{"data":[{"id":20,"title":"Introduction to Physical Oceanography","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2008,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"This textbook covers physical-oceanographic processes, theories, data, and measurements, targeted at upper-division undergraduates and graduate students in oceanography, meteorology, and ocean engineering. In addition to the classical topics, the author includes discussions of heat fluxes, the role of the ocean in climate, the deep circulation, equatorial processes including El Nino, data bases used by oceanographers, the role of satellites and data from space, ship-based measurements, and the importance of vorticity in understanding oceanic flows. Students should have studied differential equations and introductory college physics, although math is de-emphasized.","contributors":[{"id":3757,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Robert","middle_name":"H.","last_name":"Stewart","location":"Texas A\u0026M University","background_text":"Robert Stewart is an Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at Texas A\u0026M University. He earned his PhD in Physical Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego."}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[],"formats":[{"id":304,"type":"PDF","url":"https://github.com/introocean/introocean-en/releases/tag/v20200229","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":4,"reviews":[{"id":348,"first_name":"Talal","last_name":"Abdulkareem","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"THE BOOK IS COMPREHENSIVE.\nIT COVERS ALL ASPECTS OF OCEANOGRAPHY.\n\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"THE BOOK IS SHOWING HIGH DEGREE OF ACCURACY.\nTHE EXAMPLES ARE EXPLAINED IN A VERY ACCURATE WAY.\nTHE BOOK IS BOTH QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ORIENTED","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"THE BOOK IS WRITTEN IN A WAY THAT COULD BE EASILY UPDATED WITH NEW PRACTICAL DATA.\nALSO IT IS RELEVANT WITH DEVELOPMENT OF OCEANOGRAPHY","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"THE BOOK IS PRESENTED IN A VERY CLEAR WAY WHICH MAKES IT EASY TO UNDERSATAND","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"THE TEXTBOOK  IS HIGHLY CONSISTENT WITH RESPECT TO THE APPLICATION OF THE TERM RELATED TO OCEANOGRAPHY,","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"THE BOOK HAS SO MANY SECTIONS , SOME OF THEM NEED TO MIXED WITH  OTHER PARTS TO GIVE BETTER WAY OF PRESENTATION ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":" BOOK IS HIGHLY ORGANIZED . AND LOGICAL WAY.\nTHE CHAPTERS ARE VERY WELL LISTED\nTHE BOOK IS WRITTEN IN A VERY CLEAR WAY SHOWING GOOD STRUCTURE","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"THE TEXT IS FREE OF SIGNGICANT ITREFFACE ISSUES","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"NO GRAMMAR ERRORS. THE BOOK IS WRITTEN IN A VERY GOOD LANGUAGE THAT CONTAINS NO GRAMMATICAL ERRORS.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"THE BOOK IS TALKING ABOUT MANY TOPICS RELATED TO THE PEOPLES LIFE .\nSO IT HAS HIGH DEGREE OF CULTURAL RELAVANCE","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"NO","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":534,"first_name":"Karen","last_name":"Carroll","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Umpqua Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is very comprehensive.  It covers a wide variety of aspects of physical oceanography, however it does not include much ocean chemistry.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text appears to be very accurate in its information, both in terms of reading content and mathematical examples.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This text contains current information and examples as of today.  Some information could become outdated in the near future, as far as numerical models and equipment for measurements are concerned.  However, this could be updated in a relatively easy manner.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This text assumes the reader has taken previous physics, math, and/or oceanography courses.  This is well-designed for an upper division undergraduate course, but not for use for an introductory oceanography course.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text was consistent throughout.  All of the chapters have the same \"voice\" and the descriptions and examples are written at an equal level of knowledge.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"On a large scale, this text was well-organized into chapters.  Within the chapters, some of the material could be grouped in a more organized manner.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Overall, this text flows well.  It pushes the reader forward and does seems organized in a logical pattern.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were not any issues with navigation of the web pages.  Images were clear.  The site for the text appears to be down for both the pdf and the web version as I write this.  Perhaps this is due to an update or error at the site's network.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice grammatical errors in this text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"From my perspective, this text is not culturally insensitive.  As this is a scientific text, there is not a lot of general cultural information.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a great text for an undergraduate upper division course.  It would need to be updated on a regular basis to stay current with the field.  I would recommend this text to someone teaching a physical oceanography course.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":3064,"first_name":"Aneesh","last_name":"Subramanian","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"CU Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is comprehensive for an undergraduate textbook. It covers a diverse set of topics in physical oceanography and goes into some detail on several topics. Some of the more recent advances in the last decade in observational oceanography as well as modeling are not updated yet. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this textbook is accurate. The figures and the supplementary material provided in the textbook have accurate information as per modern research and is error-free. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of the textbook is written and updated by the author on a regular basis. The author also catalogs the updates made in each version of the textbook. It was last updated a few years ago and hence could be updated further to include more recent research information on some topics such as meridional overturning circulation. Some of the information could become outdated in a few years as research in numerical modeling of the ocean or observational platforms advance with modern techniques. This could be updated by the author easily and presented in a similar language as currently presented in the textbook.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The content in the textbook is presented in an accessible way for undergraduate education. This textbook contains topics and text that might be more suitable for an upper level undergraduate course than an introductory course that caters to non-science majors also. Yet the author provides adequate references and context for the content that students at any level in undergraduate education can access the material easily.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, this textbook was internally consistent. All the content, equations, figures and examples are written and presented at the same level for comprehension.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The textbook overall is well organized and is comprehensive. Yet, there are many subtopics and subheadings that may not always be necessary in the larger context for a lecture on a certain topic. Hence the details of the chapters in the textbook could use some reorganization especially when it is updated to include the modern advances in modeling, observations or other topics.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Yes, the content flows well and the topics are presented in a logical manner. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The figures and images were clearly presented. Did not notice any significant interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Did not notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The textbook is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It does present topics on oceanography with a global perspective and hence caters to a wide audience.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-07-01T12:58:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-01T12:58:58.000-05:00"},{"id":4179,"first_name":"Matt","last_name":"Glazewski","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is satisfactory for an undergraduate textbook, but not for a 100-level class on oceanography; it is more appropriate for a 300 or 400-level. As the book was published in 2008, there are numerous advances and discoveries in Oceanography that have been made since the publishing date that are obviously not included, but would be worthy additions. Instructors using this book will have to supplement with additional outside material.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this textbook is very accurate, even if the writing is occasionally overly academic and dry. The included photos, graphs, and figures are complete, even if they are only in black and white. I didn't come across any errors or overt bias, as the science presented is all based on accepted peer-reviewed material.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"What is great about this textbook is that the author keeps a record of the updates made in subsequent editions. While in this specific edition in its base form there are aspects that are not as current as would be nice for a 2020 classroom. Building on that, I think that it is only a matter of time before additional information in this text becomes outdated, especially pertaining to aspects supported by advances in computer modeling and fluid dynamics.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"As mentioned above, this book is more suitable for 300 or 400 level students, as opposed to the 100  level. While the material is scientifically accurate and fairly well presented, it is, I believe, overly technical and could be confusing for someone completely new to oceanography.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is laid out well, and consistent with itself - there were no noticeable issues in this area, which made reviewing it much easier for this criterion.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Generally speaking, the book does a good job at being organized and comprehensive on all topics, even if some of the sections are overly segmented. I felt that some of the break-downs were not warranted, although I do understand why the author did it. It just made reading it more challenging for this reviewer. I don't suspect that the author will change this format in subsequent updates, but it is not overall inhibitive, just a little clunky.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized in a very logical and progressive order, and students in upper level classes shouldn't have too much trouble in seeing how previous chapters and concepts build upon each other.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I didn't notice any glaring errors, however as previously noted, the black and white images are not always the best at conveying information, especially in 2020.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"As a \"grammar cop,\" I only found minor style 'errors,' and no significant or recurring issues that would prevent or distract the reader from absorbing the material.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"As a \"hard science\" book, there is virtually no reference to culture at all. The author very clearly aimed to keep the text out of this realm altogether.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"A good textbook, overall, especially for open resource status. Not suitable for a community college audience.","created_at":"2020-06-30T13:22:22.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-30T13:22:22.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introduction-to-physical-oceanography","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:56.000-06:00"},{"id":268,"title":"Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2004,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"In this expanded new edition of Living with Earthquakes, Robert Yeats, a leading authority on earthquakes in California and the Pacific Northwest, describes the threat posed by the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a great earthquake fault which runs for hundreds of miles offshore from British Columbia to northern California. New research reveals subtle movements on the deepest part of this fault every 14-15 months — building up strain toward the next major earthquake. Combining cutting-edge research with practical safety information, Living with Earthquakes: • introduces new information about the danger from faults beneath major Northwest cities: the Seattle Fault, Tacoma Fault, and Portland Hills Fault• explores such topics as earthquake forecasting, catastrophe insurance, tsunamis, soil liquefaction, and seismic waves in Northwest lakes caused by Alaskan earthquakes• reviews earthquake preparedness and disaster response in the aftermath of the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the worst natural disaster in Washington's history• suggests actions that citizens can take to protect their families and homesAn essential guide for anyone interested in understanding earthquake science or in preparing for the next earthquake, this book is also a call to action. Vivid descriptions of recent disasters — including the great tsunami that swept down the Northwest coast in 1964, the 1993 Oregon earthquakes, and the 2001 Nisqually earthquake — underscore the urgent need for better earthquake planning and awareness.","contributors":[{"id":3047,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Robert","middle_name":"S.","last_name":"Yeats","location":"Oregon State University","background_text":"Robert S. Yeats is senior consultant for Earth Consultants International and professor emeritus in geology at Oregon State University. He is the author of Living with Earthquakes in California and co-author of The Geology of Earthquakes. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon."}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"},{"id":8,"name":"Natural Sciences","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"QH301","visible_textbooks_count":252,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/natural-sciences"}],"publishers":[{"id":396,"url":"https://open.oregonstate.education/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-03-23T15:50:55.000-05:00","name":"Oregon State University"}],"formats":[{"id":670,"type":"PDF","url":"https://open.oregonstate.education/earthquakes/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":671,"type":"Online","url":"https://open.oregonstate.education/earthquakes/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2109,"type":"eBook","url":"https://open.oregonstate.education/earthquakes/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2110,"type":"Hardcopy","url":"https://oregonstate.box.com/s/6j3cpt6a5e14v1pemiajxoagamrcvosc","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"5","textbook_reviews_count":1,"reviews":[{"id":4024,"first_name":"Taryn","last_name":"Oakley","position":"Adjunct Faculty, ESR","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers all of the main aspects of earthquakes- from science to policy to preparedness. The book includes an index, a glossary, and appendices, as well as further reading for each section. Each section is thorough, all major ideas are addressed, and the text gives a great overall introduction to earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the book is accurate. The scientific information is correct and complete.  There are some minor formatting errors (several places where the space between two words has been left out) and a few other places where words are incorrect (in the Plate Tectonics section it says that rock can flow as a solid (I think the author is trying to say that it can flow like a liquid even though it is technically a solid; in Earthquake Basics the author uses the word \"asyncline\" instead of \"syncline\"; and in the last chapter he mentions the \"Great Shake Our\", which should be the \"Great Shake Out\". However, these are all very minor mistakes and could be easily fixed. I should also note that I read the online version (not the downloaded pdf) in case that makes a difference.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I was not able to find when this text was most recently updated. The science portions all seem relevant to me, however, this book talks quite a bit about policies, and includes many references to specific scientists and politicians, and as we all know, these things are bound to change over time. I think the only way to keep this text completely relevant (in terms of the policies) would be to update it regularly, however, that is a huge time commitment. I think teachers who use this text should just expect to talk about local policy updates that they find relevant for their areas of concern.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is great- things are clear, one idea flows into the next, and it's easy to follow along. Although there are some earthquake-geology specific terms used, the author almost always explains these as he uses them so that it's easy for even non-experts to follow along. Additionally, there is a glossary included, just in case. I thought this was an easy and straightforward book to read.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent. It's obvious that the same author write the text as the same tone is used throughout. Many stories and examples are discussed during the course of the text, and many reemerge again, referenced for another reason.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity is great. It would be very easy for instructors to only assign certain sections (which might make sense because there is a lot of both science and policy in this text, and in my experience, oftentimes classes don't cover both in such detail). The sections are divided up into perfect sizes, and presented in an order that makes sense; however, I think all of these sections could be used as a stand-alone, assuming that the reader had an adequate background on the subject.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are well organized. The author first goes into the science behind earthquakes, building up from the basics of plate tectonics to more specifics of earthquakes like liquifaction and tsunamis. The material is presented so that more general principles lead into more specific principles.\r\nThe second half of the text deals with monetary issues, policies, preparedness, design principles. You would first need to have the science background in order to understand why the policy is so important.\r\nI felt that once topic simply flowed into the next- nicely done!","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Interface was mostly great. As I mentioned I was reading the online version. There were no page numbers in this version (even in the index), which does make it harder to reference things. I am not sure if there is any way around this though. Also, sometimes the figures were not in the same section of text that referenced them, so I did have to do some scrolling back and forth.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar issues that I came across.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book did a great job addressing the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest and their relationship with earthquakes. I loved the stories that were included, especially the Yurok history of Cascadia. I also appreciated the cultural references to Japan, whose subduction zone is similar to ours.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book is an overall great choice for a one-stop-shop about earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest. It does assume that the reader has some basic geology knowledge, so it should not be used in it's entirety for a first-year geology class (at least without some extra explanation), although I think that certain modules could be referenced or assigned even for an introductory level class.\r\nI also REALLY appreciate that there is a book about earthquakes specifically for this region in which I live and love.... as most of us are very interested in the place that we call home. The author gives lots of very specific examples from all over the Pacific Northwest, so teachers may want to have students focus on only certain particular events.. otherwise there are a lot of details to keep track of. \r\nI am so thankful that this book exists and that it was made available to students for free. I think it is a very useful reference!","created_at":"2020-06-20T23:47:03.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-20T23:47:03.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/living-with-earthquakes-in-the-pacific-northwest","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:09:03.000-06:00"},{"id":269,"title":"Physical Geology","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Physical Geology is a comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciation, groundwater, streams, coasts, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology and much more. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada, especially British Columbia, and also includes a chapter devoted to the geological history of western Canada. The book is a collaboration of faculty from Earth Science departments at Universities and Colleges across British Columbia and elsewhere.","contributors":[{"id":3060,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Steven","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Earle","location":"Vancouver Island University","background_text":"Steve Earle PhD was born in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, and lived in Vancouver, London (UK) and Saskatoon before moving to Nanaimo in 1992. He has no plans to leave Vancouver Island. He has a BSc in geology from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in geochemistry from Imperial College (University of London). He worked in the mineral exploration industry from 1978 to 1995, and he still does some mineral exploration consulting."}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[{"id":157,"url":"https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=52166cd1-e380-4e1b-9a6f-d891936e4749\u0026contributor=\u0026keyword=\u0026subject=","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","name":"BCcampus"}],"formats":[{"id":366,"type":"PDF","url":"https://opentextbc.ca/geology/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1711,"type":"eBook","url":"https://opentextbc.ca/geology/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":25,"reviews":[{"id":792,"first_name":"Gerald Jay","last_name":"Lennartson","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"University of North Carolina at Greensboro","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is comprehensive and does cover all topic areas typically covered in a physical geology course.  Further, the text includes a glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"From the material I have sampled I have not discovered any inaccuracies.  And discussions of the major topic areas are consistent with those typically found in the mainstream physical geology texts.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is indeed up-to-date with discussions of the most recent developments in the field, and obsolescence in the field of physical geology is not a significant issue.  Moreover, because of the structure of the text, updating it should not be challenging.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"One of the strong suits of the text is it's clarity.  It's written with an economy of words and in particular jargon.  Sentences are written in a short, to the point fashion, and that's desirable.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text consistent in terms of it's structure.  Each chapter starts off with an Introduction, which includes \"Learning Objectives,\" followed by the \"Body\" of the chapter -- which includes figures and exercises.  Each chapter concludes with a \"Summary\" and \"Questions for Review.\"","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It's very easy to pick and choose topic areas in the text, because of how the text is structures.  Later material in the text does of course, to a certain extent, build on earlier chapters -- but if one is careful to assign earlier foundational material -- it is easy to reorder the sequence of chapters (topics) presented.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization/structure/flow of the text is fine and is quite similar to that of mainstream physical geology texts.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no issues whatsoever with navigating through the text, with either the basic text or with figures and exercises.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar is correct and standard.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I found no instances of cultural insensitivity or offensive references/language, etc. in any fashion.  ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am on the whole impressed with the text.  It's clearly written and accurate.  My only negative comment has to do with the artwork.  I am used to the more \"sophisticated\" art presented in say, Pearson's geology and geography texts, so the simplicity of the art in Earle's text will take some getting used to.  But in a way the simplicity may be a plus, as it keeps things \"simple\" for the students.\n\nI am considering adopting the text for my future physical geology/geography courses.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":796,"first_name":"Michael","last_name":"Swaim","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"University of North Carolina at Greensboro","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is comparable in scope to the priced books I have and am currently using. I was very pleased to find a book I could use for my Earth Science course that touches on the same topics I use in my class that is obviously affordable to my students.\n\nChapter 1 provides a summary introduction for the rest of the book which carries the reader through the foundations of geologic principles, ending with an introduction to the Earth's place in the universe. Physical Geology covers every topic an Earth Science class would cover with the exception of specifically weather and climate. However, Chapter 19 deals with the properties of weather and climate with enough detail within the context of climate change. \n\nThe lack of a weather and climate section is understandable as the book is focused on geology- climate change being in part a byproduct of geologic work in drilling and mining, and natural processes. Any further information on weather processes may be supplemented from other open sources.  Overall, this book is very comprehensive for a semester course in earth science or physical geology.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not see any errors, inaccurate statements or evidence of bias.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Science is a relatively slow process with new ideas and discoveries filtered into textbooks over time. The book Physical Geology as it stands should have a long shelf life as far as knowledge content. Due to the layout of the chapters, the book can easily be updated as needed with new concepts with little disruption to the flow of the prose.\n\nHowever, this book uses many URLs as citation links, or links to supplementary information, including larger images. These links will need to be tested periodically to ensure the book is not broken. Though useful for a thumbprint, I tend to shy away from Wikipedia links only because anyone can edit the Wiki content.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"As an introduction to Earth Science text, the book is fairly balanced in the use of technical jargon. The basics are laid out clearly, in plain terms and the descriptions tend to ramp up introducing the students to new terminology. The technical terms are bold and clearly put into context, or defined directly in the text. A student should have no problem navigating the text. The use of end of chapter questions and exploratory experiments students may conduct on their own help drive home important concepts.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is well put together. Chapter one introduces the reader to the field of geology and the foundational theories and principles for geologic research. This sets the stage for the rest of the book. Though I don't use them in my lectures, each chapter sets out learning objectives which some students may find helpful. The chapters are broken into smaller sections and end with study questions that give students the chance review their knowledge of the topics.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book, while it is presented in a logical order as it stands, it is very easy to divide into smaller sections each with headings and subheadings to facilitate navigation. The instructor can easily rearrange the readings without losing meaning or context.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book was well organized and touched on topics I find important in my class. Where necessary, new sections built on knowledge in previous sections. Overall the book was laid out in a logical and manageable fashion for someone who wishes to use the book from cover to cover in the order it is presented.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The linked table of contents in the PDF version I am reviewing was extremely helpful in navigating the book and works well. The HTML version also contains hyperlinked table of contents. This form of navigation is helpful when one navigates away from an online PDF version only to return to the title page of the PDF.\n\nSeveral images are blurry or too small to make out clearly in the PDF version of the textbook. Clicking on an image will take the reader to an online version of the image, however this would not be possible without internet access. Some images could be enlarged to better fit the page as well. Many of the tables are formatted across multiple pages making reading difficult. Photo and illustrations labels are not consistently spaced. These are easily remedied however with sharper images. There are no issues with the text layout aside from what is pushed around by some of the images and tables which leave mostly blank pages. These are the only issues I find with the book's interface. The graphics and table layout is the only big hit this book takes.