Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6th edition

For courses in non-majors biology.

Helps students learn the concepts and applications of human biology using relevant topics and realistic scenarios

Known for its unique “Special Topic” chapters and emphasis on everyday health concerns, the 6th Edition of Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues continues to personalize the study of human biology using a conversational writing style, vibrant, easy-to-follow illustrations, abundant applications, and a new emphasis on using everyday science literacy skills. The authors provide a practical, friendly introduction to the study of the human body, preparing students to navigate today’s rapidly expanding and shifting world of health information.

Each chapter now features brand-new “Consider This Case” exercises and “Finding and Evaluating Information” activities that challenge students to think critically and apply their knowledge to solve real-world cases. Along with scientific updates and content improvements throughout the text, the 6th Edition also includes a new “Special Topic” chapter on the Obesity Epidemic.

Also available with Mastering Biology

Mastering™ Biology is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment product designed to improve results by helping students quickly master concepts. Students benefit from self-paced tutorials that feature immediate wrong-answer feedback and hints that emulate the office-hour experience to help keep students on track. With a wide range of interactive, engaging, and assignable activities, students are encouraged to actively learn and retain tough course concepts.

Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6th Edition is also available via Pearson eText, a simple-to-use, mobile, personalized reading experience that lets instructors connect with and motivate students – right in their eTextbook. Learn more.

Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6th Edition is also available via Pearson eText, a simple-to-use, mobile, personalized reading experience that lets instructors connect with and motivate students — right in their eTextbook. Learn more.

About the Book

• Ten “Special Topic” Chapters explore high-interest health topics more thoroughly than can be accomplished in a brief essay. Educators who prefer to teach an applied human biology course can use these chapters to explore specific applied topics in greater depth.
  • NEW! Special Topic Chapter 15a, “The Obesity Epidemic” connects the study of human biology to public health concerns, including practical information on health risks, regulation of food intake, and weight management.
  • NEW! “Did You Know?” chapter-opening questions have been extended to each Special Topic chapter and pique students’ interest with interesting and little-known facts about the chapter topic.
• NEW! “Consider This Case” exercises close each chapter with a scenario relating to the chapter content, followed by critical thinking questions that ask students to apply what they’ve learned in the chapter.
• NEW! “Finding and Evaluating Information” activities have been added to the end-of-chapter review to engage students in practicing basic science literacy skills.   Each activity includes a brief excerpt from an intriguing article or blog post, a web address for accessing the complete piece online, and guiding questions to help in evaluating the validity of the information.  
• Active Learning features engage students in answering questions as they read, including:
  • “Stop and Think” questions invite students to pause, think about the concept previously explained, and apply that information to a new situation.
  • “What Would You Do?” questions raise ethical questions about issues that society faces today. Students are able to see the relevance of information learned in a biology classroom to current real-life dilemmas or decisions people must make.
• A vibrant illustration program uses a combination of engaging photos and three-dimensional figures to enhance the explanation in the text.
  • NEW! Process steps have been added to Multi-step figures to guide students through complex processes.
  • Micrographs are incorporated into figures where appropriate to provide students with context.
  • Visual Summary Tables include visual cues when appropriate, adding more visual appeal and making the tables more reader-friendly.
  • Figure Legend Questions are provided for selected illustrations and direct students to think critically and visually.
• Health, Ethical, and Environmental Issues Essays explore contemporary topics that directly relate to students’ lives, motivating them to make connections to the world. 
• “Questions to Consider” are provided at the end of each Environmental Issue, Ethical Issue, and Health Issue box to encourage students to carefully consider their own position on various issues.
• A clear and engaging writing style uses first-person narrative; analogies and applications are woven throughout to engage the reader and clearly explain concepts.       
• Detailed Chapter Reviews provide a handy built-in “Study Guide” for review and practice.  Each content chapter concludes with:
• “Highlighting the Concepts” summarize “big picture” ideas into manageable bullet points with page references for exploring topics in greater detail, followed by a list of key terms from the chapter.
• Multiple-choice “Reviewing the Concepts” questions provide students with more opportunities to practice and prepare for the kinds of questions that might appear on a test or exam.   
• Short-Answer “Applying the Concepts” questions challenge students to apply their knowledge to situations that they may encounter in everyday life.     
• Mastering Biology reminders direct students to www.masteringbiology.com to access related quizzes, activities, and more.             

Also available with Mastering Biology

Mastering™ Biology is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment product designed to improve results by helping students quickly master concepts. Students benefit from self-paced tutorials that feature immediate wrong-answer feedback and hints that emulate the office-hour experience to help keep students on track. With a wide range of interactive, engaging, and assignable activities, students are encouraged to actively learn and retain tough course concepts.

