Keywords
Citation
Wadley, E. (2001), "The Biology Project", Online Information Review, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 131-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2001.25.2.131.8
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
The Biology Project, developed at the University of Arizona, is an interactive online resource for learning biology. It has been designed for biology students at university and secondary school level, but is also useful for medical students, physicians, science writers and others. This Web site has been designed for instructors who would like to assign problem scenarios for review before exams or who would like to assign an activity before students cover that topic in their laboratory. Teachers can link to specific Biology Project activities from their course home page or bookmark this site on their classroom computers.
The Web site is organised into these topics: biochemistry, cell biology (also available in Spanish), chemicals and human health, developmental biology, human biology, immunology, Mendelian genetics (also in Spanish), and molecular biology. The navigation throughout each of these topics and within the study materials is consistent and effective. For users, the intuitive nature of the site makes it enjoyable to explore and return to again and again.
The interactivity offered through the special online instructional features is invaluable. The problem sets for each category of the project are based on multiple‐choice questions. The multiple‐choice format in this project serves to create an interactive learning instrument rather than a testing instrument. Each problem set consists of a title page and four documents per problem: the question page, the correct answer page, the answer page, and the tutorial page. The tutorial document provides help for problem solving. In this section the instruction and content emphasise learning with understanding. Activities under each topic provide interactive projects to aid students in the retention of the material. Activities involve such things as simulations, digital versions of a microscope lab, molecular visualisation, modern computer graphics, role‐playing and many more.
The information covered in The Biology Project is at the level of an introductory biology course. More advanced students will appreciate the content because the materials provide a useful review. Students benefit from the real‐life applications of biology and the inclusion of up‐to‐date research findings. I have been visiting this site for several years and continue to be impressed by its organisation and effective delivery of content. The developers have made this site very interactive and a pleasure to use. What I appreciate overall is the focus on content and the excellent instructional delivery of this information.
I highly recommend The Biology Project for any biology student and/or instructor. This is a tremendous resource offering a fun and interactive learning experience.