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noticeable.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I could not think of a way an earth science or geology textbook could be culturally insensitive until I realized the author did a great job mentioning native groups and the names they used for geological locations. There is no reason I can see that anyone would take offence with the content of the book.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I teach my earth science course from a historical perspective, getting across how we know as much as what we know. This book provides very adequate content on the historical reasoning behind the discoveries. While it lacks a robust weather and climate chapter, that is remedied by supplementing the text with readings from other open sources- either textbooks or government agencies. \n\nI always start my course out with a sample of astronomy, so I was pleased to see an introduction to the Earth's place in the universe at Chapter 22. The modular nature of the book  lends itself to reading out of order so I can easily work this textbook into my course.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":830,"first_name":"Jerry","last_name":"Magloughlin","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers everything one would normally look for in an Introductory Physical Geology (IPG) text, including \"ocean geology\" and Earth/Solar System (chapter 22...which in the index has the odd property of having the same guest author mentioned after every section). Some of the chapters can be rated as rather short, and thus lacking detail that other IPG texts do have, but this makes the book (conservatively) a few hundred pages shorter than many IPG books, and probably puts it closer to the shortest of the for-profit texts. ","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"There are errors and oversimplifications that are not hard to find. Chapter 1: \"A mineral is a pure substance with\na specific composition and structure, while a rock is typically a mixture of several different minerals (although a\nfew types of rock may include only one type of mineral). Examples of minerals are feldspar, quartz, mica, halite,\ncalcite, and amphibole.\" Minerals are far from \"pure substances\" (whatever that means), and feldspar, mica, and amphiboles are not minerals, they're families of minerals (some 130 amphiboles). Section 1.6, Ma and [sic] ka is defined differently than in the glossary. The definition of a mineral is an oversimplification. Olivine is described as a mineral (it's not). What's universally described as the Si-O tetrahedron is described in the book as a \"silica tetrahedron\". \"Tetrahedral\" is not the plural of tetrahedron. Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina are held up as examples of storms somehow connected to \"climate warming\" which ignores that (a) there's zero evidence connecting those particular storms to \"climate warming\", (b) geologists had long predicted New Orleans was going to be hit by a hurricane, and (c) Sandy was a large but weak storm and much of the prodigious damage was a result of building in recent decades in highly vulnerable areas. While the general flow is similar to other IPG texts, and much IS accurate, one starts to anticipate the next not-quite accurate statement, which is uncomfortable. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the text appears relevant and timely, though of course a good IPG text should mostly focus on very well-established aspects of geology that are not likely to change. The linearity of the text (text...usually straightforward figures with concise captions...more text...repeat) is similar to texts of decades past, which is a relaxing and easy-to-take-in presentation in great contrast to some of the current \"deluge of figures\" style IPG texts that few if any students can learn from. This linearity makes updating and improving easy. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written in basic, clear language. I compared it using standard reading-clarity tests (volcanology and mineralogy chapters) to most other IPG texts, and it rated among the very easiest to read, at (varying with the test) grade levels from about 9-12. The reader of this information can decide whether this is a pro or con. On the pro-side, the wording is very simple, as shown by the fewest syllables per word and letters per word of almost any other IPG books, and if one comes down on the side of making our science texts more tractable for non-science majors, this is probably a good thing. If one comes down on the side that simplifying our writing to match the decreasing reading skills and concentration skills of our students, perhaps this is a bad thing. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Around a dozen terms from the glossary were selected and looked at their presence and order within the book, especially, looking for words used before they were defined. The words I picked were used an average of 4 times (not counting the glossary), typically where first defined, again in the text, in a figure \u0026amp; caption, and often later in a secondary usage. Other than issues with incomplete or oversimplified definitions, consistency seemed adequate. ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Compared to other IPG texts, the book is less modular, i.e., the sections (20.1, 20.2, etc.) are longer. To some, this is rather nice, rather than the staccato style subdivisions of some IPG books. It's up to the instructor to decide if this is in the best interest of the students. Partly, the presence of fewer subdivisions is based on the choice of topics. There's plenty of material here to fill any normal IPG course, but it's likely that specialists will find that some of their favorite topics are not covered in their go-to chapters. E.g., chapter 20 is some 25 pages long, but there are only four subdivisions. Thus, for the instructor that likes to micromanage, it's likely going to be hard to choose sections to omit. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization is very standard for IPG texts. The only two issues are the placement of the tectonics chapter, which is important to many instructors: it's chapter 10, although there are mentions of tectonics earlier. Another issue is the placement of the Earth/solar system chapter--dead last. This is indeed one way of doing it--now that we're done discussing the Earth, let's look out at the rest of the solar system. However, a major part of the chapter is the origin of the Earth, the Big Bang, and planetary formation, which suggests it could be better placed early in the book. Two chapters some might miss are those on historical geology (although there's a chapter on the geological history of western Canada [why not expand this to western N. America?]) and scientific thinking. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"As mentioned above, there's a soothing simplicity to the PDF, simply text...figure...text. Links in the table of contents jumped quickly to the correct location in the book. All the figures I checked quickly opened (in my case, on my second monitor), but without the figure caption. Thus, the reader does need to go back and forth between the figure in one place/monitor and the caption in another place/monitor. The size and resolution of especially the photographs was not standard--some were no larger than on the PDF. However, note this--at 100% magnification on a large monitor, many figures were not at all clear UNLESS 'popped out'. It's unclear why they are not inserted larger, unless to keep the size of the PDF (over 100 MB) down. No other problems encountered. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Few grammatical errors noticed. Generally simple wording, short sentences, straightforward writing. ","cultural_rating":1,"cultural_review":"None noticed; not much of an issue in general in geology. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"As quickly evident from the preface and early in the book, based on the genesis, authors, and initial purpose of the book, there is a heavy bias toward Canada and especially B.C. This doesn't necessarily mean that, e.g., the photos were inferior, but some very familiar international examples were clearly omitted. This does make the book feel more regional. \n\nMany IPG texts pose unrealistically complex questions or tasks for students that few non-science IPG students would be interested in. One good thing about this book is that many of the exercises are not like that; they get the student to think or do something that is nicely connected to the material without being excessively demanding. Realistically, it's an accomplishment to get many students simply to read the assigned chapters; to get them to do/think a little extra is a good bonus. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":895,"first_name":"Noah","last_name":"Fay","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Pima Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is comprehensive - it thoroughly covers all the topics of a typical introductory geology class, and the index and glossary are useful.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content seems accurate.  I didn't find any serious errors in the content.  There are a few formatting oddities (esp. with figures and tables) that could be improved.  The text is a bit biased in that it's western-Canada focused (this isn't necessarily a bad thing). ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Regarding content, the text is up-to-date but should be relevant for a long time.  Given the pace of the relevant processes, geology texts can be useful for a long time.  Regarding presentation, I think this text may not be designed for long-term use as texts (and courses) become more and more digital.  This text is basically the same as any other intro geology text, that happens to freely available online.  But I think \"modern\" textbooks need to be more than a collection of words and graphics - we need the ability to navigate without scrolling through digital \"pages\", links to relevant animations, discussions by experts, interactive study-aids, youtube examples, etc., etc., etc.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The written text is clear and appropriate for the course level.  One comment about the graphics:  Make them bigger!  Many of the photos and cartoons are too small.  I'd also suggest wrapping the text around the graphics so as to make them a more integral part of the text.\n\nThe best intro geology text i've seen/used is Exploring Geology, by Reynolds et al.   The emphasis there is graphics - the text accompanies the graphics (not the other way around which is the standard).","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent from one section to another in terms of appropriateness for the audience, and presentation.  I would suggest to make the section headers (which are boldfaced) bigger - they often get somewhat visually lost stuck between graphics or big blocks of text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"There is some inherent overlap of content in this field, but the book handles that as best as you can, and could be divided up (by chapter?) without too much trouble.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book is organized well and flows from one topic to another adequately.  [Aside:  I think it's more logical to present plate tectonics as early as possible, but i understand the reasoning to do earth materials first too].  Some of the blue \"Exercises\" boxes formatting is strange and I can't figure out what they are for.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I didn't see any major problems with the interface (I am using a .pdf).  Some of the blue boxes don't align vertically with the other blue boxes.  The images and charts are too small, but are readable (but may cause accessibility issues).  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't find any grammatical errors.  There were a few places where I may have phrased things differently, but that's just based on preference.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This isn't terribly relevant to a geology text, but the it was culturally relevant (especially if you are in western Canada).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Writing and assembling a text is a major effort and I applaud the author for doing so, and making it freely available.  We need more people like to you!","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":918,"first_name":"Melinda","last_name":"Hutson","position":"Adjunct Faculy","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers all of the topics typically covered in a short introductory physical geology textbook.  Some topics are covered more thoroughly than others.  For example, plate tectonics is covered in some depth, and includes a section (10.2 - geosynclinal theory) that would be omitted from almost any other introductory textbook.  On the other hand, the topic of mass wasting mitigation would have benefited from a description of the various mitigation strategies (e.g., rock bolts, avalanche chutes) and how they work.  As a U.S.-based instructor, the focus on western Canadian geology meant that examples were less relevant to my students.  The one place this is a major problem is soil classification.  The chapter on soils of Canada makes it clear that Canada uses a different classification system from the U.S.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the book is highly accurate.  There is one unfortunate typo where the plural of tetrahedron is defined as tetrahedral.  It is correctly spelled tetrahedra everywhere else.  Almost all introductory-level books make simplifications (and oversimplifications) that can be perceived as incorrect by experts in the field, but don't have a negative impact on student learning.  For instance, it is stated more than once in chapter 22 that the abundance of material available for building a planet is a function of distance from the sun.  That's not strictly correct.  The density of the pre-solar nebula (gas+solid) drops off with distance from the sun, but the percentage of the nebula that is solid (as opposed to gas) increases with distance.  These two opposing factors mean that the largest amount of solids available for planet building occurs at Jupiter's location.  Is this important for an introductory student?  Not really.  Neither is knowing that \"amphibole\" is a mineral structure, rather than a specific mineral.  The only place that oversimplification made me unhappy was the description of the asthenosphere and D\" layers as \"partially liquid\".  I find that students imagine big pools of magma in the asthenosphere.  I prefer really soft plastic solid containing very minor amounts of dispersed melt.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of the book is up to date.  Most concepts are not likely to need any revision in the near future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in fairly simple language appropriate for a freshman level text.  As it was written for a Canadian audience, it contains spellings (e.g., metres, centre) that  would give my U.S. based students pause.  The only place this might cause problems is \"dyke: for dike.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book appears to be highly consistent in terminology and framework","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is neither more nor less modular than any in print short introductory textbook.  A chapter is more or less a self-contained unite (e.g., chapter 12 on structures, chapter 13 on streams).","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in an order similar to most introductory geology textbooks:  minerals and rocks --\u0026gt; plate tectonics --\u0026gt; earthquakes and structures --\u0026gt; surface problems, with resources and planetary geology tucked onto the end.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I downloaded the book to my Nook reader.  Many, if not most, of the illustrations were too small for me to see any detail, and were pixelated/blurry when I tried to enlarge them.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text looked fine to me.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally offensive. It is clearly meant for Canadian students rather than U.S. based students.  It was difficult to see the images (see #8), but the few people in the images all appeared to be of northern European ancestry.  Not much in the way of diversity.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The book does a nice job explaining two concepts (isostasy, plastic solids) that trip up many beginning students.  I liked the thin section views of sedimentary rocks and quartzite, and wished that similar views of igneous rocks and foliated metamorphic rocks had been included.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":934,"first_name":"Shannon","last_name":"Othus-Gault","position":"Geology and General Science Instructor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is extremely comprehensive in terms of its breadth of general geology topics that would be covered in an introductory geologic textbook. I assume, since the book is designed to address the geology of British Columbia, it covers the main geologic topics that would be important to that particular region. It does an amazing job of covering things such as minerals, rocks, and rock forming environments as they pertain to that region. The chapter on plate tectonics is also extremely informative and gives a very detailed discussion of the history of the science, which is very helpful for students to understand the changes in our understanding of Earth science and how science is a dynamic process. The only holes in the comprehensiveness of the book would be discussion of karst topography, which was very thin, and there was no section on deserts and desert processes. My assumption is that the lack of discussion of these topics is due to the fact that maybe these particular subjects are not found often in the BC area. I would have also liked to see a bit more of a discussion on relative dating, but there is enough information in the geologic dating chapter to cover the topic. Aside from those particulars, the author does a good job tying together anthropogenic issues back to geology in many of the sections which is particularly important for student's ability to identify with the subject.\n\nThere is not an index but their is a table of contents that is quite thorough and a glossary at the end. The glossary is not listed by page, however, but is listed by chapter. The author makes it very easy to find these words though as they are well highlighted in the original text of the chapters. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Physical geology is a very accurate textbook. The author has an excellent grasp of the introductory level of geology and presents it in a way that is very accessible. I was impressed at the authors ability to share relevant examples both in his particular area, British Columbia, Canada, and also from other areas of the world as needed. \n\nThere were some issues in terms of his discussion of minerals vs. mineral groups and also his discussion of magma vs. lava. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The Physical Geology textbook is very up to date in its science. There were sections that I was surprised to see in the textbook, for instance, there is a discussion of Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS) in the earthquake section of the book. Also there is great attention given to human's place in the geologic record and our effects of geologic environments. This book will age well because it shares a lot of information about human interaction with the Earth and therefore will remain very relevant as humans become more familiar with their effects on the Earth, a topic that is of particular relevance in sciences today. Also, because the textbook is ordered in sections and is very succinct in its discussion of topics it would be extremely easy to update the text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I was particularly impressed with the Physical Geology textbook in terms of clarity. The author is succinct in description and uses clear and concise language when describing scientific content. As with all science, there is jargon that is used in the text; however, when jargon is used it is quickly described in lay terms for the student and many times there are diagrams or figures that help to demystify the dialogue. As a result the textbook was extremely accessible. Also, many of the figures directly explain the content discussion and are in line with the text, so you know exactly what figure goes with what dialogue. I find many times with science textbooks there are figures, diagrams, graphs, and tables found all over the page and many times its hard to tie these figures back to the written dialogue without searching for the figure number. However, Physical Geology does not have this problem. I know exactly where to look for the figures described in the text. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Physical Geology is definitely consistent in its terminology and framework. I found that each chapter had the same formatting and, as a result, was very easy to navigate. Also, because the discussion of geologic concepts is not generally linear (for instance its really hard to understand the formation of rocks without understanding minerals and to understand both you need some understanding of plate tectonics), the textbook had a way of quickly discussing topics necessary for understanding before fully delving into the topic in its own particular chapter. For instance, in chapter 1 there is a quick synopsis of plate tectonics before chapter 10 where plate tectonics is fully discussed. This is extremely helpful for the discussion of rocks and minerals which comes in chapters 2 through 7. The author also does this with climate change, he gives students the necessary, relevant information about the topic needed in certain chapters before the topic is thoroughly discussed in its own chapter. I find that when I teach I often do the same thing, leaving breadcrumbs of information about topics when needed before delving deeply into the subject. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The framework of this book lends itself easily to modularity. Each chapter is broken down into subheadings that can be used separately from the whole of the chapter. This books could easily be used in other classes and out of specific order because it is  well organized. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Physical Geology has a structure that allows the book to be broken up and reproduced into major sections and subsections and so the actual organization of topics is not necessarily an issue for teachers, but I would not say that the order of the chapters is particularly logical. The beginning of the textbook's chapters has more logic to it, minerals, then rock and rock forming processes, but after chapter 7 the flow of content becomes a little mixed. For instance the book goes from plate tectonics, to earthquakes, to structures, to streams and floods. But again, they way that the book is assigned by the teacher makes the chapter order obsolete. \n\nWhat is very nice about the textbook is that each chapter starts with learning objectives, follows with descriptive text to explain the learning objective, then many of the subheadings end with an activity or exercise that the student can do to better grasp the content, and at the end of every chapter there is a summary of the topics discussed and questions for review. Also, each exercise and review question has answers in appendices in the back of the book. Those extra exercises and review questions makes the use of this book even more enticing. \n\nLastly, there was one chapter that I really did not understand the order of and that was the chapter on earthquakes (chapter 11). The chapter starts basically by talking about rupture surface, then aftershocks, then ETS events, and then throws in a huge discussion about where we see earthquake on plate boundaries but, almost as an afterthought, discusses things like focus, epicenter, and the waves created by earthquakes which seismologists use to measure the magnitude and intensity. In my mind those particulars are much more important for student understanding than ETS events. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface of the book is just fine. All of the images and charts seem to be in order. The only issues I saw were in the beginning of the book and were mainly issues in the formatting of lists with indentation issues in the review questions and exercises. These formatting issues distract in so much as they are noticed but I don't think they affect the readability or usability of the text. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Physical Geology is a science text and therefore pays little attention to culture, per se. There is discussion of human interaction with the Earth, and a bit about First Nations, but that's about as much as is discussed in the book. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This textbook is quite useful for teachers who would like a simple textbook with easily understood content, accessible formatting, and exercises and review questions that supplement student understanding. It's best fit would be for a 100 level, non-major class where students interaction with the geologic content is mainly surficial. The regionality of the examples would also make it necessary for teachers using the textbook to have supplemental information from their locality or notable international examples at the ready so that students can identify better with the content of the book, but most teachers already have these types of examples in their own lectures. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1269,"first_name":"Bruce","last_name":"Sherman","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Southeastern Louisiana University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text goes into enough detail on all the major Geologic subjects that it would be useful for an overview course. The book's Canada flavor is interesting, however as a U.S. educator, I would be supplementing with more U.S. examples.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Topics and their content are very accurate. I did not notice a definite bias in any of the units.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is very up to date and that helps immensely when teaching students as they are able to relate material to what they have experienced in their own lifetime. The coverage of the basic concepts make this book able to be used into the future with only minor upgrades as new material comes available.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I think the tone, terminology, and prose are wonderful. One of the hardest things to do is get students to read the material in the book. The material is concentrated and ease to read which should help students get and stay engaged.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity is great. It breaks the material into easy to read sections with lots of illustrations.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Topics are presented well. As an instructor, I know that there is no one starting place for geology. I found the splitting up of the plate tectonics material a little cumbersome, but not unusable.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I did not encounter any issues with the interface. The ability to click on images to expand them is a great help.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no grammatical issues with the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text uses lots of Canadian examples which is not a huge issue in general. However, here in the states, we would have to supplement with more localized and country specific examples. I noticed no biases with regard to race, ethnicity, or other backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This looks like a wonderful text and I would definitely consider it for adoption in my course.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1339,"first_name":"Angela","last_name":"Bee","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"George Mason University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"It is an expansive introductory physical geology text and has a quite a thorough glossary and appendices which include answers to exercises within the chapters and review questions at the end of each chapter.\nThere are only two areas I feel that could be further developed, deserts and mountain building.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and unbiased. The problems and equations are free of error. The only issue I found was formatting of some chemical formulas and numbers with exponents, but that may be just in certain versions. I reviewed using a downloadable .pdf.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and the format looks to be something that can be updated as needed. I found it refreshing there were examples from as recently as 2015, e.g. droughts in California and the New Horizons probe sent to Pluto.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language used in this textbook is approachable and uses contractions, which I found a refreshing diversion from the traditional writing style of geology texts.  The scientific terms were explained in a clear manner. Moreover, I believe most students, even those in the United States, will be able to work with the British spellings and all metric units.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The format of the book and use of terminology is consistent, including the chapter 22 written by Karla Panchuk.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each chapter has a clear list of learning objectives with sections that are logically ordered. The chapters can be used in-full or instructors can select relative sections. I found chapter 21, Geological History of Western Canada, unnecessary for my use teaching in the United States, but it could be used in institutions in Canada and other regions where a case study of Canada may be of interest.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization and flow of the textbook are logical. I do like the introduction to the rock cycle in the first chapter on rock and how it is reference again in subsequent chapters.