Week 1 · Readings & resources

Week 1 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Biology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 1 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 74–80 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–21 min total)

① What counts as alive, and how life is organized

Chapter 1, Section “Recognize life: check the whole list” · Session 1, Segment 1, “What makes something alive” · Remember: something is alive only when it shows the whole checklist, never one or two boxes.

Introduction to Biology: Crash Course Biology #1 — CrashCourse — an upbeat opening episode on what biology studies, the shared characteristics biologists use to recognize living things, and a hard case about viruses; compare its list of characteristics with the chapter's seven. (video, 13 min) (captions: creator)
Are viruses alive? — Ask A Biologist — a short question-and-answer article that tests a famous borderline case against the properties of life, one property at a time; try the chapter's full checklist on the same case and notice where the two lists differ. Use it while working through the Week-1 module overview. (reading, 3–5 min)
The Hierarchy of Life — Bozeman Science — a quick climb up the levels of organization with emergent properties explained along the way; it adds a few extra rungs the chapter folds together. It starts at the atom, and atoms and bonds are next week's subject, so treat those first rungs as names for now. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)

② How biologists test an idea

Chapter 1, Section “Build a controlled experiment” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Building a controlled experiment” · Remember: change one thing, measure one thing, and compare against a control group that gets no treatment.

The Scientific Method: Crash Course Biology #2 — CrashCourse — the big picture of how science makes progress, from a testable question to theories and peer review; watch for the point that real science loops back rather than running in a straight line. (video, 15 min) (captions: creator)
The Scientific Method — Bozeman Science — a calm, step-by-step walk through the method from a short teacher-made explainer; pause after each step and name it with the chapter's terms. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Controlled Experiments: Identifying variables — DeverScience — practice naming the independent variable, the dependent variable, the constants, and the control group in two scenarios, plus why repeated trials matter; it says "constants" where the chapter says controlled variables. (video, 8 min) (captions: automatic)
The real process of science — Understanding Science — a short page on why the scientific method works as a loop rather than a fixed recipe; read it beside the chapter's seven steps. (reading, 3–4 min)

③ Theory, and the framework that ties biology together

Chapter 1, Section “Evolution: the framework that ties biology together” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Evolution as the framework of biology” · Remember: a theory is the most tested kind of explanation in science, and evolution is the theory that ties biology together.

Definitions of Fact, Theory, and Law in Scientific Work — National Center for Science Education — a one-screen set of definitions; compare its wording for hypothesis and theory with the chapter's. (reading, 1–2 min)
Natural Selection and the Rock Pocket Mouse — HHMI BioInteractive — a short film about a real population of mice whose coat color matches the rocks they live on, and how natural selection can spread a trait through a population; track variation, survival, reproduction, and inheritance as the film goes. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Natural Selection — Understanding Evolution — a brief illustrated page that walks a made-up population through natural selection step by step; check that it is the population, not any one individual, that changes. (reading, 2–3 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Evolution — National Human Genome Research Institute Talking Glossary — the course's free glossary of genetic terms, open at its entry for evolution; read the definition and the short narration text, and skip the related-term links, which reach well beyond this week. (reading, 1–2 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com