Week 1 — Readings & Resources · The Science of Biology

Course: Introduction to Biology — General Biology I (BIOL 101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Castellano
Objective covered: Objective 1 — Describe the core practice of science in biology and explain evolution's role as biology's unifying theme.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded.

This week's load is deliberately light: 2 short videos + 2 short readings, grouped by the ideas from the lecture, plus one optional free online reference. Watch or read one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable. Total time is roughly 35–45 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Order that matches the lecture: ① what makes something alive → ② levels of organization → ③ the scientific method & experiments → ④ evolution as the unifying theme.

A habit to start now: before you trust any biology claim — in these resources or anywhere — ask the questions from class: Where's the controlled experiment? Is this a hypothesis or a theory? What's the evidence?

① What Makes Something Alive · and ② Levels of Organization

Maps to Lecture Segments 2–3. Life is defined by a set of characteristics (cells, energy use, growth, reproduction, response, homeostasis, evolution), and biology is organized in nested levels where new emergent properties appear.

Video — "Characteristics of Life" (Amoeba Sisters)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQPVXrV0GNA
Why it earns the click: a friendly ~7-minute tour of the exact checklist we built on the board — organization, homeostasis, metabolism, reproduction, growth, response to stimuli, and evolution — and it makes the same point we did: living things show the whole set, not just one trait.
⏱ ~7 min

Reading — "The Science of Biology" (OpenStax Biology 2e, §1.1)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/1-1-the-science-of-biology
Why it's assigned: the cleanest plain-language version of what biology studies, the properties of life, and the levels of organization we climbed in class — free to read online, no account needed.
⏱ ~10 min

③ The Scientific Method & Designing Experiments

Maps to Lecture Segments 5–6. The heart of the week: a testable hypothesis, one independent variable, a measured dependent variable, everything else held constant, and a control group to compare against.

Video — "Nature of Science" (Amoeba Sisters)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nAETHZTObk
Why it earns the click: walks through experimental design with the same vocabulary we used — control group, constants, independent variable, dependent variable — and shows how to graph the result. Exactly Segments 5–6.
⏱ ~8 min

④ Evolution — Biology's Unifying Theme · and the Big Picture

Maps to Lecture Segment 7. The line to carry out of this week: evolution by natural selection explains both life's unity (shared DNA, common ancestry) and its diversity, which is why it's the thread that ties the whole course together.

Reading — "Themes and Concepts of Biology" (OpenStax Biology 2e, §1.2)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/1-2-themes-and-concepts-of-biology
Why it's assigned: lays out the unifying themes — evolution, structure-and-function, the cell, and energy flow — the same threads we'll pull on all semester. The evolution section is the key part for this week.
⏱ ~10 min

Optional one-stop references (free online)

• Khan Academy — Intro to Biology. A free unit with short articles and videos covering what biology is, the properties of life, and the scientific method. A good place to return to all term.
  🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/intro-to-biology
• Kurzgesagt — "Why Are You Alive?" A beautifully animated, optional take on what it means to be alive (life, energy, and staying out of equilibrium). More thought-provoking than testable — watch it for fun.
  🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QImCld9YubE

Pick-one quick path (≈17 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these two and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Watch "Characteristics of Life" (groups ①–②).
2. Watch "Nature of Science" (group ③), and skim the evolution part of "Themes and Concepts of Biology" (group ④).

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Castellano and use the OpenStax or Khan Academy references above in the meantime.