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The book only has a few formatting issues with exponents and chemical formulas. One can click on the figures to see them larger if needed and then zoom-in further. Also, one can do a simple search to find all relevant terms within the textbook. Many of the figures are well done, including photographs the author took.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There weren't any grammatical errors that stood out when I read the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book included geological examples, most of which were from the author's study area. Some examples were given of other areas in the world.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Physical Geology by Steve Earle is a more than sufficient introductory physical geology textbook that would work well for many community colleges, universities, and online learning institutions. It is a highly economical choice and encompasses much of what is needed for the subject. I would recommend others to take a look at this open textbook as a cost-effective option for students, especially in countries where the cost of tuition makes it difficult for students to afford books. I am an adjunct instructor at a State University, and am interested in using this textbook the next time I teach physical geology lecture.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1346,"first_name":"Raymond","last_name":"Beiersdorfer","position":"Professor of Geology","institution_name":"Youngstown State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers the areas traditionally covered in an Introductory Physical Geology textbook in sufficient detail. The chapter topics and chapter order is conventional.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the content is accurate, error-free and unbiased. There are subtle points one could argue over. For example the text states “Where two plates are converging (and the convective flow is downward), one plate will be subducted (pushed down) into the mantle beneath the other.” One could argue that the words “pushed down” could lead to a misconception because, although ridge push is a known plate tectonic force, data suggests that slab pull is greater than ridge push. Another example is that the book ignores the inorganic part of the definition of a mineral. Given the numerous definitions of the word organic, it might not be a bad thing to leave it to upper division classes to discuss this.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant in that is covers the fundamentals of introductory geology. Since these fundamentals are well established, particularly at an introductory level, it will have a great deal of longevity. One pet peeve of mine is the relevance of discussing Bowen’s Reaction Series at the introductory level. Almost every textbook includes it and the students dutifully memorize it, without really understanding why. It’s not until students learn igneous petrology, especially the phase equilibria of two-component peritectic and solid solution systems that the gain a real understanding of Bowen’s Reaction Series. I fail to recognize why it should be introduced at the introductory level.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is highly readable. While the emphasis is on what we know, it does so in a “easy to read” fashion and doesn’t come across like an encyclopedia. For example, in Chapter 4, the text does a good job on the inter-relationships of magma viscosity and volatile content and their relationship with the potential explosivity of the magma.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is both internally and externally consistent. The glossary defines all the geologic terminology used in the text.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"Each chapter can be read independently but it does not appear to be readily divisible. For example, section 4.2 starts “As noted in the previous section, the types of magma produced in the various volcanic settings can differ significantly.” Later in the section it reads “First, as we’ve already discussed, felsic magmas tend to be more viscous because they have more silica, and hence more polymerization.” This is already discussed in section 3.2 “These silica chains have the important effect of making the magma more viscous (less runny), and as we’ll see in Chapter 4, magma viscosity has significant implications for volcanic eruptions.” Each chapter in the text has four to six subsections, that should be read in order, I believe they can’t easily be read independently.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book covers the areas traditionally covered in an Introductory Physical Geology textbook in a common organization. After the introduction, the book begins with earth materials: minerals; rocks; and the rock cycle. One chapter is devoted to geologic time, followed by structural/tectonic aspects of the Earth, including earthquakes. The agents of erosion are next, with the common insertion of groundwater after streams. The text concludes with independent chapters of sea floor geology, earth resources, climate change etc.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I am not aware of any interface issues. Navigation design of images and charts is a small version within the text. When reading the book on-line, clicking on the small image opens up a larger version in the same window – without the image caption. The reader uses the back arrow to go back to the textbook. The student does have the ability to open the image in a new window or tab, you allow simultaneous viewing of the image, image caption and related text. The pdf version I downloaded includes the small images. Clicking on the image in the pdf version triggers a web-browser link to the image.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors. It uses the British/Canadian spelling of words like colour, dyke and travelling.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. The text is written without mention to race, ethnicity, and background. It does mention the First Nation peoples of Canada mining obsidian as an example of historical resources exploitation.  The chapter on Climate Change doesn’t mention how the developed world contributed almost all of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases yet the developing world will suffer the impacts of these gases the most.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The textbook is Canada-centric. Given that almost all the Introductory Physical Geology textbooks published for North America are focused on the United States, this is probably a good thing. Use by faculty teaching in the United States might require some additional examples, perhaps an additional homegrown chapter or two emphasizing local examples when appropriate. Alternatively, this could be a student assignment, using the jig-saw approach.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1366,"first_name":"Luca","last_name":"Fedele","position":"Sr. Research Associate","institution_name":"Virginia Tech - Geosciences","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook covers all the material required for an introductory course in Physical Geology, to a reasonably detailed extent. At times the chapters might seem a little too schematic, lacking some at depth discussion of the topics, and might feel like good summaries of a particular subject. However I do not necessarily see this as a defect, since an instructor can add details in class, and the book still remains a good reference for the students.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I examined only a subset of the chapters, but based on what I read I did not find any errors or mistakes that could affect the usage of the book in a classroom (i.e. mislead or confuse the students). There are indeed parts where simplification is evident, but it’s nothing that an instructor could not clarify and examine in more depth in the class.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Obsolescence should not be much of a problem for a book that deals with well established principles of geology, and indeed I did not find any “old and now debunked” science in the text. Due to its open source nature, updating the book does not seem to be a problem. Again as I pointed out in other parts of this review, the role of the instructor remains important.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author makes a strong effort to adopt a clear and simple language, to highlight technical terms and to use them in context. This is as expected from an introductory text, and does not seem to require any previous knowledge of the subject. It should be easy for an instructor to help students in particular areas of geology that can be more challenging to the neophyte, and to clarify doubts referencing the textbook.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book follows a simple and consistent structure throughout, so that the reader will not be confused when going from a chapter to the following. Each chapter starts with a summary introduction, then the main body of the chapter itself, and finally a summary with review questions.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Chapters are not grouped in sections (as one can find in commercial textbooks for instance), however their order is logical (from the viewpoint of an introduction to geology). Since the book is free and modifiable, dividing it in subsections adding more bookmarks, or even reordering some chapters as needed for a class, should not be a overwhelming task.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The logical order of the chapters is similar to what can be found in commercial textbooks, with the added bonus here that everything can be reordered easily to accommodate the needs of a particular class or the teaching plans of a particular instructor.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"This is where the book falls short when compared with commercial products, however this is not to be considered as a strong criticism of the final result. Commercial companies have access to resources and time that a writer/publisher who gives away the product for free cannot afford. The final result is still good. Main problems are to be found in the visual support built into the book. The images are always too small, and if a student (or an instructor) wanted to actually print the book, it would be difficult to use them. All the images are live linked, so it is possible to access higher resolution versions, and they seem all hosted on the same site (https://opentextbc.ca), reducing the possibility that those links might become broken. In addition the book is available in an editable format (ODT), and that makes it possible to reformat the whole thing. It would take quite a while though. Moreover the bookmarks of the chapters are in the wrong section (under acknowledgments), but as I noticed before, these can be easily rearranged. All in all navigating the book is easy, at least in the PDF version I examined.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors or typos in the chapters I examined.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I confess that I have a hard time thinking of how any of these geologic topics (or geology in general) could be culturally insensitive or offensive. As per the cultural relevance of geology, well it affects the development of civilizations, so this aspect seems to be pretty straightforward to me. However an instructor would have to elaborate on this in a class, especially when dealing with Earth’s resources and their usage.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I was favorably impressed by Dr. Earle's effort to produce a free and overall robust textbook in Physical Geology. The book indeed covers all the topics that are typically presented in an introductory Physical Geology class, and also includes a chapter on the geology of Canada, a welcome addition that can be used as way to illustrate to the students how to connect all the geologic information presented in the course. I would not have any problem in adopting this as the only official textbook for my class (I teach Physical Geology), if I were teaching a face to face and relatively small class. Unfortunately I teach a fully online large (250+ students) class, and I need a textbook with more support for the students. With this I mean that it does need to have a more in depth examination of each topic, and a better high quality visual support. I can of course compensate for that, but only to a certain point. In an online asynchronous class students are supposed to face most of the work by themselves (albeit of course the instructor is always available to help), hence the support textbook has to be as exhaustive as possible. Additional material is offered in the course, along with online video lectures, but still .. an essentially self-contained textbook is – in my opinion – still necessary. The free alternative is possible, but it does require much more effort and time on the part of – already overworked – instructors. For instance commercial textbooks come with material (especially high resolution images) that the instructor of an online (but also face to face) class, can use to create lectures, eliminating the need to start completely from scratch. At the moment I would adopt the book as complementary to my official (and .. yes commercial .. textbook), so that the students could use it as reference (i.e. to review material). On the other hand .. in a face to face small, or relatively small class, there is constant contact (or at least there should be) between the teacher and the students, which should compensate for any shortcomings of the text.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1654,"first_name":"Keith","last_name":"Milam","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Ohio University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is very comprehensive, casting a wide net and providing a broad introduction to geology.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Most of the content appears to be accurate; however, there is the occasional issue.  For example, in Section 22.4, the author refers the \"Manitsoq\" [impact] crater.  To my knowledge, this structure has not been confirmed as an impact crater by demonstrating that associated rocks have experienced shock metamorphism and therefore is not listed in the Earth Impact Database.  Also, I'm a little concerned that many of the figures were taken from Wikipedia, which is not peer-reviewed by experts.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This content is mostly up-to-date and will be relevant for some time to come.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Most of the text is very clear and easy to read, although there are a few instances where the wording is a little odd (example:  Chapter 2, paragraph 3) and occasionally goes off on a tangent (ex: Section 22.3, \"Pluto's broken heart\").","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I did not notice any major consistencies","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter and section is well-organized.  Sections are relatively short in length and well delineated, making the textbook very modular.  The flow between chapters and sections worked very well.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text was well-organized and the flow between chapters and sections works very well.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I was unable to detect any negative aspects of the textbook interface.  In fact, it was very well done and devoid of any technical issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not detect any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This is a textbook about rocks, minerals, fossils, landforms, and geologic phenomena and processes, so this question isn't really relevant.  ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a well done textbook.  I would love to see this textbook broaden its base of examples beyond western Canada.  I would also suggest that future editions of this textbook rely less on figures/images from Wikipedia.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1812,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Sliko","position":"Assistant Teaching Professor","institution_name":"Penn State Harrisburg","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook covers all of the standard Earth science topics in a complete manner. There are even some additional topics such as weather and soil that don't always make it into a standard Earth Science textbook. There are also a lot of Canada-specific parts.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is accurate in the information it conveys and there is no evidence (to this reviewer) of any intent to err. Some pictures are too small and therefore may not convey the most precise points.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book mixes new analyses with older field methods and should continue to be relevant for at least the next 5-10 years. Updates should be easy to insert.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook is very clear and there is little jargon. When jargon does show up, it is never without explanation or lesson.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The textbooks consistency of structure is one of the things that appeals to me about the book. the author put a lot of time and thought into how  the themes would be connecting.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This textbook could easily be cut up into its chapters for classroom exercises, but within chapters (like say from 5.2-5.3) are not interchangeable.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is well thought out and ideas and concepts are laid out in a clear and logical fashion.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is great, however many of the figures are too small.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The textbook's grammar appears to be correct.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1929,"first_name":"Haraldur","last_name":"Karlsson","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Texas Tech University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers most of the fundamental topics that you would expect to find in a regular introductory geology course.  The book in its layout is very similar to commercial text that I have used in my classes throughout the years.  The index and glossary are easy to follow.  I have mentioned few things that I found lacking earlier.  I would also like to mention that at Chapter 7 did not mention metamorphic path nor shock metamorphism (and fault-line metamorphism) which are worth mentioning especially shock metamorphism.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"In the chapter (1) on minerals and rocks the halite structure is incorrectly displayed.  The halite structure is not composed of Na and Cl atoms but of Na cations and chlorine anions.  This is an important distinction and should be corrected.  In the same chapter the discussion on plate tectonics states that plates are pushed down.  That is not the only force - they are also pulled (or sucked) down by gravity due to their density increasing by cooling and melt extraction.  In Chapter 3 the section 3.2 the statement equating mantle plumes and hot spots is inaccurate.  The hot spot is the result of the plume not the same as the plume.  The section in Chapter 8 on isotopic dating is oversimplified and not quite accurate.  It is possible correct for initial daughters in a rock (e.g. Rb-Sr dating which is not mentioned). Also there are two U-Pb systems which give rise to the Pb-Pb which should be included.  The isotopic dating section is quite weak (e.g. no mention of how radiocarbon works etc.).","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The updating will mostly be in planetary research which with its current pace is hard for any textbook to keep up with.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is simple and clear and very readable.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Looks pretty consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The divisions into sections and subsections are fine.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book takes a standardized approach in terms of laying out the material and topics.  I would prefer (and I do) to start with the planets then do earth's interior, next seafloor, continental drift and lead up to plate tectonics. Then the chemistry and from there to minerals and then rocks and so on.  I guess its more of a systems approach.  Few if any of the books I have used in my classes do that.  I would also keep the hydrologic cycle and mass wasting with the weathering part. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I had no issues with the interface.  The problems I encountered where mostly associated with the upload speed of the book.  It would be better to not see every single section and subsection but rather have each chapter separate as such and then simply click on that link or tab to open it to sections and subsections.  The pictures are bit slow loading up so that is annoying but perhaps there is a way to have smaller versions (thumbnails) that can be expanded if necessary. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I cannot say if there are no grammatical errors.  There is clearly the typical difference in spelling between British English vs. American English.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I do not find the book offensive in any way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I don't see terms like submarine or subglacial eruptions mentioned in Chapter 4.  Also it seems odd to leave out the most common style of eruptions on Earth namely fissure eruptions.  Due to the predominance of MOR they must be the most common type of eruption on the planet.  Also pillow lava is common in subglacial eruptions not just on the seafloor.","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2620,"first_name":"Deron","last_name":"Carter","position":"Physical Sciences Faculty","institution_name":"Linn-Benton Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook covers almost all content found in a traditional physical geology textbook. I actually believe this text is more comprehensive than most introductory texts as it has stand alone chapters on Earth's interior, Geology of the Oceans, Climate Change, and Origin of the Earth and the Solar System. Many introductory texts cram these topics into other chapters and cover them with brevity. Additionally, this text has the most comprehensive coverage of the history of tectonic theory, including a discussion on geosynclinal theory, that I have seen in an introductory textbook. The text also incorporates the quantitative nature of the geosciences more than many other introductory texts.\r\n\r\nHowever, the text does lack a chapter on deserts and eolian processes that is found in many other introductory textbooks. \r\nThe table of contents and glossary are both effective, but the text lacks an index. Almost all of the examples and case studies are from western Canada. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content provided is accurate and I found no significant errors in content or grammar or spelling.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and aligns with the content one would read in other introductory textbooks. The authors do a good job of introducing the relevance of each topic in the chapter introductions. The text could be further strengthened by expanding on the importance and relevance the geosciences plays in solving Earth's great environmental challenges. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I appreciate the authors' clear and concise prose and the ability to get to the point. Each chapter begins with a clear set of of learning objectives. A clear and concise summary is provided at the end of each chapter. The authors assume the reader has little to no scientific background, and are able to incorporate aspects of chemistry and physics in a logical manner. I also like that the text does not gloss over the quantitative nature of the geosciences, and provides a variety of examples explained at an appropriate level. Each chapter has numerous embedded exercises that allow students to practice quantitative skills and test themselves on important concepts. These exercises are unique in the sense that they are varied and may appeal to a wide range of learning styles. For instance, in the Minerals chapter, one exercise has the students create paper models of silica tetrahedra and link them together, which may appeal to a kinesthetic learner.\r\n\r\nThe authors do a decent job of providing a relevant context on why the reader might want to study geosciences in the introduction to each chapter. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Terminology remains consistent throughout the book. Each chapter remains consistent template with learning objectives, text, and end-of-chapter summary.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each chapter could be assigned individually in a course without too much problem. There are a few instances when a chapter foreshadows what is coming in a later chapter. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical fashion that align with most other textbooks. Plate tectonics, the unifying theory in the geosciences, is introduced in chapter 1, and then treated to a more comprehensive discussion much later in the text. I personally like texts that introduce tectonics early on as it provides context for how minerals, rocks, mountains, etc., form. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text works great and is easily navigable online. Many of the graphics are small in the online format, but the reader has the ability to click on larger versions. The figures in the print PDF are quite small. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors in the text. ","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"Unfortunately, the text does not use many examples that are inclusive of races, ethnicity, or backgrounds. Perhaps a future update could include photos of more diverse geoscientists working in the field. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This textbook is comparable to any introductory physical geology textbook. It is more comprehensive than most, and does a good job incorporating the quantitative nature of the geosciences. It is clearly written for a Canadian audience, and most of its examples come from western Canada. The addition of photos showing a more diverse group of geoscientists would be a great improvement. ","created_at":"2019-03-05T17:33:38.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-03-05T17:33:38.000-06:00"},{"id":2776,"first_name":"Jeffrey","last_name":"Templeton","position":"Professor of Geology","institution_name":"Western Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The topics covered in “Physical Geology” by Steven Earle are broad and wide ranging.  In looking at the Table of Contents, the book includes 22 chapters that cover all of the topics one would expect in a comprehensive physical geology textbook.  In addition, the book includes chapters on climate change, geological resources, the geology of western Canada, and the Solar System.  Typically, topics like this are not given their own chapter in introductory geology textbooks but are common in broader based Earth Science books that I am familiar with.  While broad in scope, the depth of the individual chapters is somewhat limited and the text seems minimalistic at times.  The graphics are generally good and complement the text well, by adding to the depth of the content coverage.  This book would probably need to be augmented with additional materials for some topics.  However, for other topics such as structural geology, the focus on key fundamental concepts aligns with how structure is typically covered in introductory physical geology courses that I am familiar with.  The glossary is reasonably comprehensive in scope and adding the chapter number in which a given term is discussed is a useful feature.  The Appendix includes thorough answers to all of the Review Questions and Exercises throughout the book.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the content accuracy is consistent with modern understanding of geologic concepts.  My general test for topical accuracy is based on the author’s description for how magmas form in the context of subduction zones.  The descriptions of subduction zone magmatism provided in the Igneous Rocks, Volcanism, and Plate Tectonics chapters are consistent with the generally accepted model for the origin of magmas at subduction zones.  The author refers to the asthenosphere as “partially liquid”, which is technically correct, but the text would be improved by emphasizing the ductile nature of the asthenosphere. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up to date and presents topics using modern understanding of geologic concepts, such as in the discussion of subduction zone magmatism.  Another good example of contemporary concepts incorporated into the book is the discussion of episodic tremor and slip, which is particularly relevant to students living in the Pacific Northwest.  The section on measuring earthquake magnitudes includes various methods, but makes the important point that moment magnitude is now the most commonly used method.  The text also briefly discusses using p-waves for early warning systems.  The design of the textbook includes a great deal of open page space, which would make it easy to incorporate new content and update portions of the text without changing the pagination.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a manner that makes it quite accessible to college students with diverse reading comprehension skills.  As mentioned, the glossary provides a good reference for key terms.  Also, the abundant figures and graphics throughout the book greatly augment the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is highly consistent in the use of terminology and framework.  Each chapter begins with a list of learning objectives and concludes with a summary.  Exercises are included throughout each chapter, giving students an opportunity to work with the content as they encounter it in the text.  Each chapter also includes a set of Questions for Review at the end of the chapter, which provides an additional method for students work with the concepts.  As mentioned, detailed answers to Exercises and Review Questions are provided in the Appendix.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book features a high degree of modularity with minimal references to figures etc. outside of a given section.  In fact, it appears that one could select any sub-section of the book without having to worry about the text referring to a figure from another section.  One of the ways the author achieves this is by providing the same figure multiple times in the textbook, such as for an image depicting the rock cycle.  