• NEW! Mobile-ready Interactive Physiology 2.0 assignment options help students advance beyond memorization to a genuine understanding of physiological processes.  IP 2.0 features new graphics, quicker navigation, and more robust mobile-ready interactives for exploration.
• NEW! Evaluating Science in the Media activities challenge students to evaluate information from websites, articles, and videos.
• NEW! Everyday Biology Videos briefly explore interesting and relevant biology topics that relate to concepts that students are learning in class. These 20 videos, produced by the BBC, can be assigned in MasteringBiology with assessment questions.
• NEW! eText 2.0
  • Now available on smartphones and tablets.
  • Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media.
  • Accessible (screen-reader ready).
  • Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and night reading mode.
  • Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, bookmarking, and search.
• Learning Catalytics^™ is an interactive classroom tool that uses students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops to engage them in more sophisticated tasks and thinking. Now included with student subscriptions to MasteringBiology with eText, Learning Catalytics helps to facilitate classroom discussion, and promote peer-to-peer learning with real-time analytics. Instructors can:
  • Pose a variety of open-ended questions that help your students develop critical thinking skills
  • Monitor responses to find out where students are struggling
  • Use real-time data to adjust your instructional strategy and try other ways of engaging your students during class
  • Manage student interactions by automatically grouping students for discussion, teamwork, and peer-to-peer learning
• NEW! Dynamic Study Modules help students study effectively on their own by continuously assessing their activity and performance in real time. Here's how it works: students complete a set of questions with a unique answer format that also asks them to indicate their confidence level. Questions repeat until the student can answer them all correctly and confidently. Once completed, Dynamic Study Modules explain the concept using materials from the text. These are available as graded assignments prior to class, and accessible on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
• Video Field Trips offer an engaging “capstone” assignment option for the book’s final chapter on Human Impacts, Biodiversity, and Environmental Issues. 
• Dozens of additional animation activities engage students in learning basic human anatomy and physiology topics and are accompanied with assignable assessment questions.
• Assignable vocabulary review exercises give students an opportunity to practice using new human biology terms in context.
• Dozens of new “Current Events” activities have been added to the item library, containing links to articles from the New York Times and related assessment questions.
• BioFlix^™ 3D movie-quality animations help your students visualize complex biology topics and include automatically graded coaching activities with personalized feedback and hints. 

Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6th Edition is also available via Pearson eText, a simple-to-use, mobile, personalized reading experience that lets instructors connect with and motivate students – right in their eTextbook. Learn more.

New to the Text:

• Special Topic Chapter 15a, “The Obesity Epidemic” connects the study of human biology to public health concerns, including practical information on health risks, regulation of food intake, and weight management.
• “Did You Know?” chapter-opening questions have been extended to each Special Topic chapter and pique students’ interest with interesting and little-known facts about the chapter topic.
• “Consider This Case” exercises close each chapter with a scenario relating to the chapter content, followed by critical thinking questions that ask students to apply what they’ve learned in the chapter.
• “Finding and Evaluating Information” activities have been added to the end-of-chapter review to engage students in practicing basic science literacy skills.   Each activity includes a brief excerpt from an intriguing article or blog post, a web address for accessing the complete piece online, and guiding questions to help in evaluating the validity of the information.  
• Process steps have been added to Multi-step figures to guide students through complex processes.

Also available with Mastering Biology

Mastering™ Biology is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment product designed to improve results by helping students quickly master concepts. Students benefit from self-paced tutorials that feature immediate wrong-answer feedback and hints that emulate the office-hour experience to help keep students on track. With a wide range of interactive, engaging, and assignable activities, students are encouraged to actively learn and retain tough course concepts.

New to Mastering Biology:

• Mobile-ready Interactive Physiology 2.0 assignment options help students advance beyond memorization to a genuine understanding of physiological processes.  IP 2.0 features new graphics, quicker navigation, and more robust mobile-ready interactives for exploration.
• Evaluating Science in the Media activities challenge students to evaluate information from websites, articles, and videos.
• Everyday Biology Videos briefly explore interesting and relevant biology topics that relate to concepts that students are learning in class. These 20 videos, produced by the BBC, can be assigned in MasteringBiology with assessment questions.
• Dynamic Study Modules help students study effectively on their own by continuously assessing their activity and performance in real time. Here's how it works: students complete a set of questions with a unique answer format that also asks them to indicate their confidence level. Questions repeat until the student can answer them all correctly and confidently. Once completed, Dynamic Study Modules explain the concept using materials from the text. These are available as graded assignments prior to class, and accessible on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
• eText 2.0
  • Now available on smartphones and tablets.
  • Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media.
  • Accessible (screen-reader ready).
  • Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and night reading mode.
  • Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, bookmarking, and search.