Hello all-- =20 A lot of people were interested in the results of the informal textbook = survey, so here they are. I posted the question "What textbooks are = people using to teach general or introductory ecology?" to the ESA = Education listserv ([EMAIL PROTECTED] <blocked::mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ) = and ECOLOG before the winter holidays. I'm posting the results to both = lists. =20 Some people mentioned several textbooks, either all used together = currently or including both current and recently used texts. I counted = all books mentioned. Several people mentioned supplementing textbooks = with primary literature in general and/or specific ESA publications = (Frontiers and "History of Ecology" articles from the ESA Bulletin).=20 =20 Here is the frequency of use for each textbook mentioned: =20 26 Molles (Ecology: Concepts and Applications) 7 Townsend, Begon, and Harper (Essentials of Ecology) 6 Ricklefs (Economy of Nature) 4 Smith & Smith (Elements of Ecology) 3 Smith & Smith (Ecology and Field Biology) 1 Smith and Smith (no title) 3 Ricklefs & Miller (Ecology) 3 Krebs (Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and = Abundance) 3 Peter Stiling (Ecology: Theory and Applications) 1 Gotelli (Primer of Ecology) 1 Eric Pianka (Evolutionary Ecology) 1 Gould & Gould (BioStats Basics) 1 Rose and Mueller (Evolution and Ecology of the Organism) 1 Odum (Fundamentals of Ecology (Spanish)) 1 R Margaleff (Ecolog=EDa) 1 Campbell (ecology chapters of Biology) plus primary lit and Frontiers 1 Gurevitch, Scheiner, and Fox (Ecology of Plants) 1 books specific to regions of Indonesia (Ecology of Java, Ecology of = Sumatra, Sulawesi) 1 none (students examine the approaches taken by several different = textbooks covering same concepts)
=20 Although I didn't ask for reviews, I received quiet a few. I'll share = the overall impressions for the two textbooks I got the most comments = on, but please keep in mind that only a subset of responses included = comments. =20 More than a third of people who answered are using Molles. Several = people commented that they find that it's student-friendly. Several = people also commented that it oversimplifies some material. Two people = mentioned that they supplement it with other materials for this reason. =20 It was commented that Townsend, Begon, and Harper is a more complex = treatment of concepts (vs Molles). Two people suggested that it might be = more appropriate for a two-semester introductory course or an = upper-level course rather than a single semester introduction to = ecology. Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my question! =20 Jennifer <blocked::http://wps.aw.com/wps/media/access/Pearson_Default/1663/1703422= /login.html> =20 Jennifer Riem Education Coordinator Ecological Society of America 301.588.3873 ext. 314
