Skills in Biology

School Science Review,
Volume 90, No. 333, June 2009
Reviewed by: Pauline Lowrie

Anyone who is familiar with the excellent resources from Biozone will welcome this volume in the Biology Modular Workbook series. This workbook is aimed primarily at A-level or equivalent courses, although parts of the workbook might be useful for other courses, such as the first year of undergraduate study. It could be used with the courses run by any examination board. Like all Biozone publications, it is highly accessible and makes excellent use of illustrations. The workbook gives students clear guidelines for planning and carrying out biological investigations. It shows ways of handling data and techniques required for ecological investigations. I found the pages on statistical tests particularly useful, as these are the parts of biological investigations that most students find especially difficult. Different exercises take students step-by-step through tests, such as chi-squared, regression and the t-test. However, the book also covers skills of taxonomy and laboratory skills, including making biological drawings from microscope images, analysing DNA and biochemical tests.

The workbook contains many varied student activities that could be used in a variety of ways by the teacher - as homework or supported self-study assignments, or as part of ordinary classroom teaching. The pages are perforated, so they could be removed and placed into a student's study file. The workbook is competitively priced at £6.95, which means that all the illustrations are in black and white. However, this does not affect the quality of the workbook, in my opinion.

In addition to a useful index at the end of the workbook, the first few pages include a handy glossary of key terms, a concept map, a guide to using the Internet and a list of useful resources. The workbook will be invaluable for teachers struggling to develop the skills involved in ‘How science works'. I shall certainly use this workbook with my own students.