When discussed at the beginning of each chapter dealing with a given rock type or process, the author reminds the reader about the rock cycle and provides the rock cycle figure.  At first glance, I was put off by the odd pagination of this book and common occurrence of nearly entire pages of blank, white space.  But, it is now clear that this was purposefully done to increase the modularity of this book.  I could easily envision reshaping this book into the order that I teach topics in my own introductory physical geology course.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization of the book is comparable to most introductory physical geology textbooks with one striking difference.  Several of the more recently released textbooks place the chapter on plate tectonics early in the book, before mineral and rocks.  This provides a good framework for subsequent chapters.  Given the modular nature of Open Textbooks, this organization is not necessary per se, but the author delves into rather involved tectonic discussions in multiple chapters prior to covering plate tectonics in detail in Ch. 10.   The author introduces tectonics in Ch. 1, but this is limited in scope compared to the detailed tectonics discussed in the volcanism and metamorphism chapters.  I do like the way the author has ordered the chapters with Earth’s interior, followed by chapters on plate tectonics, earthquakes, and structural geology.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface was completely free of issues.  The book is available in multiple formats, including both a digital PDF and a version of the PDF that is designed for printing.  In the digital PDF, high-quality, larger format, higher resolution versions of all of the figures can be accessed by double-clicking on the figure, which opens the figure in a new web-based viewing window.  I did not encounter any navigation problems, issues with figures, or distracting display features.  The file sizes of the PDF version of the book are somewhat high, but the time needed to download the files was not obtrusive.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were encountered in reviewing/reading a significant portion of the text.  To maintain modularity, it appears that the author has adopted a writing style that is not very “leading”, with minimal transitions from one section to the next.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text does not appear to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  In one example, the author refers to a volcanic eruption 250 years ago at Tseak River Cone that killed 2000 people, according to Nisga'a oral history.  These types of examples are scant in the book, as one would expect for an introductory science textbook.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book represents my first introduction to the world of “Open Textbooks”.  At first glance, I was put off by the large amount of white space, with nearly blank pages throughout the book.  As I reviewed the book, it became clear that this is a necessary design element to enable sections of the book to be used as separate modules.  The other aspect of the book that I do not prefer is the placement of the plate tectonics chapter near the middle of the book (Ch. 10 out of 22).  I favor books that place plate tectonics squarely at the beginning of the book and use tectonics as a thematic framework to connect the various topics covered in physical geology courses, especially magmatism, volcanism, metamorphism, earthquakes, and structural geology.  However, given the modular nature of “Physical Geology\", this qualm could be overcome by reorganizing the materials to match the way an instructor approaches the course.","created_at":"2019-04-12T11:21:09.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-12T11:21:09.000-05:00"},{"id":3244,"first_name":" Adam","last_name":" Wenz","position":"Adjunct Faculty - Geology","institution_name":"TRAILS \u0026 Helena College - University of Montana","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, the level of material is appropriate for an introductory physical geology textbook.  There are some areas where the book could delve deeper.  I think the coverage of mineral resources could be expanded, especially into the background of how coal, oil, and natural gas each forms.  The same could be said for the various types of metallic ore deposits.\r\n\r\nAs a geochemist, I appreciate the presentation of basic chemical principles at the start of the minerals chapter.  This information is clearly presented at a level understandable to the reader, and it is timely, considering the content of the chapter.  Not all physical geology textbooks mention this information.  Chemical reactions are well-placed at various points in the book.\r\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not note any inaccuracies in information, and was especially impressed that all the chemical formulas and reactions were correctly represented (i.e. capitalization, names, etc.), from a geochemist’s standpoint.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The textbook makes good use of references to local geologic features that can be found in various parts of Canada (mainly western Canada).  This makes perfect sense as that is where the author is from.  However, for readers not familiar with the locales mentioned (i.e. from a country other than Canada), those references may not be as helpful.  I don’t feel this is an issue that would prevent me from using this text, as there are also many references to locales from other parts of the world.  Rather, it gives me an opportunity to supplement the text information with references that are more local to where my students are geographically.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Topics are described clearly, with many references to photos and tables in order to better convey the information.  \r\n\r\nThe text is written at an appropriate reading level.  \r\n\r\nThe glossary is quite extensive and helpful.  \r\n\r\nThe lack of an index is noted at the back of the book, but may be less important for a digital version of a text that can be more easily searched.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Chapters are set up in a very consistent framework, starting with an introduction before leading into the topics being covered.  Wording and terminology are quite consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each section within the chapter is nicely modularized, with pretty much all of the information needed being within that single section.  Figures and tables relevant to the information presented are located in such a manner that the reader doesn’t have to flip back and forth between pages when reading and referencing that information.  The few references to other sections that I noticed were relevant and necessary (i.e. they point to a section covered in an earlier chapter that presented foundational information important to the topic being discussed).  The placement of in-chapter questions at the end of modules is well executed.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The introductory information in the first chapter is well-written and timely.  It gives the reader a brief idea of some of the terminology used relating to geologic time and plate tectonics, which are important topics in some of the early chapters.  \r\nI would prefer it if the chapter dedicated to plate tectonics (Ch. 10) was earlier in the text, as I feel that information is essential when describing how the various rock types can form.  However, the topics can be covered in whatever order the instructor chooses.  \r\n\r\nI note that there is not a chapter dedicated to mountain building, which is typically present in many other introductory physical geology texts.  \r\n\r\nI also note that fault types are not covered until the geological structures chapter.  Would this information not be more relevant in the earthquakes chapter?  It may be a matter of preference, as the information does fit in both places, and I have seen it presented in similar fashion in other physical geology textbooks.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"In the print PDF version of the text, all the links visible in the digital PDF version are still present, although the links are static (not clickable).  This may be confusing to readers that try and use those links, only to find that they do not function.  For the print PDF version, perhaps those could be removed, although that would seem to be a large undertaking, it is realized.\r\n\r\nThe caption for Figure 13.2.9 (page 428) does not fit in the box around Exercise 13.2. – a minor issue, but worth noting for readability.  On page 501, the photos for Exercise 15.2 are partially cut off on the right-hand side.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors in spelling or grammar were noticed.  The text is written using British English (i.e. metre instead of meter; sulphur instead of sulfur, etc.), which I don’t see as an issue.  Other readers might be initially confused, though, if they are not familiar with such spellings of words.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Examples used in the book came from a variety of geographic locations around the world.  I didn’t see any issues here.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Please note that this review is for the print PDF version of the newer 2nd edition of this book, published in September 2019.  \r\n\r\nI feel that this book is well-written, and is definitely worth consideration for anyone looking for a textbook for their introductory physical geology course.","created_at":"2019-11-01T11:22:36.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-11-01T11:22:36.000-05:00"},{"id":3269,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Hargrave","position":"Geology Instructor","institution_name":"University of Louisiana at Lafayette","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers the usual topics from physical geology books. It has a glossary with active links in the text. However, it does not have an index.  Some of the topical sections of the book are somewhat simplified, but depth could be added as needed by the course instructor.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The textbook contained no obvious inaccuracies. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The second edition of this text includes the most relevant examples of natural disasters. It seems it would be easy to make updates as necessary.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is well written. There are a few places where a bit more information or explanation would be helpful.  The instructor could fill in where additional clarification would be needed.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter is set up in a consistent way. It is very easy to follow.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is organized well with units and subunits.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization was clear and followed what the common order in other textbooks.  As with all textbooks, the instructor can choose the order to present the material. I don't think any major issues would arise by reorganizing the topics to better fit a specific course. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Most of the book had no issues. However, some of the images were not high quality and were blurry.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book described many Canadian features.  Some instructors may need to supplement with regional examples.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think this book is more than sufficient for an open-source book.  I like the structure of each chapter: it begins with learning objectives, it has practice and application questions throughout the chapter, has a chapter summary, and review questions.  There was also virtual field trips to help show examples and reinforce concepts. The textbook could easily be used for introductory geology courses.","created_at":"2019-11-10T22:24:58.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-11-10T22:24:58.000-06:00"},{"id":3779,"first_name":"Richard","last_name":"Ashmore","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Colorado Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The second edition of this textbook covers all of the major areas of concentration seen in the most popular of current physical geology texts produced by the major publishing companies. In addition, the material presented in the textbook is covered at the level expected of in an introductory, college science course. A glossary is provided, along with hyperlinks to the chapter where each term is introduced. The hyperlinks are very helpful, and I can think of only a few other glossaries in similar texts that have a feature similar to this. The hyperlinks take you to the first page of the chapter where the term is introduced, but they do not take you to the specific page where the term is first used. If it took you to the specific page, that, it seems to me, would be much more beneficial . . . if for no other reason than because this textbook does not have an index. The fact that the textbook lacks an index was surprising to me. I really like this book! It is so much more than I expected to find when looking for an OER textbook for my geology class. But, I so really wish it had an index too! I’m sure making an index is tedious work, but this textbook (considering its length and breadth of material) would be greatly enhanced with the addition of an index. It’s like they hyperlinked the terms in the glossary to make-up for the lack of an index. That’s great, but the glossary does not come close to making-up for what a proper index could bring to this textbook.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"As far as I can tell from using the textbook, I do not see or remember finding anything glaringly incorrect with this the material presented in this textbook. I did use the textbook this semester in my class, and I also never received any negative feedback from students concerning the textbook’s accuracy.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The textbook is up-to-date on the latest understanding of the concepts presented. This is the second edition of this textbook, and it is very well referenced throughout. Although, the textbook has one formal author, it is clearly noted which geoscientists helped review the textbook before publication. The textbook is very modular based. So, it’s easy to separate the chapters from the whole PDF document. This also makes it easy to add to and/or update information at any time.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook is written at the college-level and is appropriate for an introductory course in Physical Geology.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I do see consistency throughout the text in regards to terminology used. I tell my students, \"In geology, there are often at least five different ways to say the same thing.\" This textbook handles terms and their usage very well. I didn’t see multiple terms being used interchangeably that mean, essentially, the same thing. For example, I’ve seen the terms ‘stress’ and ‘pressure’ used interchangeably within the same chapter in other textbooks. This can be confusing to students, and, I’m happy to report, I did not see situations like this in this textbook. In addition to having a glossary with hyperlinked terms, it also does not use confusing and/or obsolete terms.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The textbook is very modular. It is easy to split the different chapters into their own PDF files. I do this in my class when presenting a new chapter or two within each new module in my LMS course shell. Still, I do give students a link to the entire textbook as one PDF (it’s a very large PDF file), because the individual chapters are hyperlinked to other parts of the textbook. Hyperlinking the chapters together is beneficial in many ways. But, when you remove one chapter from the text to make it into its own small PDF file, it breaks the hyperlinks. Because of this, when I just post one chapter, I am careful to point out to students that many (most/all?) of the hyperlinks within the chapter will not work. So, I refer them to the entire textbook PDF file if they need working hyperlinks.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization is very clear and orderly. For the most part, the chapters are arrange in a very similar order to almost every other geology textbook I have used/reviewed. The only major difference is the chapter on Plate Tectonics is not the second chapter in the textbook, following the Introduction. Most physical geology textbooks have adopted the style of presenting Plate Tectonics at the beginning of their texts since it is the fundamental unifying theory of all geological processes. Still, this textbook does present the major concepts of plate tectonics in the Introduction chapter. I still present Plate Tectonics at the beginning of the semester while using this textbook. So, covering material presented in Chapter 10 at the beginning of the course before returning back to Chapter 2 is not impossible or overly inconvenient. Still, having the Plate Tectonics chapter as Chapter 2, would be nice to see in the third edition.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text size and font style used makes this textbook physically easy to read. Again, hyperlinks throughout the textbook make for easy use of and reference to figures, tables, the glossary, answers to exercise and review questions, etc.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not notice any culturally insensitive or offensive language used within the textbook. That said, it would be nice to see a segment of each chapter devoted to the work of a current, innovative scientist involved in a research related to the material presented in the chapter . . . especially focusing on research contributed by women and minorities. In the US, the geosciences are need of diversity. We need to do all we can to show our students that anyone with an interest in science can make a career out those interests, regardless of their gender, age, race, sexual orientation, etc.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a great textbook! I’m very glad it exists. I will continue using it in my classes and am looking forward to seeing future editions developed. I am especially looking forward to seeing an index for the textbook developed soon too!","created_at":"2020-04-30T19:07:06.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-04-30T19:07:06.000-05:00"},{"id":4378,"first_name":"Chiara","last_name":"Elmi","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook is a comprehensive introductory manual. It covers in good detail all the major aspects of physical geology. Where the discussion of certain topics is not extended, the instructor has the flexibility to add further information according to students’ specific needs and interests. A glossary and the reference to the chapter in which a specific term is explained are provided.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The second edition has been recently published, thus the content is up-to-date. However, the chapters including statistics could require an update in a short period of time.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is well written and the author uses accessible and clear language for science and non-science majors. Various examples, illustrations, and photos increase the clarity of information. Learning objectives are outlined at the beginning of each chapter. The colored boxes contribute to point the attention to the important concepts, provide ideas for experiments, and engage students to self-assess their learning. The summary at the end of each chapter assists the reader to focus on the most important concept covered in the chapter.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The consistency of terminology is evident throughout the textbook. Style and structure of chapters are coherent through the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter can be read independently. Instructors can reorganized some chapters to better fit with specific course learning objectives.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The textbook is well organized and easy to read. However, it could create confusion introducing briefly the theory of plate tectonic in Chapter 1 and then resuming the topic in Chapter 10. Likewise, the concept of geologic time is briefly introduced in Chapter 1 and then the author revisits in more detail the topic in Chapter 8.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text size and the font used make the book easy to read. In the PDF version, the links to external resources and table of contents are disabled. Resolution of several images should be improved, in particular the resolution of figures showing rocks and minerals.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text appears to be error-free.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. Examples are mainly focused on a variety of localities from Western Canada. Some images of localities around the world are also shown.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This review is on PDF version of the second edition published in 2019. Overall, it is a good textbook that can be considered for adoption in introductory physical geology courses.","created_at":"2020-11-11T11:59:55.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-11-11T11:59:55.000-06:00"},{"id":4403,"first_name":"Angel","last_name":"Garcia","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is organized in a logical (yet, not traditional) way.  I find useful that important concepts were in bold and linked to the glossary.  In addition, some core ideas of the chapter are organized in a way that for students (in faculty) is an easier way to find.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate.  However, the majority of the examples are rooted in Canada (where the publishers are).  For me (who investigate and use place-base education pedagogy), I find difficult to based my lectures just in the examples proposed in the book.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book introduces relevant topics with concurrent examples, besides your traditional physical geology textbook. I find appropriate the introduction of climate change (especially anthropogenic CC or Anthropocene).  Usually for this type of discussion, I use alternative sources as complementary.  Another chapter that I found relevant is # 20.  Geological resources are really topical nowadays.  I usually cover this topic from the standpoint of society needs, career choices, and future geologic record.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The narrative of the textbook accessible and clear.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Framework seems consistent through the whole book","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The structure of the book, suggest an alternative way of “chunking” material (ex. 19.3).  I find is really useful.  However, I also find that (depending the audience of the course) it could be too much material to discuss.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized in a logical (yet, not traditional) way.  Some core ideas of the chapter are organized in a way that for students (in faculty) is an easier way to find.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface proposed in this book seems adequate. Sections (some) have exercises in the middle.  This seems an interesting approach that is towards application, instead of memorization or conceptualization. In addition, the book can be accessed online (and all its components) or downloaded in PDF.  The PDF version is heavy to download, but is available.  Im consider this especially, because of the current situation that we are teaching this type of course (mostly online)","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"During this review, I did not found grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Chapters that are dedicated to Canadian geology, seems to provide Canadian cultural relevant material for Canadian students.  That is a very targeted audience.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-11-24T13:03:12.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-11-24T13:03:12.000-06:00"},{"id":5119,"first_name":"Matthew","last_name":"Clemens","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Massasoit Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers all of the subjects needed for an introductory geology course at a level of detail which is appropriate for both non-majors and students beginning their geology training. I used this as one of two primary texts in my Geology 1 class this spring and was pleasantly surprised at the coverage and depth of information.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The 2nd edition of this text appears to be up to date with the latest information on the topics discussed.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The author provides numerous examples and applications of the concepts presented in each chapter. These examples do focus primarily on Western Canada, which may be slightly less engaging for students not working in that area. This can be easily remedied with supplemental examples in lecture, however, and does not outweigh the benefits this text brings to a class.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is written in a very clear and digestible manner, which is a major boon for introductory courses. Topics are presented in an almost conversational manner with frequent figures and examples. The overall reading experience is rather engaging.  Learning objectives are clearly stated at the beginning of each chapter, which closes with a summary of information and a number of review questions. The answers to these questions are provided in the appendix, which allows them to serve as a self check for student comprehension.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter is laid out in a consistent manner, subdivided into topics as necessary. Each chapter begins with a clear introduction and clearly stated learning objectives. Exercises are presented in boxes spread throughout the text alongside the relevant subject matter, in addition to review questions at the end of every chapter. Terminology used is consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Chapters are largely self contained and can be readily assigned individually in almost any order. Within each chapter the material is further subdivided into a number of clearly marked sections dealing with a particular focus area.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book largely follows the standard order of subjects as taught in an intro course, beginning with basic principles, minerals, and the rock cycle before progressing to major processes and Earth history. Some instructors will prefer to delve into plate tectonics earlier in the course (it is presented here as chapter 10 of 22), but this can be easily done due to the modular nature of the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is easy to navigate and well laid out. I primarily used the online version of the book, not the downloadable pdf.  The online version scrolls easily through each chapter, with a navigation bar on the left side linking to subsections and other chapters. Glossary terms are defined in roll over links. As other reviewers have noted, there is no index. The web version of the book does have a search function as part of the interface, however, which can functionally replace an index.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noted no major grammatical errors during my use of the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Neither I nor my students had any complaints about the text. As mentioned before most of the examples provided focus on Western Canada, but this is in no way excludes any groups.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall I was very pleased with this textbook for my introductory level geology courses. This was my first foray into open educational resources and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. This textbook is through and informative without being so dense as to be off-putting to beginning students, which can sometimes be a hard balance to strike. It is extremely effective at what it sets out to do and I highly recommend it.","created_at":"2021-06-18T13:28:27.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-18T13:28:27.000-05:00"},{"id":5162,"first_name":"Kathryn","last_name":"Tremblay","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Bristol Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is fairly comprehensive, occasionally a bit advanced for introductory levels. Often, this text goes on to describe geological formations in the BC/ Vancouver area due to the author's location.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is highly accurate with no contextual errors. The text would benefit from one more additional proof reading. There is only bias in terms of how often the Vancouver/ BC area is referenced.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Due to the slow progress of geological time, this book is absolutely relevant and not likely to be out of date any time soon.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Some descriptions could use some further clarification, or simplification. Example, the description of how Wegener came upon his theory of continental drift is a bit wordy. The book does a great job in the breakdown of rock origins, soil layers, and groundwater.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The downloaded book is very consistent. The virtual online book has some definition errors which have confused students.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Page layouts, short subject callouts, references, and tables are laid out well. I was able to reorganize some chapters for coursework, with only a minor bit of repetition.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The book may do well to reevaluate it's organization. I reorganized by placing geological time at the end of my course structure and paired volcanism and plate tectonics.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Overall, the book interface functions well in both PDF and online formats.  Adding a navigation bar to each page of the online version would be helpful.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"One further proofreading of the text would clear up the minor stand out grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Cultural sensitivity is not pertinent to the subject matter. There are no indications that races, ethnicities, and backgrounds are viewed in any disparaging manor, as they are not discussed.