Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Organic Chemistry
John McMurry · OpenStax · 2023
John McMurry's Organic Chemistry is renowned as the most clearly written book available for organic chemistry. In John McMurry's words, "I wrote this book because I love writing. I get great pleasure and satisfaction from taking a complicated subject, turning it around until I see it clearly from a new angle, and then explaining it in simple words." In Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition from OpenStax, McMurry continues this tradition while updating scientific discoveries, highlighting new applications, scrutinizing every piece of art, and providing example problems to assist students. Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition continues to meet the scope and sequence of a two-semester organic chemistry course that follows a functional group approach. A highlighted list of changes along with a detailed table of contents and ancillary descriptions can be found on the Instructor and Student resources sections of this page. John McMurry decided to publish Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition under an open license as a tribute to his son, Peter McMurry, who passed away from cystic fibrosis in December 2019. Please click here to learn more about Peter's legacy and to support the fight against cystic fibrosis.
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Climate Justice in Your Classroom
Alexandra Anderson-Frey; Brittany Johnson; Mikelle Nuwer; Luanne Thompson · University of Washington · 2023
As the inequitable impacts of climate change become more evident and destructive, it is essential for climate and environmental justice, as well as methods of civic engagement, to be taught at a high-level to college-level students. This book provides real examples of how professors at the University of Washington integrated these critical issues into their teachings, both in targeted lessons and as throughlines across an entire course. These samples of how environmental and climate justice have been successfully integrated into higher-level education can serve as both a record of the UW's progress towards centering JEDI at the heart of all students, and as a model for future instructors to use as they work to incorporate more aspects of justice and engagement into their own material.
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Crop Improvement
Walter Suza; Kendall Lamkey · Iowa State University Digital Press · 2023
This textbook covers basic principles in the genetic improvement of crop plants. Emphasis is placed on methods of cultivar development in self-pollinating, cross-pollinating, and asexually propagating crops. Relevant examples of crop improvement research in Africa are utilized to cover factors affecting cultivar release, multiplication, and distribution of high-quality seed.
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Rangeland Ecosystems of the Western US
Yvette Gibson · Oregon State University
Rangeland Ecosystems of the Western US conveys fundamentals of autecology and synecology and general information about the primary ecosystems covered. Its structure will provide a framework that can be applied to understand and analyze any arid shrubland, desert, or woodland savanna.
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Properties and Behavior of Soil – Online Lab Manual
Sahadat Hossain; Azijul Islam; Faria Badhon · Mavs Open Press · 2021
This project aims to provide a complete guide for the CE/AREN 3143 course (Properties and Behavior of Soil). Students will be benefitted from this online lab manual.
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Food Studies: Matter, Meaning, Movement
David Szanto; Amanda Di Battista; Irena Knezevic · eCampusOntario · 2022
Food Studies aims to help readers understand and address numerous issues within food, food culture, and food systems. These subjects transcend disciplinary boundaries and call attention to how matter, meaning, and movement produce complex and dynamic food-human realities. Chapters range from sovereignty to breastfeeding, financialization to food porn, pollination to fair trade. Embedded throughout, art, poetry, illustration, and audiovisual works offer moments to reflect on and synthesize the text-based entries. Through reading, classroom discussion, and engaging with the extensive pedagogical tools, learners and teachers alike may acquire a new sense of things foodish—along with a new sense of their own place and role within food systems themselves.
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Geology Online Lab Activities: An Open Educational Resource for Community College Students and Instructors
Rondi Davies · CUNY Academic Works · 2022
The online geology lab for community college students was developed by Dr. Rondi Davies, a faculty member at Queensborough Community College, City University New York, during two years of forced online synchronous learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This open educational resource collects many of Dr. Davies’ favorite open-access materials and supplements them with her own work within a single, cohesive laboratory manual intended for two-year, non-major college students from the New York area.
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Fizyka dla szkół wyższych
William Moebs; Samuel Ling; Jeff Sanny · OpenStax · 2017
Fizyka dla szkół wyższych. Tom 2 dopasowana jest pod względem zakresu i układu treści do typowych kursów wprowadzających z fizyki ogólnej opartych na analizie matematycznej. Podręcznik kładzie nacisk na powiązania między teorią a praktycznymi zastosowaniami, wyjaśniając zagadnienia fizyczne w ciekawy i zrozumiały sposób, lecz z zachowaniem niezbędnego rygoru matematycznego. Liczne, dobrze dobrane przykłady pokazują, jak podejść do zadania, jak wykorzystać wzory i wreszcie jak sprawdzić i uogólnić wynik.
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Surveying and Mapping
Christian Tiberius; Hans van der Marel; René Reudink; Freek van Leijen · TU Delft Open · 2021
This book provides an introduction, at academic level, into the field of surveying and mapping. The book has been compiled based on hand-outs and readers written for the third-year course Surveying and Mapping, in the bachelor program Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology. This book covers a wide range of measurement techniques, from land surveying, GPS/GNSS and remote sensing to the associated data processing, the underlying coordinate reference systems, as well as the analysis and visualization of the acquired geospatial information.
