Each chapter in Biology is comprised of basic features that serve as the pedagogical framework for the chapter. Before you begin reading the text, spend a little time looking over these pages. They provide a quick guide to the learning tools found throughout the text that have been designed to enhance your understanding of biology.

An icon has been placed throughout the text to alert students to topics that are also discussed in detail on the Essential Study Partner CD-ROM that accompanies their text.

The chapter begins with an integrated outline that numbers the major topics of the chapter and lists the concepts for each topic.

Internal summaries stress the chapter's key concepts. These appear at the ends of major sections and help students focus their study efforts on the basics.

These appear at the close of the text portion of the chapter, and they stimulate critical thinking by showing how the concepts of the chapter are related to others in the text.

The major headings are repeated in the summary because it is organized according to the major sections of the chapter. The summary helps students review the important concepts and topics discussed in each chapter.

These are a series of page-referenced study questions that follow the sequence of the chapter.

New this edition, these critical thinking questions give the student an opportunity to reason as a scientist. Detailed answers to these questions are found on the Online Learning Center.

This section consists of objective questions that allow students to test their ability to answer recall-based questions. Answers to Testing Yourself questions are given in Appendix A.

A Bioethical Issue has been added to the end of most chapters this edition. These short readings discuss a variety of controversial topics that our society continues to confront. The reading ends with appropriate questions to help students fully consider the issue and arrive at an opinion.

This section directs the student to the Online Learning Center, and informs them of the links that are available for further study of the topics discussed in that chapter.