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The text includes some great questions as the end of each chapter. However, the answers to each questions are also provided in the back, discouraging a student from doing the work. Creating additional question sets for each chapter may be necessary.","created_at":"2021-06-28T20:28:56.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-28T20:28:56.000-05:00"},{"id":33605,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Neser","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Virginia Tech","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook layout and content are very similar to other (costly) Earth Science textbooks. It is also quite easy to view/use the index, which can be broken down into sections to quickly find a specific part.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I reviewed a sampling of chapters and could not find any errors or biases in the text. The textbook includes all of the content that I would want to cover in my introductory Earth Science course at Virginia Tech.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the chapters are up-to-date and will not change drastically in the near-future. However, the climate change chapter (Ch. 19) could use a major update. The section on anthropogenic climate change uses graphs/data from 2015 at the latest (some from 2010, over a decade ago) and of course, we have more recent data available as of writing this review in 2021. It is not only a bit out-of-date but also lacking more detail for that chapter, seeing as it is increasing in importance over time. For that chapter, the instructor would need to provide many more up-to-date resources to fully cover the topic.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is written in an easy-to-understand way, especially for an introductory Earth Science course. The glossary is easy to use for any technical terms, and I don't think college students will have any issues understanding the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is similar to other introductory Earth Science textbooks in that each chapter begins with a quick overview and then the chapter is broken down into a few sections. Keeping the same consistent framework is important, especially for self-paced online courses like the one I am teaching. This book does a great job with consistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As mentioned above, each chapter is divided into smaller sections in this textbook. Instructors can assign only partial chapters if they want, and using an LMS like Canvas should allow you to easily break up the textbook into smaller chunks for reading assignments so that students aren't presented with huge blocks of text at a time.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This textbook follows a similar logic to most of the introductory Earth Science textbooks I have used before, starting on a smaller scale with minerals/rocks and ending on a much larger scale with climate change and the solar system. It covers many of the same topics in the same order I am used to seeing in Earth Science textbooks, although this one does include a chapter specific to the author, \"Geological History of Western Canada.\"","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This book is quite easy to navigate, but I do wish that some of the images and graphs were larger and better quality. In other online textbooks, I can click on an image/graph and it will expand to fill the computer screen while still being high-quality. With this textbook, many of the images are indeed high quality but some of them barely get larger when I click to expand, as if the image quality isn't high enough to fill the entire screen and still look good. Other than that, there really aren't any features that may distract or confuse the reader--this textbook is well-organized in that aspect.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"As far as I could tell, this textbook does not have any glaring grammatical errors (I reviewed a sampling of chapters).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"As this is a physical science topic, the author focuses on the scientific study of the Earth and does not use any culturally insensitive examples or text in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am so glad that this textbook is available in the open source library. I have been searching for an accurate and well-organized open source textbook to use in my intro to Earth Science course to help students avoid the ever-increasing cost of textbooks, especially one that most of them will likely only use for one semester (this is an Intro to Earth Science course that mainly consists of non-majors). I teach up to 600 students per semester in this course, so that is an incredible amount of money saved! \r\nI do wish there were more free resources to go along with this textbook for the instructor, but I have been teaching long enough that I can put together exercises and assessments myself. However for a newer instructor, I would likely recommend utilizing a textbook that includes online resources for instructors as well as students (yes, one that is paid for by students) before jumping straight to an open source textbook like this one where you would be largely responsible for creating all resources yourself.","created_at":"2021-12-30T12:13:36.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-12-30T12:13:36.000-06:00"},{"id":34053,"first_name":"Ryan","last_name":"Anderson","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Idaho State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text book covers the content that the most popular introductory physical geology textbooks cover in similar detail, and probably exceeds the detail in some areas without feeling over lengthy. For context, in my program we have divided our traditional physical geology course for geoscience majors and other STEM majors into two separate 200 level courses (Solid Earth, and Fluid Earth), but use a single expansive text from a traditional publisher for both courses because it covers essentially all aspects of introductory physical geology. I would rate the content of this text as being expansive enough that it could easily replace the current non-OER text we use now because it easily provides enough material for the two separate courses. There are even chapters relating to the geologic history or western Canada, which is relevant for where this book was designed to be utilized. This could easily be remixed to add place-based content for wherever this text might be used. The glossary is well organized, and has a lengthy list of defined terms. In addition to definitions for each term, next to every entry there is a link to the chapter where the term first appears in the text. There is also a link to the glossary in the table of contents, so it is easy to find and can be opened in a separate tab so that the reader can utilize the glossary while they are reading the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is accurate, and as far as I can free from major errors (none that I noticed). For the content areas I am most familiar with (Tectonics, Geologic Structures), I read in detail and note that the content in my assessment is accurate. My only complaint here would relate to a few minor points of clarity. In the Earth Sciences, probably the topic most ripe for bias would likely relate to climate change and anthropogenic effect on climate. Upon review of this section, the text offers an unbiased explanation of the data and issues at hand, and presents the consensus view among scientists about the effect humans have on climate change, as well as recent climate observations that support this view.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The material in the book seems to be up to date and incorporates our modern understanding of many concepts in Earth Science. As an example, the charts in the anthropogenic climate change section include temperature data from 2010 to 2020. And, many of these figures are from sources that are frequently updated and are in the public domain (e.g., NASA Earth Observatory figures and charts).","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In some sections, the text could use a little less technical jargon when introducing a topic, and find some more everyday examples to illustrate a concept. For example, in the Geological Structures section, there is a technical explanation of stress and strain, and the ways materials deform, which is actually well done. However, adding in illustrations or explanations of what this could look like in everyday materials a person might encounter outside of Earth materials might go a long way to help introduce a complicated topic like this. Additionally, in some areas the explanations or illustrations could be expanded just a little more without significantly increasing the length of sections or the text as a whole. For example, in this same chapter discussed above, the idea of faulting is introduced but there is a lack of detail on how we define different types of faults (dip-slip vs. strike-slip), and we can determine the difference between the two with illustration. It just mentions that there are different types of fault, and that normal faults accommodate extension, reverse faults accommodated compression, etc. Without an illustration of what a hanging wall and footwall are, and how they are defined, I could see it being very vague to the reader learning about these concepts for the very first time.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter is laid out in a consistent fashion, with a box at the beginning of every chapter outlining the learning objectives and giving a broad overview of the concept of each chapter. Chapters are divided up thematically in a way that makes logical sense, and similar to the way most physical geology textbooks are divided thematically. Additionally, each chapter is divided into smaller sections in a way that is consistent throughout the text. The tone of the writing is also consistent throughout. Figures that were created by the author are also consistent in style, which I can appreciate.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Sections within chapters are relatively short and digestible, and broken up into individual pages. Other OER physical geology textbooks I have used or skimmed over had much longer blocks of text. Using a different OER test for an intro to geology course recently, I found it difficult organize reading assignments because I had to spend a fair amount time going through the text directing students specifically which portions of a section to read and which to skip because the chapters were quite long and not broken into individual section pages. This text I can envision easily assigning and linking to the shorter sections without having to spend a lot of time micromanaging reading assignments.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of this text for the most part is similar to other comparable physical geology textbooks. And as with the other books, there is some variation in the order that topics are introduced. However, I find in my mind, and experience teaching introductory geology, that discussing the origin of the universe and Solar System, then Plate Tectonics makes the most sense because many other topics are dependent on contextual understanding of these big picture ideas (e.g., the structure and differentiation of the earth, metamorphic rocks, igneous rocks and volcanoes). This book places Plate Tectonics in the middle part of the book, and Origin of Earth and Solar System as the final chapter. That being said, it ultimately doesn’t matter that much. Given the great interface and the way the chapters and chapter sections are organized, it is very easy to organize a course in whatever order you would like, and jump around to the different chapters. Additionally, colored boxes within text are organized in consistent way that guide the reader. Black boxes at beginning of chapter lay out the learning objectives for the chapter, blue boxes within chapter sections are embedded exercises and end of chapter review questions, green boxes summarize the key take away from a chapter section, and red boxes are extended discussions to clarify topics or address and clarify common questions that a reader might have.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"One of the first things that stuck out to me when skimming through the 1st edition was that the in text images were a bit small. You had to click on them if you really want a good look at the figures. I notice in the 2nd edition, this has been fixed and the in-text images are an ideal size now that make it easy to read. At first on the desktop version, it took me a while to notice the navigation bars to move ahead to the sections, go back to the previous section, or jump to the top of the page. But once I found them, I thought their location is well implemented. The chapter links and sections within chapters are nicely organized in a dropdown menu at the top of the page, which when open is located on the left hand side of the text in a way that allow you to navigate to different sections without blocking the text. Within the text, there key words highlighted in red that you can click to show the definition of the term. Additionally, I checked how the text appears on a mobile phone and found the layout is nicely adapted to mobile. The only issue is that some in text table with a large amount of columns don’t display as nicely and you have to scroll sideways or zoom out to read all the columns.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors as far as I noticed.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not notice any sections or text that would be considered culturally insensitive or offensive. Generally, the issue of being inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds is not applicable because the majority of the text is focused on the explanation of physical processes occurring on earth.  However, in the section discussing the Geological Renaissance of the Mid-20th century, there is a lack of discussion of important pioneering women that were also instrumental (e.g., Tanya Atwater, Marie Tharp).","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2022-09-19T18:03:05.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-09-19T18:03:05.000-05:00"},{"id":34632,"first_name":"Carrie","last_name":"Wright","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"University of Southern Indiana","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook provides an adequate foundation for basic geological topics like the minerals, the rock types, surface processes and the hydrological cycle, and internal processes related to plate tectonics.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Occasional use of emotional language like \"disturbingly\" but most of the language is relatively neutral. Occasional errors related to age of the text and needing to be updated (for example, Hawaiian volcanic eruptions, European heat waves, current climate data).","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The textbook contains some outdated events and statistics including 2019 heatwaves in Europe that have been overshadowed by more recent ones. Most updates on geologic events (volcanic eruptions, other disasters) would take relatively little time. The text focuses frequently on British Columbia and Canadian geology, making it more relevant for students in those geographic areas.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Occasionally, terms are left undefined except in the Glossary (and sometimes not even there), which could lead to confusion for students. The Plate Tectonics chapter, for example, is towards the end of the textbook, although plate boundaries and related processes are discussed throughout the textbook. It would be more useful to have this chapter towards the beginning of the textbook to more clearly relate other topics to this unifying theory of Geology.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Excellent structure with learning objectives, chapters broken into clear sections, \"exercises\" relevant to various sections, and summaries and summary questions to help frame student learning and instructor teaching.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is divided into clearly titled sections that would be easy to assign or leave out of course reading assignments. Especially if the instructor and students are not in BC or Canada at all, some of the sections focused on Canada could be left out and replaced with more geographically relevant geology.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The Plate Tectonics chapter, for example, is towards the end of the textbook, although plate boundaries and related processes are discussed throughout the textbook. It would be more useful to have this chapter towards the beginning of the textbook to more clearly relate other topics to this unifying theory of Geology.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"You cannot navigate directly to chapters in the table of contents through links, but the interface is relatively free of navigation issues and images are not distorted. Some author-generated graphs and diagrams are a bit pixelated.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Use of commas is irregular.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The majority of examples are focused on British Columbia and/or Canada, but there are many examples from the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, other countries.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"A good basic geology textbook, and especially relevant if the instructor/students live in Canada or the northernmost U.S.","created_at":"2023-07-17T13:44:55.000-05:00","updated_at":"2023-07-17T13:44:55.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/physical-geology","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:29:06.000-06:00"},{"id":506,"title":"Laboratory Manual for Introductory Geology","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":"","accessibility_features":[],"description":"This textbook is a comprehensive lab manual for the core curriculum Introductory Geosciences classes with both informational content and laboratory exercises. Topics include basic laws and theories in Geology, the Earth's interior and plate tectonics, water and climate change, igneous rocks and volcanoes, and earthquakes.","contributors":[{"id":4332,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Bradley","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Deline","location":"University of West Georgia","background_text":"Bradley Deline is a professor in paleontology at the University of West Georgia. I specialize in fossil echinoderms, with a particular focus on Ordovician crinoids."},{"id":4333,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Randa","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Harris","location":"University of West Georgia","background_text":"Randa Harris is a geology professor at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA."},{"id":4334,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Karen","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Tefend","location":"University of West Georgia","background_text":"Karen Tefend is a Professor in the Geology Department at the University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA."}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[{"id":445,"url":"https://ung.edu/university-press/books/laboratory-manual-for-introductory-geology.php","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","name":"University of North Georgia Press"}],"formats":[{"id":766,"type":"PDF","url":"https://web.ung.edu/media/university-press/Laboratory%20Manual%20for%20Introductory%20Geology%20Updated%20082817.pdf?t=1510260756287","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2294,"type":"Hardcopy","url":"https://www.amazon.com/Laboratory-Manual-Introductory-Geology-Bradley/dp/1940771366/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=Laboratory+Manual+for+Introductory+Geology\u0026qid=1554993893\u0026s=gateway\u0026sr=8-8","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":5,"reviews":[{"id":1739,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Guertin","position":"Professor of Earth Science","institution_name":"Penn State Brandywine","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book was written to serve as a laboratory manual for an introductory-level physical geology course, focusing on Earth materials (rocks and minerals) and basic Earth processes (volcanoes, earthquakes, mountain formation). The content is very traditional in its coverage and connects to many of the Earth Science Literacy Principles. There is heavy use of topographic maps (scanned into the manual), Google Earth, and student-purchased rock/mineral kits to complete the multiple-choice questions and worksheets. The human connection/dimension is not addressed in the chapters, nor the relevance of why learning this foundation material is important.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The authors pull content from reliable and reputable sources, such as NOAA, USGS, and NSIDC. I do not see errors in how the content is presented. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"One of the relevance pieces I examined is the ability to use all of the materials in the PDF file. I noticed that in some areas, the ebook is customized to materials offered/available for purchase for their courses. One example is on page 144, the lab exercise for minerals. The text describes a required kit for students to purchase that is a customized kit pre-prepared. There is a risk for how long these kits can be purchased for the longevity for the identification exercises. The use of KML files and website URLs already need to be updated. I am also surprised to see that the authors do not send students to the websites of geological organizations that have a wealth of databases and supporting multimedia content to support the learning (Section 6.7 is the only place in the Climate section where there is a list of climate change sources outside of the manual).","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text for each laboratory exercise is packed with material and a short amount of space. I do caution that for students having their first introduction to geology, they may not have a full understanding of the content just from reading what is provided here. If this manual is used in conjunction with a lecture/online course that covers the content with more detail and at a slower pace, students should be able to understand and work through the exercises on their own.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The terms are used consistently but are briefly defined in the text. Although most laboratory manuals do not have a glossary, students may get frustrated not knowing the terminology from exercise to exercise, especially if an instructor decides to jump around or skip some of these laboratory sections.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The laboratory manual is divided into logical sections that connect to how a traditional introductory-level geology course/textbook would be structured (one chapter on minerals, one on igneous rocks, one on sedimentary rocks, etc.). There are headings in each section for the practice questions and the actual, graded questions. Some of the practice question sections are quite long with pages of multiple-choice questions for students.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The order of the topics for the laboratory exercises is appropriate for this manual and follows a traditional outline seen in many laboratory manuals.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"The book is one PDF file. There are several topographic maps that have been scanned and included in the book that are not at the highest resolution, which could be difficult for students to read, certainly to print off. As USGS topo maps are online, it would be helpful to link to the online database and encourage students to learn how to search and download the maps for themselves. I'm sure the authors were trying to keep all the information self-contained, as URLs can change, such as the one on page 134 (https://sos.noaa.gov/kml/) which is a broken link.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The grammar looks fine in this text.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"As this is a laboratory manual that focuses on Earth materials and resources, and does not address societal relevance or connections, there is no cultural relevance to evaluate. As the Earth Science Literacy Principles encourage the human connection to Earth materials and processes, I feel this is a missed opportunity to mention in the manual (not necessarily as a separate exercise, but as a final wrap-up perhaps at the end of each exercise). It would have been good to include geologic examples of features/processes that occur outside of the United States, having the examples more global in their scope.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"Instructors that wish to utilize this book should note that although this manual is a cost-saving option to students, the students will still be required to purchase rock \u0026amp; mineral kits to complete the laboratory exercises, as well as have access to a computer where they can download and use Google Earth with pre-existing KML files (not all iPads/tablets allow students to use the full version of Google Earth). Instructors are strongly encouraged to go through and complete each exercise before having students complete each one, then perhaps develop some additional questions for students that are higher order on Bloom's Taxonomic Scale.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2414,"first_name":"Henry","last_name":"Agbogun","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Fort Hays State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book introduces geology to readers, and provides laboratory exercises at the end of chapters to assess understanding and comprehension. Relevant topics required in introductory geology laboratory classes were covered. However, the effective utilization of this book can be limited in the absence of a computer and internet access. This text book will be very useful for students majoring in Geology, and too detailed for non-major students. While the key concepts of Earth's material and processes were adequately discussed, their applications in everyday life were not addressed sufficiently. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is well written and does not contain obvious inaccuracies to the best of my knowledge.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"This book is very relevant for Introduction to Geology Laboratory classes. However, the heavy utilization of Google Earth software for completing exercises can affect its longevity. Examples utilized in the book are mostly local, which is good for students in the United States, but limit its appeal in other parts of the world. Furthermore, the laboratory kit needed to complete exercises can restrict the utilization of the book without access to the specific kit.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"This book goes into a lot of details that may not be appealing to non-major students and may be challenging for students without some instructor overview. The quality of illustrations in the book are inconsistent. The font used for numbers are also confusing, distinction between subscripts and some normal numbers are not clear.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Terminologies used in the book are very consistent and conventional. Key terms and learning outcomes are clearly listed in the introduction section of all chapters and clearly highlighted when defined within the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is generally well arranged into chapters, with logical sequence of sections and sub sections for different topics of discussion.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The book conforms to the outline of most introduction to geology textbooks, with the exception of the chapters on Water and Climate Change. Readers should logically be taken through the basics of rock types and structures before being introduced to Water and Climate Change.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The resolution of most topographic maps included in the book are poor, this can make reading very challenging. Some images used in the book also have very poor resolution, zooming in on the PDF file to get clearer images leads to pixelation. The font style used for numbers is inappropriate as subscripts representation varies from number to number.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book contains no obvious grammatical error.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I found nothing that is culturally insensitive or offensive in the book.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I suggest the font styles for numbers should be changed in the revision of this book to bring clarity to numbers. It will also be a good idea to include more examples of structures and features other parts of the work to enhance the global appeal of the book.","created_at":"2018-11-28T14:50:40.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-28T14:50:40.000-06:00"},{"id":2561,"first_name":"Adrian","last_name":"Van Rythoven","position":"assistant professor","institution_name":"Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Coverage of topics is good. There is only lip service to the importance of geologic resources (fossil fuels, metals, minerals) to modern society. References to township and range map methods are not addressed.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"pg. 3 - the 'Tertiary' Period is an obsolete term.\r\npg. 7 - figure 1.6 has 'intrusion' misspelled.\r\nThe mineral hardness section needs review and the variability of metal hardnesses needs to be addressed.\r\nAlso, many carbonates will not effervesce to the same extent, or not at all compared to calcite.\r\nThe example of crystal form for rhombohedral on page 148 appears to be a cleavage fragment and not a form. This may also be the case for the octahedron. The differences between habit and cleavage are important in a class like this and a manual must explicitly distinguish them.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Dependence on software, even open-source and common software such as Google Earth, may limit the lifetime of exercises such as those found in section 2.6 and so forth. However, utilization of GIS software is a good thing to introduce in a physical geology 100-level course. Also, the use of 'mineral kits' is very specific and collections vary widely across institutions.