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Impact of Materials on Society
Sophia Acord; Kevin Jones; Marsha Bryant · University of Florida · 2021
This textbook supports the Impact of Materials on Society course and teaching materials, developed with the Materials Research Society. The textbook offers an exploration into materials (including ceramics, clay, concrete, glass, metals, and polymers) and the relationship with technologies and social structures. The textbook was developed by an interdisciplinary team from Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences, including anthropologists, sociologists, historians, media studies experts, Classicists, and more.
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Digging into Canadian Soils: An Introduction to Soil Science
Canadian Society of Soil Science; Maja Krzic; Fran Walley; Amanda Diochon · College of DuPage · 2021
Written entirely by members of the Canadian Society of Soil Science, "Digging into Canadian Soils: An Introduction to Soil Science" provides an introduction to the core disciplines of soil science, and introduces the concepts and vocabulary needed by students just beginning their soil science journey. The textbook provides supplementary materials that are specific to regions in Canada, or may be of specific interest beyond what might be considered introductory soil science material. Importantly, the textbook also is intended to introduce students to the Canadian System of Soil Classification by providing examples from across the length and breadth of the world’s second largest country, and to the Canadian Society of Soil Science, whose members share a common passion for soil science and are keen to share and instill this passion with students across Canada.
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Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local
Marja Bakermans · Worcester Polytechnic Institute · 2021
Anthropogenic climate change is one of the, if not the most, pressing issues of our times. The problems that it causes range across many social and environmental domains from habitat and species loss and displacement to the more human and social concerns and issues of access to water, sea level rise that affects coastal communities, to economic degradation as a result of the aforementioned and other connected issues such as increased frequency of storms, droughts, wildfires, and the like. We also know that the affects of climate change are not distributed evenly across populations- that many will and do feel the negative effects of this slow developing problem earlier and more intensely than others based on where they are located both geographically and within economic and other socio-cultural hierarchies. We also know that recently, there is a marked effort to begin to move away from simply decrying the horrors of climate change to a continued recognition of those horrors as they exist now and into the future alongside attempts to begin to come to terms with the changing climate and to rethink the ways that our social and environmental relations and communities are organized with an eye toward both adapting to these changes and mitigating further damage. There is, however, much work to be done. This book was co-authored by undergraduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute while exploring the influences of Earth systems and human systems on climate change and the communities at most risk in an interdisciplinary project-based first year course. This course attempts to bring together knowledge of the science of ecological and climate systems and their changing status with knowledge of the social and communal structures within which these systems are embedded and through which they have been influenced. The book highlights key interests and insights of current students in their quest to think through these issues and to create a better world.
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Future Energy: Opportunities & Challenges
Thomas Kerlin · The University of Tennessee Libraries · 2013
How can we produce enough sustainable energy while avoiding unacceptable environmental consequences? To evaluate the various energy options, we must understand the science of each potential energy source and energy use technology. This book presents the science in an easy-to-understand way to enable readers to make informed decisions about what is possible and practical, and to choose lifestyle options to implement in their personal lives. America and the world face daunting questions about how we produce energy and how we use it. Conservation and improved energy efficiency can help reduce energy requirements, but cannot halt the steady increase in energy consumption. An increasing world population and increasing energy appetites in emerging economies will create competition for energy resources for all nations. The possibilities for future energy production include fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal, oil sands, and oil shale), biofuels, solar, wind, hydro-energy, geothermal, and nuclear (probably fission and possibly fusion). Each of these sources has relative advantages and disadvantages. The problem is to produce enough sustainable energy while avoiding unacceptable environmental consequences, especially climate change. In order to evaluate the potential of the various energy options, one must understand the basic science that underlies each potential energy source and energy use technology. This knowledge will enable us to determine what is possible and practical and, maybe more importantly, what is impossible or impractical. Fortunately most of the pertinent science is old, well established and, for the most part, quite simple. This science provides a framework into which one can insert real data and draw conclusions. Without such quantitative assessments, claims about capabilities of the various energy options must be viewed as unverified assumptions rather than hard facts. This book presents the essential science in an easy-to-understand, yet comprehensive
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Introduction to Petrology
Elizabeth Johnson; Juhong Liu · Virginia's Academic Library Consortium (VIVA) · 2021
Learn about igneous and metamorphic rocks (and how to analyze them), the fun way! Students learn concepts and practice knowledge by conducting inquiries guided with examples based on videos and interactive diagrams.
