Biology- Campbell vs. Miller/Levine

[Kfamily]

I've seen the Biology text by Miller/Levine (the Dragonfly cover) and I was not overly excited about it. I thought that I would be interested in the text by Campbell (the Exploring Life book...the one for average students) but noticed that this particular book (the Exploring Life text) was a Prentice Hall book. The Miller/Levine book is also a Prentice Hall book, so I really wanted to be sure that the Exploring Life book was different from the Miller/Levine book. Could anyone tell me if there is a difference? (Hopefully, this makes sense...:lol:)

 

I'm not sure what I'm looking for in a Biology textbook. I'd love to find something that is well-written, engaging and with understandable explanations. I would even love to find something that perhaps covers less breadth (athough not to short-change good coverage/exposure) but that covers more with depth. (If this is not possible, I'll just make the best of the text I have and add more with other resources.)

[Nscribe]

Campbell's Exploring Life is a multimedia product. When I had a chance to look at the text, it seemed you would need the online/dvd pieces to have full coverage.

 

Campbell also has Biology (a college text for majors), Concepts and Connections (college non-majors, high school honors) and Essential Biology (with or without Physiology). I love the Biology book, but it would not be the book I would use for a first time high school biology course. It makes a great reference to have to go further on various content.

 

Concepts and Connections: A nice entry point text. Challenging, but solid coverage.

 

We actually use both Miller and Levine (Dragonfly) and Concepts and Connections. Dd will often start by reading the Miller and Levine, then read again from Concept/Connections. (I should note, she likes to read and re-read as a learning mode.)

 

Miller and Levine is one of a very few high school text books we can stand (the visual clutter in them drives us nuts). The following 3 features in each chapter are nice: "Inquiry Activity", "Quick Lab" and "Design An Experiment". They tend to be very doable in the home setting and add hands opportunities. I think of them as something short of labs, but that enriches the content (Dd does labs otherwise-intensives, local offerings...). Another feature of Miller and Levine that is strong are the graphics/photographs/diagrams. Concepts and Connections has strong ones, but combining both can really be nice.

[Kfamily]

Thank you. I'll take a look at the Concepts and Connections.

[kangato3]

We prefer Campbell's Exploring Life to Miller/Levine. While Exploring Life does have a multimedia compenent (DVD with online reinforcement activities, supplementary readings on topics such as careers), the book is a complete text that can stand alone without the multimedia.

 

At the time we were choosing, dd and I compared the two books side by side. While the content covered is very similar, dd and I like the writiing style of Exploriing Life much better. Explanations seemed clearer and more thorough. And since much of the extraneous material is on a DVD rather than the text, the book itself is more streamliined than the Miller/Levine.

[Nscribe]

We prefer Campbell's Exploring Life to Miller/Levine. While Exploring Life does have a multimedia compenent (DVD with online reinforcement activities, supplementary readings on topics such as careers), the book is a complete text that can stand alone without the multimedia.

 

At the time we were choosing, dd and I compared the two books side by side. While the content covered is very similar, dd and I like the writiing style of Exploriing Life much better. Explanations seemed clearer and more thorough. And since much of the extraneous material is on a DVD rather than the text, the book itself is more streamliined than the Miller/Levine.

 

Given this, more direct experience with Exploring Life, it may be what you are seeking. As I said, we didn't have a chance to work with it, just look at it.