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Capitalization of geologic terms that are not proper nouns (e.g. mineral names) under certain formats are misleading. A large proportion of first year students still have difficulty with capitalization rules that are not adequately covered by pre-college schooling. The instances of capitalization for effect are also inconsistent (see bold terms pg. 14-15), further adding to the confusion. Some of these erroneously capitalized terms are also not bolded (e.g., 'Noble Gas' on pg. 16).","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Inconsistent formatting and editorial oversight across sections.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is a very modular manual. It would appear to be easily adapted for the particular interests of different 100-level geology courses.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"There are sections, such as Climate Change, or Flooding, that appear to be awkwardly 'shoehorned' into this Physical Geology manual/text. They are important topics to be sure, but not ones necessary for a Physical Geology course and do not fit well with the neighboring content.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Many of the figures are low-resolution and the captions could be better formatted with clear borders and so on.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"As covered in under clarity and accuracy, there are numerous grammatical errors and some misspellings. Geological terms capitalized as if they were proper nouns (they are not) is a common type of error in the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The case studies of this book focus on the lower 48 US states to the exclusion of other regions that may provide better case studies of the topic discussed. Even in the USA, first-generation American students may appreciate coming across a case study from their region of origin.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Work on improving the 'own work' photos with consistent background, quality lighting, and no fingers caught in the frame.\r\n\r\nIt's a good draft for a free 100-level geology lab manual.","created_at":"2019-02-09T10:51:02.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-02-09T10:51:02.000-06:00"},{"id":3436,"first_name":"Roza","last_name":"Janine","position":"Geology Instructor","institution_name":"Umpqua Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":" This lab manual is very thorough; the Earth's Interior and Plate Tectonics labs cover the topics from a variety of angles. They introduced the concepts of True and Apparent Polar Wander, which helped reinforce the concepts, however the Plate Tectonics lab could have been improved by covering the magnetic striping of the seafloor.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":" Content is accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":" The lab manual effectively uses Google Earth to supplement the lab exercises. It also includes a lab on Climate Change, which is very relevant and not standard in older lab manuals.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":" The text is clear.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":" The text is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":" The labs are each divided into subsections, so it is very easy to assign small parts at a time.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":" The topics are presented in a clear, logical order.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":" There were no interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":" The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":" The text is not culturally offensive or insensitive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-12-28T15:10:52.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-12-28T15:10:52.000-06:00"},{"id":4817,"first_name":"Meghann","last_name":"Decker","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Hawaii Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Covered most of the main topics in geology and uses google earth and modern satellite imagery which I like, but the content could use some updating. For example, when explaining hot spots (pg 69) and eruptions (pg 205) the author states Hawaii cannot experience explosive eruptions. Kilauea has had a history of explosive eruptions. Yes, shield volcanoes are not as explosive as composite ones, but this could be explained in greater detail even at an introductory level.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Occasional typos, periodic incorrect capitalization. The text could use some updating to correct the errors but the content was acceptable.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is mostly up-to-date. Manual requires online access as many questions utilize Google Earth and a customized mineral kit. This may present issues based on availability in the future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Bold terms outline important key terms or concepts.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The lab manual is consistent in formatting each chapter similarly. Conventional need-to-know terms appear in Bold at the beginning of each lab. Can easily assign sections as needed.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Very module lab manual. Chapters can easily be restructured however, there is no glossary or index so students may not know key terms if used out of order.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Lacking glossary and index. Must rely on Ctrl +F to search for terms.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Many images and scanned maps could use improvement. Often blurry or not clear or could use a much better example (e.g., olivine; pg 142).","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical errors and typos occur occasionally.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Predominantly uses geologic examples within the US. Could expand this for a larger global audience.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Good OER resource for a lab manual.","created_at":"2021-04-22T13:55:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-04-22T13:55:45.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/laboratory-manual-for-introductory-geology","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:31:42.000-06:00"},{"id":666,"title":"Advanced Water Mathematics","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2019,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Learning and Understanding Mathematical Concepts in the Areas of Water Distribution and Water Treatment","contributors":[{"id":4784,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Michael","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Alvord","location":null,"background_text":"Michael Alvord"},{"id":4785,"contribution":"Editor","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Regina","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Blasberg","location":null,"background_text":"Regina Blasberg"}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[{"id":644,"url":"https://www.canyons.edu/academics/onlineeducation/ztc/textbooks.php","year":null,"created_at":"2019-02-03T14:24:08.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-11-18T09:17:53.000-06:00","name":"College of the Canyons"}],"formats":[{"id":1147,"type":"PDF","url":"https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QJ8P1BJIbMmfPX4lUneGa-Dqxtry56qg","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":null,"textbook_reviews_count":0,"reviews":[],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/advanced-waterworks-mathematics","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:14:48.000-06:00"},{"id":689,"title":"The Delft Sand, Clay \u0026 Rock Cutting Model","edition_statement":"3rd edition","volume":null,"copyright_year":2019,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"In dredging, trenching, (deep sea) mining, drilling, tunnel boring and many other applications, sand, clay or rock has to be excavated. This book gives an overview of cutting theories. It starts with a generic model, which is valid for all types of soil (sand, clay and rock) after which the specifics of dry sand, water saturated sand, clay, atmospheric rock and hyperbaric rock are covered. For each soil type small blade angles and large blade angles, resulting in a wedge in front of the blade, are discussed. For each case considered, the equations/model for the cutting forces, power and specific energy are given. The models are verified with laboratory research, mainly at the Delft University of Technology, but also with data from literature.","contributors":[{"id":4825,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":"Dr.ir.","first_name":"Sape","middle_name":"A.","last_name":"Miedema","location":null,"background_text":"Dr.ir. S.A.Miedema teaches (or has taught) courses on soil mechanics and soil cutting, pumps and slurry transport, hopper sedimentation and erosion, mechatronics, applied thermodynamics related to energy, drive system design principles, mooring systems, hydromechanics and mathematics. He is (or has been) also teaching at Hohai University, Changzhou, China, at Cantho University, Cantho Vietnam, at Petrovietnam University, Baria, Vietnam and different dredging companies in the Netherlands and the USA.His research focuses on the mathematical modeling of dredging systems like, cutter suction dredges, hopper dredges, clamshell dredges, backhoe dredges and trenchers. The fundamental part of the research focuses on the cutting processes of sand, clay and rock, sedimentation processes in Trailing Suction Hopper Dredges and the associated erosion processes. Lately the research focuses on hyperbaric rock cutting in relation with deep sea mining and on hydraulic transport of solids/liquid settling slurries."}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[{"id":666,"url":"https://textbooks.open.tudelft.nl/index.php/textbooks/catalog/book/16","year":null,"created_at":"2019-03-17T12:49:18.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-17T12:49:18.000-05:00","name":"TU Delft Open"}],"formats":[{"id":1188,"type":"PDF","url":"https://doi.org/10.5074/t.2019.001","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":null,"textbook_reviews_count":0,"reviews":[],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/the-delft-sand-clay-rock-cutting-model","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:16:01.000-06:00"},{"id":690,"title":"Slurry Transport: Fundamentals, A Historical Overview \u0026 The Delft Head Loss \u0026 Limit Deposit Velocity Framework","edition_statement":"2nd Edition","volume":null,"copyright_year":2019,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"In dredging, trenching, (deep sea) mining, drilling, tunnel boring and many other applications, sand, clay or rock has to be excavated.The book covers horizontal transport of settling slurries (Newtonian slurries). Non-settling (non-Newtonian) slurries are not covered.","contributors":[{"id":4826,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Sape","middle_name":"A.","last_name":"Miedema","location":null,"background_text":"Dr.ir. S.A.Miedema teaches (or has taught) courses on soil mechanics and soil cutting, pumps and slurry transport, hopper sedimentation and erosion, mechatronics, applied thermodynamics related to energy, drive system design principles, mooring systems, hydromechanics and mathematics. He is (or has been) also teaching at Hohai University, Changzhou, China, at Cantho University, Cantho Vietnam, at Petrovietnam University, Baria, Vietnam and different dredging companies in the Netherlands and the USA.His research focuses on the mathematical modeling of dredging systems like, cutter suction dredges, hopper dredges, clamshell dredges, backhoe dredges and trenchers. The fundamental part of the research focuses on the cutting processes of sand, clay and rock, sedimentation processes in Trailing Suction Hopper Dredges and the associated erosion processes. Lately the research focuses on hyperbaric rock cutting in relation with deep sea mining and on hydraulic transport of solids/liquid settling slurries."}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[{"id":667,"url":"https://textbooks.open.tudelft.nl/index.php/textbooks/catalog/book/17","year":null,"created_at":"2019-03-17T13:07:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-17T13:07:00.000-05:00","name":"TU Delft Open"}],"formats":[{"id":1189,"type":"PDF","url":"https://textbooks.open.tudelft.nl/textbooks/catalog/book/17","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":null,"textbook_reviews_count":0,"reviews":[],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/slurry-transport-fundamentals-a-historical-overview-the-delft-head-loss-limit-deposit-velocity-framework-2nd-edition","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:16:04.000-06:00"},{"id":648,"title":"American Environmental History","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2019,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"For too long the environment has been considered little more than a neutral background to history. This text surveys findings of the new field of Environmental History about how the environment of the Americas influenced the actions of people here and how people affected their environments, from prehistory to the present.","contributors":[{"id":4754,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Dan","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Allosso","location":null,"background_text":"Dan Allosso"}],"subjects":[{"id":30,"name":"History","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"D20","visible_textbooks_count":52,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/history"},{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"}],"publishers":[{"id":626,"url":"https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-12-14T16:58:56.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-08-30T13:39:38.000-05:00","name":"Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project"}],"formats":[{"id":1114,"type":"Online","url":"https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/americanenvironmentalhistory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1115,"type":"PDF","url":"https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/americanenvironmentalhistory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1606,"type":"eBook","url":"https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/americanenvironmentalhistory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2040,"type":"XML","url":"https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/americanenvironmentalhistory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2041,"type":"ODF","url":"https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/americanenvironmentalhistory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":6,"reviews":[{"id":2654,"first_name":"Thomas","last_name":"Klinger","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"American Environmental History is an interesting amalgam of physical and cultural anthropology, technological history, political history, and economics.  It works very well as a history of North America through a lens of environmental concerns.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The diverse areas covered are clearly based upon the most recent understandings of phenomena affecting environmental concerns.  I only wish that each area was developed more fully and deeply.  This would work very, very well as a text for a walk in class.  I think students with some environmental science under their belts would be wishing for more detailed development.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because of this texts broad reaching approach, it could be used to support a variety of different approaches to environmental sciences.  It should remain useful for some time into the future, and will be easily amended as new insights and information are found.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author's style is wonderfully narrative.  Each chapter unfolds like a story which will be very easily accessible to readers.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Parallel construction is used in each of the chapters.  Each area is developed to a similar degree and extent.  I think readers will find comfort in the familiar framework used throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter stands on its own as a mini-text.  I could see myself using various chapters from this book in a variety of different classes, simply assigning a relevant chapter as a freestanding reading.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"History was kind to the author, different forces shaped environmental concerns at different times.  The author did a very nice job of detailing what factors were important when, and how each impacts environmental concerns today.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text was very easy to navigate.  Links were responsive and easy to use.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The writing was not only correct, but compelling and engaging.  Very nicely written!","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There is a tendency in many texts to treat Environmental Science through white western eyes.  From the very beginning, the authors clearly made every effort to be inclusive and include different cultural narratives.  The clear cultural inclusiveness, particularly in the early chapters, is one of the books strengths.   ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I could see building a highly effective course around this text.  I could also see using portions of this text as supporting material in several of our existing Environmental Science courses.  American Environmental History brings several important themes (history, geography, economics, technology, etc.) together under one roof for a very versatile text and interesting synthesis.","created_at":"2019-03-11T17:13:51.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-11T17:13:51.000-05:00"},{"id":3317,"first_name":"Nancy","last_name":"Germano","position":"Instructor of History","institution_name":"Butler University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This much-needed environmental history textbook connects pivotal themes in North American history to the human relationship with nature, beginning with pre-history and continuing into the twenty-first century.  It centers North American history within the larger Americas offering undergraduates a wider view of U.S. history.  Fundamentally, it is a U.S. history textbook with a focus on economic concerns, topics that lend themselves well to environmental linkages.  As is always the case with projects like this, not all possible connections between the environment and U.S. history are included (e.g., wars, health, politics).  The chapters are uneven in length, as some topics are covered with more breadth than others.  Neither an index nor glossary are included, which would have been appreciated.  An example syllabus using the textbook is included as an appendix.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this survey textbook is accurate.  Environmental history is typically liberal leaning, and to some extent, this position comes through in the text.  For example, the chapter on “Limits to Growth?” discusses the economic and political explanations for the U.S. failure to cease using fossil fuels for its energy needs.  At the same time, the chapter presents both sides of the climate change argument and gives even-handed treatment of theories on population growth.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content extends into the twenty-first century, and I expect the issues concerning climate change, agribusiness, and food choices will remain relevant for the foreseeable future.  In any event, these chapters easily could be updated.  The lists of suggested further readings at the end of each chapter also could be updated when new scholarship becomes available.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written with an affable tone that undergraduates will appreciate.  It explains and develops ideas presented.  Each chapter includes graphs, imbedded videos, and images to further develop and clarify the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framing deployed is consistently used throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook is modular and permits assigning one chapter or section of a chapter without losing its integrity.  Although it frequently reminds the reader of previously discussed material, the text reiterates the referenced point.  I believe that I could assign the textbook’s later chapters when teaching post-Civil War history without creating confusion for students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The textbook is simultaneously organized chronologically and thematically into fifteen chapters.  Each chapter is divided into topical sections with headers and is introduced with a brief statement of what it’s about.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The online version looks and functions very well.  Each chapter includes imbedded videos, map animations, audio lectures, and chapter readings that enhance the reader’s experience.  The PDF interface, however, is not as user-friendly.  The PDF version lacks a cover page, does not include links to chapters, includes too many blank spaces, cuts off images, and lacks access to imbedded videos.  I would recommend students use the online text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text is well written and generally error free.  However, I noticed several “typographical” errors (e.g., “the” instead of “they,” missing words, repeated words, sentences starting with numbers not spelled out) in the text that were distracting for me, the first occurring in the second sentence of the introduction.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is selectively culturally sensitive and inclusive.  For example, it includes American Indian successes and contributions and European immigrants’ economic importance.  Two noticeable underrepresented stories, however, are African Americans’ and women’s contributions to U.S. history.  The chapter on “Colonial North America” discusses the economic reasons for slave labor.  This, along with a short paragraph about segregation, Jim Crow laws, migration, and suburban housing restrictions in “City Life,” is the extent of African American appearances.  The chapter on “Commons, Mills, Corporations” discusses women who worked in the mills, and the chapter on “City Life” discusses Jane Addams’s work with settlement houses.  Apart from these two specific inclusions, women’s history remains on the periphery.  Even Rachel Carson does not make the pages of this environmental history textbook.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a welcome textbook that offers an accessible, readable entrée to North American environmental history for undergraduate students.  It can serve as a stand-alone textbook.  Although if chapters or sections are supplemented with readings from other sources with a more diverse perspective and/or coverage of additional topics (e.g., war, public health, environmental politics, etc.), it can serve as a solid base for delving into U.S. citizens’ relationship with their environment.","created_at":"2019-11-25T09:08:37.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-11-25T09:08:37.000-06:00"},{"id":3804,"first_name":"George","last_name":"Gerdow","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Northeastern Illinois University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I am impressed by how much of the history of the Americas is covered. I am used to all too many U.S. History titles giving short shrift to the role First Peoples played, but in this effort they get their due. I am also glad to see an integration, within an overall environmental framework, of political, social, cultural, and economic history. It would have been nice to have an index; the \"search in book\" feature is a poor substitute in this regard. There also is no glossary, though with an online text I suppose students can stop and look things up in a different window.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author has done his due diligence incorporating the latest scholarship, as well as giving credit to the classics in the field, such as Cronon's Nature's Metropolis about the growth and development of Chicago's central role in shaping the Midwest in the 19th century.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As an Open Educational Resource, this book provides the structure to be continually updated with new scholarship in a variety of related fields. Teaching in Chicago, I find this text particularly valuable and relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"It is hard for me to say at this point how a class will find this book in terms of clarity, but to me it is easy to comprehend and follow. I do not find it burdened by jargon or other discipline-specific terminology.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I see this book as consistent, and one that flows logically from one topic to another.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I do not foresee any trouble with assigning sections out-of-sequence in order to fit my structure for an Environmental Justice class, for instance. The sections are useful in providing a region-specific context (America) which I can then use to compare and contrast with similar issues/themes in other parts of the world.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I do not see any problems with understanding how one chapter and its concepts flow into the next. Also, I believe the text allows me, as mentioned earlier, to truncate coverage of some topics to fit the requirements of a one-credit-hour course.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Sometimes there is a message \"this video does not exist,\" but otherwise the graphics display well and the links to YouTube help the narrative from becoming too text-driven. This is true of the online version. The PDF version, as mentioned by another reviewer, leaves much to be desired, with none of the interactivity available to the online version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I would like to have seen more on the Cotton economy in the South, both Antebellum and after the Civil War.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will assign this book to my next Environmental Justice class in Summer 2020. I see it as a useful resource to provide context for my projected lectures and discussions. Before this text, I have not seen another text to my liking. I will see what students think of it, hopefully making it a no-cost option for a student body that all too often struggles to afford textbooks.","created_at":"2020-05-06T15:19:02.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-05-06T15:19:02.000-05:00"},{"id":4948,"first_name":"Margaret","last_name":"Konkol","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Old Dominion University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book offers a long view of prehistory, early, and modern environmental history. Covering recontact--which emphasizes that North America had 12,000 years of human interaction with its environment before European settlement, colonial North America, through the major nineteenth and twentieth century periods and up to contemporary questions about land rights, corporate law, and economic considerations that complicate and highlight the competing interests that direct how humans interact with and treat the North American environment---American Environmental History offers an impressively comprehensive view with specific historical details arranged in a broader and coherent narrative,","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This offers thorough, detailed accounts of the social, economic and material aspects of such things as mining, land rights, westward expansion. Commendable is the discussion of mill towns and the ways in which the loss of the commons remains one of the greatest tragedies in American environmental history.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This textbook would be excellent for advanced middle school and certainly for high school students. The textbook's method of presenting a single narrative rather than introducing historiographic variety--the citation of historians and the weaving together of their accounts---situates it as appropriate for secondary school but perhaps less appropriate as a stand alone text for college level students who ought to be exposed to history as a series of competing and complementary narratives based on interpretable source materials","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is clear, jargon-free prose, written in an engaging and lucid style.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology is introduced and then reinforced through explanation and reference. Jargon-free!","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Chapters are stand alone, discrete treatments of topics","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Clear and purposeful discussions.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Use of images offers ways of drawing deeper connections between topics from one chapter to another","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No flaws, well-proofed..","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Sensitive to race and class; offers multiple perspectives","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-05-20T10:48:18.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-20T10:48:18.000-05:00"},{"id":33557,"first_name":"Taryn","last_name":"Oakley","position":"Adjunct Faculty - ESR","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text uses an environmental lens to bring readers on a wonderful journey from prehistory through modern times.  I was surprised at the amount of content that was packed into this 15-chapter text. Despite the large amount of information, the chapters do not seem overwhelming. The author does a nice job of choosing an environmentally relevant focus for each chapter, and using that topic to propel you forward through time. There were sections where I wish more detail was included (for example, Chapter 11 on farming goes into a lot of detail on how the politics behind farming changed over time, but only briefly discusses the impact of the modernization of farming on the environment itself), but there is no way to go into details on every topic in an introductory text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information is accurate. The author does a nice job of including the most relevant perspectives on a topic while addressing the important milestones that have led us to where we are today.