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From Growing to Biology: Plants 1e
Gokhan Hacisalihoglu · Florida State University · 2021
Ready to find out how plants are grown and function? Take a fantastic voyage through plants. From Growing to Biology: Plants 1e brings the latest information for understanding of traditional and modern plant growing, form, and production. Topics covered in 30 chapters include concise and up-to-date ‘big picture’ infographics, student learning outcomes (SLOs), key vocabulary, assessment, as well as identification of 120 species, and more. Moreover, author Dr. G. Hacisalihoglu emphasizes on leaning concepts, binding those concepts together with visuals approach to make learning faster and more memorable. From Growing to Biology: Plants 1e is packed full of horticultural information that is ideal for both academia and industry growers. It is basic enough that if you are just getting started learning plants, you will be able to catch up. Always remember that practice makes permanent and keep going to take your learning plant bio to new levels.
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Principles of Biology: Biology 211, 212, and 213
Lisa Bartee; Walter Shriner; Catherine Creech · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2017
The Principles of Biology sequence (BI 211, 212 and 213) introduces biology as a scientific discipline for students planning to major in biology and other science disciplines. Laboratories and classroom activities introduce techniques used to study biological processes and provide opportunities for students to develop their ability to conduct research.
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BSc Optics
Sander Konijnenberg; Aurèle Adam; Paul Urbach · TU Delft Open · 2024
This book treats optics at the level of students in the later stage of their bachelor or the beginning of their master. It is assumed that the student is familiar with Maxwell’s equations. Although the book takes account of the fact that optics is part of electromagnetism, special emphasis is put on the usefulness of approximate models of optics, their hierarchy and limits of validity. Approximate models such as geometrical optics and paraxial geometrical optics are treated extensively and applied to image formation by the human eye, the microscope and the telescope. Polarisation states and how to manipulate them are studied using Jones vectors and Jones matrices. In the context of interference, the coherence of light is explained thoroughly. To understand fundamental limits of resolution which cannot be explained by geometrical optics, diffraction theory is applied to imaging. The angular spectrum method and evanescent waves are used to understand the inherent loss of information about subwavelength features during the propagation of light. The book ends with a study of the working principle of the laser.
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Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet
Thomas Murphy · eScholarship · 2021
Where is humanity going? How realistic is a future of fusion and space colonies? What constraints are imposed by physics, by resource availability, and by human psychology? Are default expectations grounded in reality? This textbook, written for a general-education audience, aims to address these questions without either the hype or the indifference typical of many books. The message throughout is that humanity faces a broad sweep of foundational problems as we inevitably transition away from fossil fuels and confront planetary limits in a host of unprecedented ways—a shift whose scale and probable rapidity offers little historical guidance. Salvaging a decent future requires keen awareness, quantitative assessment, deliberate preventive action, and—above all—recognition that prevailing assumptions about human identity and destiny have been cruelly misshapen by the profoundly unsustainable trajectory of the last 150 years. The goal is to shake off unfounded and unexamined expectations, while elucidating the relevant physics and encouraging greater facility in quantitative reasoning. After addressing limits to growth, population dynamics, uncooperative space environments, and the current fossil underpinnings of modern civilization, various sources of alternative energy are considered in detail— assessing how they stack up against each other, and which show the greatest potential. Following this is an exploration of systemic human impediments to effective and timely responses, capped by guidelines for individual adaptations resulting in reduced energy and material demands on the planet’s groaning capacity. Appendices provide refreshers on math and chemistry, as well as supplementary material of potential interest relating to cosmology, electric transportation, and an evolutionary perspective on humanity’s place in nature.
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General Biology II: Survey of Molecular Life and Genetics
Lisa Bartee; Christine Anderson · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2018
BI102: Survey of Molecular Life and Genetics is intended for one term of the introductory biology course for non-science majors taught at many two- and four-year colleges. The concepts of genetics, as they apply to the study of life, are introduced, including the principles of inheritance, genetics, and gene regulation. This textbook incorporates the mandates found in Vision and Change and focuses on the non-content aspects of biology education that are just as important. Additionally, this book explicitly teaches the general education outcomes that we have identified as important for this class. This textbook pulls together biology content resources that are accessible for our community college non-major biology students, as well as resources to provide them with explicit instruction in the quantitative literacy, communication, and information literacy general education outcomes as they relate to the biology content they are learning.
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General Biology I: Survey of Cellular Biology
Lisa Bartee; Christine Anderson · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2018
BI101: Survey of Cellular Biology is intended for one term of the introductory biology course for non-science majors taught at many two- and four-year colleges. The concepts of cellular biology, as they apply to the study of life, are introduced, including parts of a cell, metabolism, and homeostasis. This textbook incorporates the mandates found in Vision and Change and focuses on the non-content aspects of biology education that are just as important. Additionally, this book explicitly teaches the general education outcomes that we have identified as important for this class. This textbook pulls together biology content resources that are accessible for our community college non-major biology students, as well as resources to provide them with explicit instruction in the quantitative literacy, communication, and information literacy general education outcomes as they relate to the biology content they are learning. Contact the author for inquiries about quiz