AAAS Project 2061 Biology Textbooks Evaluation
Graphic Summary of Content Findings
For each topic, reviewers looked to see whether textbooks addressed a coherent set of ideas. Those key ideas are displayed in maps that also show how the ideas relate to one another. In the list of maps that follows, the coherent "story" the reviewers looked for is contrasted with the treatment actually found in the textbooks. The following is a guide to reading the maps:
- black boxes contain the target ideas that served directly as the basis for the analysis
- red boxes contain prerequisites needed for the target ideas (from the same or even an earlier grade range)
- blue boxes contain ideas that are closely related to the target ideas and that could strengthen students' understanding of them
- lines with arrowheads: an arrow between two ideas implies that understanding one contributes in some way to understanding the other.
- lines without arrowheads: a line between two ideas implies that they are related, though no conceptual sequence seems necessary.
These maps summarize the content findings for four topics:
Cell Structure and Function
(118 KB Adobe PDF document)
Matter and Energy Transformations
Molecular Basis of Heredity
Natural Selection and Evolution
Continued: View Charts Outlining the Results of the Evaluation