content adjustments based on that. 

 

I would say you can use it as long as you plan to supplement a bit to make sure there are no concepts that are left out and correct anything that has changed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wasn't sure how much a textbook like this would change - in terms of revisions versus additions. Would the content be inaccurate or would the newer editions just have more content? Just kind of curious. 

 

There will be some information that has changed. Biology is a rapidly changing field. So some things will now be inaccurate, but I don't know how much. There will also be new content and possibly some content that was dropped. The changes probably aren't huge, but I haven't compared those side by side.

 

I'll use Miller/Levine Biology for an example though. The classification system changed between the last two editions. If you have the older book you only have the older system. The newer book discusses that system but more briefly explaining that there is now a new system and has a long section on the new system. It is an entire chapter that is dramatically different. I don't think there were any other big changes.

 

If you can get hold of a current version - perhaps from the library, just long enough to do a comparison, you can find out if there are any big changes and if so, add something to cover it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...