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"In actuality, a lot has happened already since this 2019 was published, but I believe that this text can be easily updated. The last several chapters leave room for current history to be added in, and additional chapters could be added on as necessary. I think that the addition of the impact of Covid (and the resulting upheaval of our global community) through an environmental lens will be an imperative update at some point.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear, engaging, and easy to read. There is not a lot of jargon and I think the reading level could be appropriate for early high school through early college classes.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent. The framework is established in the beginning chapter and is used throughout. Terminology is constant throughout.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"These chapters are a great length and I think could be assigned out of order or as stand-alone readings. I do think including more navigation links within each chapter would be helpful as some of the chapters as fairly long and don't have separate headings. I would appreciate the ability to assign specific sections of a chapter to my students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The author has done a nice job of presenting information in way that brings you forward through history while still maintaining a specific focus for each chapter. The organization style leaves room for additional current updates as well.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read the online version of the book and had no trouble with the interface. It was easy to use! I did wish that the chapters were broken up into subheadings so that it would be easier to move back through the text or to assign students a particular section to read. Display features were all functional in the online version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar was good overall. Several areas where there were small errors, but nothing that prevents that ideas or tone of the book from prevailing.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This text does a nice job of including the perspectives of various cultures throughout and it is apparent that the author has made this inclusion a priority. This is especially true in the earlier chapters (Chapter 2, 3 and 4) when the author discusses the impact of colonialism on Native Americans and their way of life. I think that this inclusion of various voices could be enhanced in the later, more modern chapters. It is not an easy task, as so much of America's history was influenced by white men, so of course to learn about history, we have to learn about those voices. However, including other voices for the modern chapters could help to round out this text. Including the impacts of non-whites like Cesar Chavez and his impact on farm workers and  Dr. Robert Bullard and his work for environmental justice. This text gives a nod to Jane Addams, but leaves out Rachel Carson and could benefit from the mention of some modern environmental activists like Winona LaDuke and others. \r\nOverall, culturally sensitive and relevant, which is a refreshing change from most historical texts.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I appreciate the video clips available to dive further into some of the topics discussed in the text. The further reading section for each chapter is also great. \r\nThis is an exciting text that does a good job surveying American history through an environmental lens. I am looking forward to using some of these chapters with a future class.","created_at":"2021-12-20T11:33:46.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-12-20T11:33:46.000-06:00"},{"id":33743,"first_name":"Nicolas","last_name":"Rosenthal","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Loyola Marymount University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook on US Environmental History is clearly a reflection of the author’s teaching the subject for many years.  In content and style, the reader’s experience is one of moving through a lecture-based course, enhanced by visuals and short videos.  The recorded lectures included with each chapter and syllabus at the end reinforce this sense.  Overall, the book addresses several topics in US Environmental History, while omitting others that might be expected to be included in a standard environmental history textbook.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content seems to be accurate, drawn from credible sources.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some of the chapters would benefit from considering more current historical scholarship, especially that which revisits standard works at the foundation of environmental history.  Crosby’s pioneering work on “Virgin Soil Epidemics,” for instance, has been revisited and complicated in recent years.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The writing is often conversational, as if the author was giving a lecture to the reader.  That will appeal to some instructors and students, while other instructors might prefer that the textbook model academic writing for students.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The textbook is a bit idiosyncratic, in that some chapters build on each other to create a standard historical narrative, while others are topical.  There isn’t clear rationale as to why some periods are narrated and others neglected, or why some topics were chosen except that they do address environmental themes.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It would be simple to assign separate chapters or parts of chapters for a course.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"It is not always clear why certain topics were chosen, outside of a loose association with environmental history (see Consistency, above).","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The online textbook is easy to use and provides a combination of text and visuals that is visually inviting and free of technical problems.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There term “Indian” is used extensively without a modifier.  In keeping with current usage, it should be replaced with American Indian (or Native, Native American, or Indigenous).","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This textbook is a bit idiosyncratic.  Some chapters read very much like standard US history that incorporate insights from environmental history, yet in these chapters the environment and human-environmental relationships are often secondary to social, political, and economic factors.  Other chapters cover topics that are implicitly environmental history, such as a history of fertilizer, but do not derive their analytical framework from the field.  Still other chapters lack environmental content.  Some instructors will prefer a textbook that more explicitly foregrounds environmental history and keeps this analytical focus throughout the chapters, to clearly distinguish environmental history from a narrative that sees change over time through the lens of social, cultural, political, and economic factors.","created_at":"2022-03-14T11:58:18.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-03-14T11:58:18.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/american-environmental-history","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:19:31.000-06:00"},{"id":562,"title":"Introduction to Environmental Science","edition_statement":"2nd Edition","volume":null,"copyright_year":2018,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"This course uses the basic principles of biology and earth science as a context for understanding environmental policies and resource management practices. Our planet is facing unprecedented environmental challenges, from oil spills to global climate change. In ENSC 1000, you will learn about the science behind these problems; preparing you to make an informed, invaluable contribution to Earth's future. I hope that each of you is engaged by the material presented and participates fully in the search for, acquisition of, and sharing of information within our class.","contributors":[{"id":4532,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Caralyn","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Zehnder","location":null,"background_text":"Caralyn Zehnder, Georgia College and State University"},{"id":4533,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Kalina","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Manoylov","location":null,"background_text":"Kalina Manoylov, Georgia College and State University"},{"id":4534,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Samuel","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Mutiti","location":null,"background_text":"Samuel Mutiti, Georgia College and State University"},{"id":4535,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Christine","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Mutiti","location":null,"background_text":"Christine Mutiti, Georgia College and State University"},{"id":4536,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Allison","middle_name":null,"last_name":"VandeVoort","location":null,"background_text":"Allison VandeVoort, Georgia College and State University"},{"id":4537,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Donna","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Bennett","location":null,"background_text":"Donna Bennett, Georgia College and State University"}],"subjects":[{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"},{"id":8,"name":"Natural Sciences","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"QH301","visible_textbooks_count":252,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/natural-sciences"}],"publishers":[{"id":528,"url":"https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/biology-textbooks/4/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:40.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:40.000-05:00","name":"University System of Georgia"}],"formats":[{"id":890,"type":"PDF","url":"https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003\u0026context=biology-textbooks","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2312,"type":"MS Word","url":"https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/biology-textbooks/4/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"3","textbook_reviews_count":14,"reviews":[{"id":2362,"first_name":"Simeng","last_name":"Li","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Florida State University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"As a book that introduces Environment Science to readers that have little prior knowledge in this subject, this book has successfully covered most important areas of Environment Science, including some core concepts and definitions in this subject, population ecology, human demography, non-renewable energy, alternative energy, air pollution, climate change, and water. The selected topics in this book are able to provide a rough idea of what Environmental Science is mainly about. However, some important areas have not been mentioned or comprehensively discussed. For example, this book has discussed air and water pollution, but soil pollution has not been mentioned. Also, sustainability is a very critical area of Environmental Science. This book has briefly discussed this topic in the Introduction chapter but did extend relevant discussion. I suggest that the authors add a chapter focusing on sustainability, including its social, economic and environment aspects. In addition to comprehensiveness, this book is also weak in its overall depth of discussion. Most of the contents are not really thought-provoking, which is good as a pop science reading material whose readers who are simply interested in Environmental Science. However, this book may need more in-depth contents to meet probably most teachers' expectation as a university-level textbook. What I like about this book is that each chapter has clearly stated out its objectives at its beginning, as well as the questions at the end of each chapter (except Chapter viii. Water). But again, the questions can be a little more challenging for university students.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Overall speaking, the chapters in this book have been well written. It is not easy to write introductory texts that are rigorous and technically sound yet accessible to general readers. The book is accurate overall, but some paragraphs and concepts would benefit from a more rigorous and technical coverage in addition to the general introduction of the concepts provided. Only a few chapters have acknowledged their references, but most chapters did not do so. For example, appropriate citations are missing throughout Chapter i. Introduction. However, even in those chapters that have provided a list of references, the references are not linked to the contents in this book.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The contents that are presented in this book are closely relevant to the subject of Environmental Science. Because most of the contents are fundamental sciences, the book should be able to provide useful information to its general readers unless there are significant game-changing breakthroughs in the covered areas. However, some chapters that should have up-to-date information have not use the most recent references. For example, Chapter v. Alternative Energy should have shown more modern technologies for renewable energy. As a book that is written in 2018, such contents will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book has clearly explained jargons / technological terminologies using accessible yet technical languages. I believe that any high school students can easily learn something about Environment Science with this book. However, the downside is that this book has not provided in-depth information to allow its readers to fully understand some complex concepts.","consistency_rating":1,"consistency_review":"The style of writing was not consistent throughout the book. Each chapter has its own page numbers. Structures in different chapters are also different sometimes. For example, some chapters have a list of objectives while some others do not; some chapters have acknowledge the references while some others do not; some chapters use \"resources\" for the list of references while some others use \"bibliographies\" for the same. With these inconsistencies, this book seems like a collection of review articles from different authors. To solve this problem, this book need professional editing to improve its consistency.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Overall, the text is easily and readily divided into small reading sections with clear titles. But it seems like the Introduction section is broken down into too many small sections that have ambiguous inherent links.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The overall organization is good but can be improved. The places of some sections can be rearranged. For example, Chapter viii. can be placed right after Chapter vi. because both air and water are essential aspects of the environment. Climate Change (Chapter vii) can be placed after the two chapters about energy, because the use fossil energy is one main reason for climate change.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface is pleasant and professional, except that the resolution of some images can be improved.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No major grammatical/stylistic errors were found, although minor mistakes may exist. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is not culturally sensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"Conclusively, this book can serve as a good introductory reading material for self-teaching readers, but many aspects of this book must be improved before it can be used as an Environmental Science textbook in universities and colleges.","created_at":"2018-11-05T17:12:20.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-05T17:12:20.000-06:00"},{"id":2594,"first_name":"Rutherford","last_name":"Platt","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Gettysburg College","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book has many standard topics in Environmental Science, but is missing or gives cursory attention to agriculture, biodiversity, and conservation.   Also, the book includes only cursory discussion of human livelihoods across the word, which are inexorably tied to environmental change.\r\n\r\nThe book doesn't do justice to the 'big debates' in environmental science and presents many topics superficially.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book takes a neural, unbiased tone and is largely accurate.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"This book could have been written 20 years ago, and does not include the latest science and thinking on these topics.  Many figures are a little old - for example figure 7.12 shows data from 2007.  Updates would be fairly easy.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text is accessible but incredibly dry and overly laden with terminology.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"Yes, it is consistent.  Consistently mediocre.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is overly modular.  The authors lose opportunities to connect to concepts presented earlier in the text.    For example, why doesn't the population chapter tie back to I = P A T?  Environmental science is integrated - you can't just have chapters that are designed to stand entirely alone.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"There is no particular logic or flow to the topics.  Each chapter pretty much stands alone.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"Some of the figures are low quality -- especially the human population chapter.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is fine but again the text is incredibly dry.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The book has very few examples at all, so there is little possibility for offense.   I rated this poorly because the should discuss culture and how it intersects with the environment.","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"1. The book is too short and superficial for a college level course.\r\n2. Except for a cursory description of the scientific method, the book does not convey what do scientists do, how do they operate.\r\n3. The book misses the opportunity to present environmental issues in a compelling, relevant way to students.  It begins with the narrowest, driest material (Chemical \u0026 Biological Foundations of life). Relevance for sustainability/conservation is only superficially presented. \r\n4. There are few fully developed  case studies or real-world applications.\r\n5. Problem solving \u0026 understanding complex problems not part of this book.  From what I can tell, the book's approach is to define a bunch of concepts.","created_at":"2019-03-01T10:14:35.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-03-01T10:14:35.000-06:00"},{"id":2645,"first_name":"Irene","last_name":"Hawkins","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Gettysburg College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book touched on many of the topics in Environmental Science, but some of them were very superficial.  For example, there is little on the topic of environmental health and toxicity, other than a quick discussion of the Precautionary Principle.  There is little on the environmental aspects of modern agriculture.  This seems to cover some of the environmental science topics, but shallowly and incompletely. ","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"What is in there is accurate from information a decade or more ago. Many of the graphs and figures and data are from more than ten years ago, and in a quickly progressing area of study, this seems like an easy update that has not been made.  For example, there are pictures of glacial melt from the McCall Glacier from 1958 to 2003 - why not an update within the last 16 years? ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":" What is there is good - but probably needs to be updated and improved upon. Many of the images/data are not up to date - even with the most recent IPCC report, so it seems like an easy update to get the data more relevant.  ","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"It is clear - but boring.  Compared with other texts that help the non-major reader engage with the environmental science and help connect the issues to their lives, this book is dry.  More case studies and stories that students can relate to to help understand the material would be helpful. ","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"It is consistent - but a bit unremarkable.   Why are there new page numbers for each chapter?  It is very dry and clinical in the reporting of information, but is not engaging to want the reader to keep exploring these issues. ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"There are a lack of graphs and data and images to help the reader connect with the fairly lengthy, dry reading sections. The topic of Environmental Science easily leads to connections between the reader and the subject, regardless of their chosen interests - but this text does not encourage engagement. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"It is organized.  It is based heavily on chemistry and the molecular makeup of the environment right from the beginning, which can cause readers to be turned-off to the material before they have a chance to engage with the topics. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Other than starting each chapter with new page number counts, it is fine.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar was fine.  Again, it was dry and clinical, but grammatically correct.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"It was politically-correctly written. There were examples from around the world - but primarily centered around the US/Global North.  More examples and case studies from other regions of the world would help on many levels - global perspective, interest, etc. ","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I love the idea of Open Resource texts - however, this is not up to par with an introductory Environmental Science college level course, unless it is HIGHLY supplemented with outside material.  Keep improving and more will use it!","created_at":"2019-03-09T15:34:53.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-03-09T15:34:53.000-06:00"},{"id":2772,"first_name":"Leslie","last_name":"Straker","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"Longwood University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook did not provide any glossary or index.  It however, provided a list of key terms at the end of every chapter that were often defined in the chapters themselves.  A good introductory environmental textbook should address environmental science from the biological, social and economic dimensions.  This textbook mostly focuses on the biological and physical dimensions of environmental science and inadequately addresses the social and economic dimensions.  Some of the areas that were left out include: history of environmental science, saltwater resources, forestry and land management, waste management and conservation.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"In general, the materials presented are accurate but a number of graphs, tables and figures, were not properly referenced. Some of the materials are a little dated so there is room for improvement here.  In addition, at least one of the links provided for further reference at the end of Chapter 8, was not working.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"What is covered in the book is relevant to an introductory course in environmental science.  In the earlier chapters the book focuses on fundamental concepts in physical science and later it addresses the fundamental concepts of air pollution and climate change.   However, the book fell short of what I often call “closing the loop.” That is, linking the science with the economics and social issues of environmental science. Notwithstanding, by focusing on a fundamental concepts approach, the book should be able to provide useful information to its general readers for a long time.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The technical language used in the book is clear and appropriate for an introductory course in environmental science.  Notwithstanding, a glossary of key technical terms could assist in making the book more user friendly.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"There were significant inconsistencies throughout the textbook. While I understand, that the numbering system of each chapter increases the modularity of the textbook, this system was often confusing since there was no header or footer on individual pages to let you know which chapter you were reading at any particular time. Also, chapters were also structured differently. There were inconsistencies with the list of objectives and acknowledgements for example, from chapter to chapter.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The book is broken down into sections that would easily allow for additions and updates to the information covered. The page numbering is restarted in every chapter. Notwithstanding, it could be helpful if a header or footer is placed on each page indicating the name of the chapter.  This will allow the reader to be more aware of his location in the textbook at any one time.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The textbook is sufficiently organized for the various topics it covers.  However, a more comprehensive textbook will also cover the major resources of the world after the section on climate change.  Also, renewable and non-renewable resources should probably be placed after the climate change section.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Navigating through the book is not particularly difficult except that a header or footer making chapters could help with ease of navigation since all chapters restart with a new numbering system.  There was no distortion of images or charts in this book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were found in the book and the technical language used was appropriate for a book at this level.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Because of the books focus on the biological and physiological aspects of environmental science the diversity of cultural examples is limited.  Including the cultural, and economic aspects of environmental science would have allowed for a greater diversity of examples from around the world and the incorporation of different disciplines.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"My most significant issue with this textbook is its lack of comprehensiveness.  When I teach my introductory course in environmental science, I remind my students that environmental science/environmental management is much about how people use scarce resources.  Unfortunately, this textbook hardly touches on many of the resource challenges of the world.  Even if I were to use this book, I will also have to use a supplementary textbook that covers some of the key dimensions of environmental science that are not in this book.","created_at":"2019-04-11T21:39:27.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-11T21:39:27.000-05:00"},{"id":2928,"first_name":"Shamim","last_name":"Ahsan","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University of Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Too compact with content. does not cover various important environment related issues. Content should compatible to other text book in the market place. one of major element soil was completely ignored. Scientific steps could elaborate to peer reviewing process. In population dynamics impacts were not properly reflected. Biodiversity is not covered at all. Water is an important issue, and authors may consider breaking up in two sections: waster resources and Water pollution. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"In general accuracy of data and information OK. However, some data's are decade old needs updating of those. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is more or less up to date. However, several part of the content needs immediate up-gradation with current status. Environment is dynamic science and issues are being updated on regular basis. ","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Narratives are often complicated on different issues. Such as in energy section figure 5.4: may confuse students on solar energy. For freshman level class the content should presented in lucid form and easily understandable. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Its consistent within framework of the text book. ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The inter-related connection of content should be maintained with lesser numbers of subheading. Realigned with piece meal sub units. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Population dynamics and it impact may be listed at the end of table of content. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"As mentioned before some images are confusing and do not illustrate relevancy. For example, IPAT equation after sustainability looks misplaced. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Did not notice any errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Without presenting environmental justice, it could be an issue. ","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I am not quite if this text book provides comprehensive information in major aspects of environmental issues. Lot of issues are not covered in this text book as opposed to other books in market place. This would a disservice to students who use OER sources for not having complete knowledge, ","created_at":"2019-05-20T14:32:24.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-20T14:32:24.000-05:00"},{"id":3587,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Surber","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers a large section of environmental science, which is helpful for an introductory course. However, the topics are not covered in-depth enough to convey the information. There is no glossary, although key words are provided in bold in the text. Key words are provided at the end of each chapter without definitions. I found many of the diagrams to be much more informative than the actual text, which was helpful.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book's information is accurate, although it uses a superficial approach to a large number of topics.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Much of the data is already several years old. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book was clear, but overly basic for a college-level course. Most of the defined terms were too basic.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in how it presents the material, the keywords, and the use of photos, diagrams, and charts.