The author team creating BIOLOGY Exploring Life? has rallied around three fundamental values:
• A biology program should keep students focused on a few key concepts per chapter instead of overwhelming them with excessive detail and terminology.
• A biology program should enable all students to explore life actively instead of limiting them to passive exposure to content.
• A biology program should be adaptable to the unique needs of teachers and students by providing a broad range of resources that can be selectively integrated into the curriculum.

We also believe that technology can help teachers bring active science to their students. And of all computer technology, the Internet is the most promising new environment for active learners. The World Wide Web shares the three main features of CD-ROMs: hypermedia, multimedia, and interactivity. But the Web adds two more qualities: it is organic and it is social—organic in the metaphorical sense that it is ever-evolving and social in the very real sense that it is a meeting place where students and teachers can collaborate, even over long distance.

In creating the Web content for EL, the authors and editors are applying what they have learned from their work on The Biology Place. With EL, we are taking our commitment to active learning to the next level by building a new Web site and textbook that are designed to work together, enabling each medium to do what it does best.

The Internet is no elixir for biology education, but there is little question that it will have a growing impact on how we teach and how students learn. Already, many science classrooms have Internet connections and we believe that access will soon approach 100% While other publishers' biology programs include supplemental resources on the Web, EL will be the first program crafted from the ground up to unite Web and textbook content in a fully integrated curriculum.

The four main components of EL are: 1) a relatively short textbook; 2) the EL Web site; 3) lab and field experiments; and 4) online and printed resources to help teachers make the program work in their classrooms.

1) The textbook. Current high school biology textbooks average about 1200 pages. In contrast, the EL textbook is 848 pages long. This shorter length is possible because of our sharp focus on a manageable number of key concepts and the placement of all boxes and special features, typically found in textbooks, to the EL Web site where they can be treated in a more engaging and interactive way.

Each chapter of EL is constructed around a few Key Concepts, which form the major sections within the chapter. The Concepts unfold in a logical progression, helping students build a strong foundation that enables them to get the most out of their lab and online explorations. For instance, one of the sample chapters "The Working Cell: Energy from Food," develops this sequence of six Concepts:

The Key Concepts

1. Sunlight powers life.
2. Food stores chemical energy.
3. ATP provides energy for cellular work.
4. Electrons "fall" from food to oxygen during cellular respiration.
5. Cellular respiration converts energy in food to energy in ATP.
6. Some cells can harvest energy without oxygen.

These six Concepts provide a common backbone for all the EL components that support this chapter.

The textbook is not the center of the EL program. This is a program for active learning, and no textbook is dynamic enough to be the centerpiece of such a curriculum. The book supports the EL program by setting a context, serving as a reference, and providing students with concepts they can apply to their lab and online experiences.

2) The Web site. Students will find the following resources for each chapter at the EL site:

1. WebQuests These are short, fun activities that engage students in the chapter subject before they have even learned the key Concepts. For example, the Biosphere Chapter opens with a short "ChesapeakeBayQuest" that invites students to explore the fascinating watershed system that makes up the Chesapeake and then examine the rich diversity of organisms found there.
2. Online Activities For each chapter concept, there is a companion Online Activity on the Web site. These Online Activities animate biological processes and promote active learning through activities such as problem solving, drag-and-drop sorting, building a structure, predicting an outcome, playing a game, competing in a challenge, graphing data, or calculating a solution. Each activity concludes with several questions that probe students' understanding of the content. Answers are available online for self-assessment.
3. Assessment In the textbook, the Chapter Reviews include a variety of question types. Each online chapter concludes with a 20 multiple-choice question assessment. Student scores are available to the instructor through the PH SuccessNet online classroom management system. Each unit of EL includes online Standardized Test Preparation that prepares students to perform their best on exams by building confidence, familiarizing them with test formats and teaching test-taking skills .
4. Features Each EL chapter includes one feature activity that allows a student to explore an interesting aspect of that chapter. These optional activities support strands which are emphasized in the National Science Education Standards. Teachers can select from a range of feature types including History of Science; Careers; and Science, Technology, & Society. Here are a few example feature activity topics: an investigation into aerobic exercise and the use of dietary supplements; a look at the role of commercial dyes in the discovery of chromosomes and cell organelles; a debate on U.S. oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness; and a profile of a scientist studying the migration of Monarch butterflies. Additionally, appropriate chapters include optional Closer Look activities that provide more in-depth exploration of a particular topic to meet diverse student needs.
5. Skills The EL Web site includes a series of tutorial modules on such crucial learning process skills as: Critical Thinking for Web Research, Math and Graphing Review, Reading a Scientific Article, Organizing Information, Studying for Standardized Tests, Scientific Writing and Communication, Conducting a Scientific Inquiry, and Units and Measurements.

3) Experiments. The EL laboratory program includes 72 labs (2 labs per chapter). All 72 labs are presented in a print Laboratory Manual (student and teacher's editions), 36 of these have Lab Online Companion activities on the EL Web site. The Lab Online Companion activities provide students with needed background and practice to make their actual lab experience more fun and rewarding. All labs can be completed in one or two lab sessions, deliver a familiar topic in an innovative manner, and offer students a diverse laboratory experience to promote an inquiry approach and spark their interest in science. Additionally, the EL laboratory program includes four Guided Research Labs. These are thoughtful, more in-depth labs for students to stretch their scientific reasoning and investigate their own questions.

4) Support for teachers. The teachers who join the BIOLOGY Exploring Life community will be pioneers on a new frontier of biology education and they will find abundant support for making the program work for their students. A comprehensive Teacher's Edition of the textbook includes National Science Education Standards/AAAS Benchmarks, demonstration ideas, methods for handling student misconceptions, answers to review questions, and helpful strategies for incorporating the program's technology components into your teaching.

A special teacher support CD includes the Prentice Hall Resource Pro ^®, Presentation Pro ^®, and Planning Express^®. The program also includes a complete Computer Test Bank in print form and on CD-ROM. The software enables you to create and print custom tests in minutes from a bank of more than 2,500 questions. There is a teacher's edition of the lab manual and the teacher's version of the Exploring Life Web site connects teacher resource ideas to each online activity. The program also includes a printed Learning Log for Online Activities that provides student worksheets to accompany each online chapter experience and a back up CD-ROM that duplicates the Web site content that does not require outside linking.

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