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"For a basic overview of various issues, the book is modular enough to assign sections of chapters. However, the lack of page numbering makes it difficult, unless the instructor cuts the sections or explains to use the pdf numbering.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book adequately covered the breadth of the very basics of environmental science in a coherent manner.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Not all of the pages are numbered. There isn't a link from the table of contents to each subsection, which would help since the page numbering is inconsistent.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn't find any issues of cultural relevance, although it focused on environmental issues in the United States more than international issues or contributions to environmental pollution. However, there were international issues and photos used for some examples.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I have used sections of this book to give an overview of certain topics. However, I wouldn't rely on it as the sole textbook at a college level, even an introductory course.","created_at":"2020-02-18T10:56:45.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-02-18T10:56:45.000-06:00"},{"id":3729,"first_name":"Anita","last_name":"Walz","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"Only a limited number of the subjects that are part of environmental science are covered. The chapters focus mostly on energy production and resulting effect on the climate. Missing are for example agriculture, environmental toxicology, waste management, biodiversity, and conservation. Also, the chapter on Human Demography could have more focus on the relationship between societal development and consumption, carrying capacity (including cultural carrying capacity due to consumption), and population growth.\r\nThe table of contents is hyperlinked, but this is not obvious. Each chapter re-starts on page 1 and it would help to have a table of content there that either lists the page number or hyperlinks to the sub-section. A glossary would also be helpful. I find it a bit difficult to navigate without scanning up and down all the pages to find what I am looking for.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not find any problems with accuracy or bias.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"It is inherent in the subject matter that contents will not age well. Environmental charts and statistics change annually. Many facts in this book will age well, but charts that show trends are not all as up-to-date as one would expect from a 2018 edition. In the last chapter on water for example the charts stop in 2005 or 2010. The message still comes across though. It would be mostly these trend charts and the accompanying text that would need regular maintenance.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a clear language and the terminology is introduced (highlighted in bold) and explained well.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"Most chapters start out with an outline. However, there are no hyperlinks to sub-sections and only three chapters have page numbers included in the outline. The outline is missing in Chapters1 and 7. These two chapters seem less well organized than the others. Having a consistent table of contents, maybe even hyperlinked on the first page of each chapter would be helpful. It would represent the outline and a guide to the proper page.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"There are many sub-headers that split the text into smaller portions, maybe even too many to tie the topics together and allow the message to flow. A table of content with either page numbers or hyperlinks would help with navigation.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Within a chapter the order of sub-topics makes sense.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"There is no aid to navigation other than hyperlinks back to the Table of Contents for the whole book and this link is only on the first page of each chapter. Images often have text that is significantly smaller than the main text of the book. They also appear to look \"fuzzy\", even when one zooms in.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book reports mostly dry scientific facts and does not go into cultural issues. Social injustice is not touched on, but again, this book covers only some topics in environmental science.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"For a free introductory environmental science source, it works well in combination with other sources and I found that commercial books are often no more up-to-date than this book. If students do not have to pay for their books I do not feel bad about selecting only some chapters from one source and then switching to another. So the fact that this book does not cover environmental science comprehensively is not as big of an issue as it would be if students had to buy it. I selected some chapters from this book for a part of my course but found other alternate sources to cover other topics.","created_at":"2020-04-17T10:51:31.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-04-17T10:51:31.000-05:00"},{"id":3967,"first_name":"Emily","last_name":"Nocito","position":"Graduate Student","institution_name":"University of Colorado Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"I view this as an introduction to the introduction of environmental science. It provides some of the bare basics, but overall is lacking. Little attention is paid to land-use change, biodiversity of the environment, oceans, and many more. The topics that are covered still feel lackluster in what they actually delve in to. There was also little to no regard to policy, economy, or cultural aspects of the environment.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Content was accurate for the time it was published but could do with an overall update to stay relevant. Some links and sites provided are no longer in service, leading readers to a dead-end.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"A cross to bear with any environmental studies textbook is that new information is constantly being produced. Some information is outdated, such as the age structure diagrams and the total carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels graphic. I do think that an update to this text is warranted. The section on the sustainability, the United Nations, and on the IPCC should also be updated.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"For an introductory text, important technical terms are bolded and defined. However, it would be useful to have a glossary at the end of the book for quick reference by students","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"This textbook is lacking on consistency. Chapters are not structured the same way, such as with the chapter outlines. Page numbers are not kept consistent, with each chapter having its own set of page numbers. This would make it confusing to assign readings or ask questions, since there are- for example- several page 18s. Additionally, not all chapters have a terms list at the end, and some list resources, while some list bibliography at the end.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Headers are present, though not consistent chapter to chapter, with little references to itself. There is little indication of what chapter you are in, again made difficult by lack of consistent page numbering.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"It would be nice to read chapters “Population Ecology” and “Human Demography” as the last chapters. That works more as a narrative: here are important basic earth systems (semi represented), types of energy, and then how humans interact with (good and bad interactions) the environment. To delve into questions of population and demography without introducing water and climate change gives an incomplete picture.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Some of the hyperlinks are dead or lead to error codes. Images and graphics, while outdated, are clear and concise.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This text contains no grammatical errors","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"This textbook could do with a chapter on traditional ecological knowledge, to highlight different culture’s interactions with the environment. It would also be nice to highlight environmental scientists from diverse backgrounds to allow students to ‘see themselves’ within the text.","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-06-11T16:27:53.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-11T16:27:53.000-05:00"},{"id":4215,"first_name":"Steve","last_name":"Frysinger","position":"Professor","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"Environmental Science is the study of human interaction with the natural world, and therefore incorporates knowledge from both the natural and the social sciences. But this text takes a narrower definition. They first say that “environment describes living and nonliving surroundings relevant to organisms” and then state that \r\n“Environmental science studies all aspects of the environment in an interdisciplinary way. This means that it requires the knowledge of various other subjects including biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, microbiology, biochemistry, geology, economics, law, sociology, etc.”\r\nWhile they do mention some aspect of social science in this definition, the book clearly focuses on the natural science aspects of environmental science. This is unfortunate, but it is not uncommon, and environmental science faculty are accustomed to having to bring additional social science readings into their classes.\r\nThe text includes a very high-level table of contents. There are more detailed outlines within all but one chapter, adding one or two more levels of structure, and the inconsistency between chapters in this regard is quite obvious. The chapters are\r\ni. Introduction\r\nii. Population Ecology\r\niii. Human Demography\r\niv. Non-Renewable Energy\r\nv. Alternative Energy\r\nvi. Air Pollution\r\nvii. Climate Change\r\nviii. Water\r\n\r\nWhile all of the subjects included are relevant to environmental science, they represent only a subset of what would normally be considered in an environmental science textbook. Notably absent are chapters on topics such as waste, ozone depletion, risk assessment, agriculture, biodiversity, and oceans and the marine environment.\r\nThere is no index, which is a real short-coming.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no obvious errors or evidence of bias other than the rather unavoidable one that favors environmental protection over some aspects of industrial society.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The topics that are covered are still completely relevant, as are the examples used to illustrate them. Some of the figures and tables are somewhat dated and should be replaced with more current ones. For example, the most recent stratospheric ozone data shown are for 2012. Not showing more current values misses the opportunity to illustrate the positive benefit that accrues from international cooperation on science-based solutions to environmental challenges. Missing are zone-depletion area data between 2012 and 2020 which show very compelling evidence that the problem has stopped growing, likely due to this cooperative response.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is generally clear and explains terms used, though the depth and quality of these explanations vary from chapter to chapter. There is also variability in the level of science (such as chemistry) included in discussions of the issues.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"There is fairly good consistency of terminology, but the framework varies considerably from chapter to chapter. The book suffers from a lack of integration editing. There is a notable inconsistency in the use of chapter outlines at the beginning of chapters. One chapter (Climate Change) has none, while the others have either one or two levels of depth. The latter also use inconsistent numbering schemes for their subdivisions.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"In some chapters there are several pages that go by without any subheadings, making navigation challenging and creating daunting quantities of unbroken text apt to keep students from reading thoroughly. This makes the user interface to the text awkward at best, and is prone to presenting a barrier to students already intimidated by the subject matter, such as students taking the course out of a general education requirement rather than genuine interest in the subject.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"It is quite clear that the text was created by assembling chapters written by different authors without much effort put into integration or flow. Beyond the writing style differing in each chapter, one detects a difference in approach, and I have rarely found an example of one chapter referring to something discussed in a previous chapter. \r\nStrangely, the chapters each maintain their own page numbers, which is probably why the table of contents includes no page numbers. But the page numbers shown don’t include the chapter number, so a student looking at a “page 17” cannot easily be sure which chapter that is in. This will also make it awkward for faculty to refer students to particular sections easily. This could be eased by page numbers that include the chapter number, and/or by having chapter numbers and names at the top of each page.\r\nIn at least one chapter (Climate Change) the order seems awkward – climate change is discussed fairly extensively before the science behind it is introduced, thus assuming the students bring some knowledge of the science to the discussion before the chapter addresses it.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"No obvious errors were found in the placement of and reference to figures and tables. But in many chapters, there are large stretches of text without much relief either from illustrations or examples problems. For example, though the introductory chapter provides a cursory review of fundamental chemistry, these are not generally recalled in subsequent chapters to illustrate points made. Such illustrations would serve to break up the intensive reading and also to reinforce the science behind the claims made in the chapters.\r\nThere is also a missed opportunity to provide hypertext links within the textbook. These would allow students confused by a term (for example) to link to a portion of the text in which that term is defined and illustrated. Similarly, when viewing the text in Adobe Reader I was not able to find a navigation approach other than previous or next pages or the use of the scroll bar. The only hyperlinks are from the table of contents, and there is no convenient way to go “back” to the TOC.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I have not found any outright grammatical errors, but there are occasions of questionable sentence structure and punctuation.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"No inappropriate language or claims that might offend a diverse readership were found. Some photographs include people from various cultures, though I have found no references to cultural differences as they might impact the environmental issues discussed. And there is no discussion whatsoever of the role of culture in environmental impacts and action. A crucial part of environmental science is the social context. While there are occasional oblique references to some social context issues, it is not addressed explicitly by this text.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"This book would be substantially improved by\r\n1. Addition of missing topics (issues, natural sciences, and social sciences)\r\n2. Extensive editing to achieve consistency of structure and integration of content\r\n3. Formatting to include global page numbers, a multilevel table of contents, an index, more subheadings, and hyperlinks between sections both within and between chapters","created_at":"2020-07-01T13:59:52.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-07-01T13:59:52.000-05:00"},{"id":4383,"first_name":"Engil","last_name":"Pereira","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Texas Rio Grande Valley","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"While, this book covers common topics suitable for environmental instruction of Introduction to Environmental Sciences, the comprehensiveness of the book would increase by adding chapters on: Agriculture, Economics, Biogeochemistry, as well as separate chapters for Oceans and Freshwater.\r\nOne major problematic departure from our coursework is on economics in environmental science and its strong associations with human energy usage. Excepting an occasional passing mention on cost often without the defining basis, it otherwise wholly ignores micro- or macroeconomics as a holistic lense to view energy and environmental decision-making.\r\nFor agriculture, the topic is mostly ignored, with the interest chiefly in the sector as a pollutant culminating in one page given to its major role in N2O emissions as the majority of their reference to perhaps the most intensive human efforts applying scientific ingenuity to managing the environment. Even agriculture’s notable pollution contribution to eutrophication is missed in this book’s cursory examination.\r\nThe book handles Population (i.e., growth rates) and Human demography well. \r\nRegarding Environmental policy, relevant policies are mentioned throughout; however ,there is no formal approach to how environmental policies are formulated. Occasionally the authors do offer guidance on policy but appear to be derivatives of their personal ethical perspectives, rather than argued conclusions on compared equities.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Core topics appear to be well related. As mentioned in the Comprehensiveness section, there are relevant discussion areas that should be covered, and some interjections, as mentioned for policy, that may be biased guidance.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Due to the prospective nature of addressing climate change, graphs often are predictive for a near future and in danger of inaccuracies. Similarly references on energy-use will become dated.\r\nThere are references to websites for additional resources, a Youtube link for a coal powerplant description, and an Excel spreadsheet for a list of terms that may be subject to third party accessibility.\r\nMost of the basic science and theories are pretty definitive.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Chapters begin with Learning objectives and chapter contents. The book is written with an accessible prose and examples on elk, cacti, and US energy-use are most familiar to a North American audience. \r\nUnfortunately some terms, such as “natural selection” are used but not defined.\r\nWhile more distracting than confusing, many times labelled terms are used prior to being defined (e.g., cells, sustainability, etc.). Or in the case of “competition”, made bold but never defined.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The first chapter does not follow the formatting or numbered headings of the succeeding chapters and could use subheadings. \r\nThe end-of-chapter prompts vary in formatting and title, e.g., “Study Questions”, “Practice Problems”, “Questions”. The end-of-chapter term lists vary in formatting, and in one chapter relegated to an Excel spreadsheet.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The differing formats hints that these chapters were separately written, which may be why they seem modular enough to address in any order.\r\nSubheadings are present in most chapters aside from the first. Chapter contents are also given. There is a case when “Coal” is used as a heading twice, rather than for example, “Coal formation” and “Coal consumption for energy”.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The first chapter suffered from explaining biological molecules within cells, before defining cells. Understandably challenging because the flow was apparently to explain relevant science from physics to biology, then groupings in biology from cells to populations and ecosystems, but surprising to find the definition so late. Following the descriptions of the environment then the scientific method, the chapter then delves into sustainability, and other lenses to view environmental science without good transitions.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Most pictures and graphs are helpful.\r\nOne graph of survivorship curves includes presumably data from the 20th century mixed with curves to the 22nd century. Mixing data with predictions is confusing and may age poorly.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are not many grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"It does not seem culturally insensitive, but the section on human demographics could have included racial, ethnic, or even regional breakdowns for greater relevance.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I would like to commend the authors for putting time and efforts towards developing this textbook and making it available for all.","created_at":"2020-11-13T11:12:35.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-11-13T11:12:35.000-06:00"},{"id":4490,"first_name":"Laurie","last_name":"DeRose","position":"Assistant Professor of Sociology","institution_name":"The Catholic University of America","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text provides many definitions, but they are not compiled in a glossary.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Missing some aspects of standard Demographic Transition theory.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Quite relevant!","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"A fairly easy read.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very little analysis in the book; this made internal consistency relatively easy because definitions do not contradict.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Fine.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Adequate.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Nice images; a bit cumbersome to scroll (few links).","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Fine.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Not insensitive, but not particularly inclusive either.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I reviewed this book with an eye to using it to make a course in Population, Environment, and Society stronger on the \"Environment\" component. I am sure that my students could benefit from some of the good descriptions of natural science facts and principles, but like some of the other reviewers, I found it heavy on the natural science side, and weak on social and economic issues. For instance, Chapter 4 on Energy did not connect back to stages of the Demographic Transition presented in chapter 3: there is no physical science reason for making such connections, but plenty of social science reasons. Chapter 5 on Alternative Energy was probably the best for population and environment courses: it covered upsides and downsides of various alternatives in ways that would help my students understand that while innovation has allowed population to grow far larger than previous generations thought possible, innovation also brings new challenges. I liked being able to appreciate some of the basic science behind conclusions like \"biomass energy can and cannot be carbon neutral.\" A key tradeoff that the text made clear was biomass for fuel v. biomass for food.\r\nA previous review said that the book handles human demography well, but because there was no attention to variation in the lag between the onset of mortality decline and fertility decline, I found the treatment wanting.","created_at":"2020-12-29T13:36:08.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-29T13:36:08.000-06:00"},{"id":4964,"first_name":"Jill","last_name":"DeVito","position":"Associate Professor of Instruction, Biology Department","institution_name":"University of Texas at Arlington","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"Unfortunately, this book does not cover the more interesting (interdisciplinary, applied) environmental topics (environmental economics, environmental careers, legislation and legal issues, etc.).  Another topic that I would like to see included is The Anthropocene.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy here is related to how quickly the information becomes outdated in this particular field.  The newest edition of my current textbook is up to date (with references to recent executive orders flip-flopping the fate of public lands such as Bears Ears and Escalante, for example), but the open source .pdf does not even contain a positive result for the search term “Paris Agreement” from 2015.  I do understand that the business model for open source textbooks does not allow for super frequent updating of the material, but in the subject area of environmental science that can be a deal-breaker.  One more example of this:  the section on electric vehicles contains a photograph of a prototype electric car from the 1985 World’s Fair.  This makes the book look so unprofessional and hopelessly out of date that I would worry about losing my own credibility if I assigned it to my sophisticated Gen Z audience.","relevance_rating":1,"relevance_review":"See above; the book has become so hopelessly out of date that its accuracy was compromised.  One advantage of an open source textbook (particularly the .pdf version) is the ability to link to outside sources of information that may be more current than the textbook (e.g., to the World Population Clock, NASA, NOAA, etc.).   These are excellent.  On the other hand, some of the links in this book are not very helpful (for example, linking to primitive websites like this one, with the intended video link completely dead, and some of the informational pages copyrighted in 1997:  http://geothermaleducation.org).","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The writing is fine.  It is not better or worse than the writing I have seen in textbooks for purchase.  But see above regarding how frequently it would need to be revised to remain useful.","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"Some of the headings are missing, which affects the searchability index.  For example, not all of the Chapter “Learning Objectives” are labeled as such.  Only four of the eight chapters show up in a search of “Learning Objectives.”  Some others are labeled as “learning outcomes” in a different style font (as if overlooked in editing; e.g., chapter 2) and some are not labeled either way (e.g., chapter 3).  I have a love/hate relationship with .pdf books, and the one thing I find they (should) always do better than a hard copy is respond instantly and accurately to a word search.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"In summary, my current textbook covers 25 chapters and this one contains 8.  There is some consolidation going on there, but the open source book is missing quite a lot of topics, in addition to the fact that consolidated chapters are more difficult to navigate.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"See above (regarding the low number of chapters and also some of the inconsistencies in format)\r\n\r\nI do like some of the learning objectives (for the existing chapters), which are in some cases similar to those I have intentionally added to my current course because they were not emphasized in the textbook I am using (e.g., precautionary principle).","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"Since introductory textbooks are never “readable” enough for my taste (and they tend to cover similar content), I tend to judge books by the quality of the figures.  That is ultimately one of the major reasons I chose my current textbook, and I one of the reasons I am not ready to switch away from it at this time.  It is also one of my biggest complaints about the open source book that I currently use in another course.  Not only are the images inferior in their design, but they also have technical limitations that are quite severe (i.e., when you try to export them to a presentation, exam, or learning management system, the image and especially the accompanying text become distorted or even unreadable).  I noticed that this textbook is available as a Word document, and it looks like the images and text can be modified more effectively in that format, which is good (but time consuming).  I also noticed a strange difference between the Word and .pdf versions of the book.  The Word version has a very readable font (although of course that could be altered in the document).  The .pdf version is stuck with a less readable font, which is unfortunate since it can’t be changed by the user.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice grammatical errors (but see format issues above).","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"I did not notice instances of insensitivity, but the book is notably lacking in some of the most important key concepts that I emphasize in my class, such as environmental refugees, environmental justice, and environmental racism.","overall_rating":4,"overall_review":"The exercise of reviewing this book has made me come to understand why environmental science textbooks are difficult to find in the open source format.  This topic seems to be too time sensitive to lend itself to effective treatment by part-time authors who are not being paid to keep the book up to date.  It has made me think differently about possibly trying to compile resources myself (instead of using any textbook at all) in the event that I was motivated enough to make the leap to a low or zero cost lecture section.","created_at":"2021-05-23T10:58:21.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-23T10:58:21.000-05:00"},{"id":33860,"first_name":"Matthew","last_name":"Eick","position":"Professor of Environmental Soil Chemistry and Environmental Science","institution_name":"Virginia Tech","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall the book is well written and the topics covered are covered adequately for an introduction environmental science class.  However, I would like to see the topics covered in the introductory chapter expanded upon and be individual chapters.  For example Economics, environment, and public policy should be its own chapter.  Economics and environmental science are deeply connected and the authors should go more in depth on this topic.  Additionally, ecosystems and ecosystem services and biodiversity should be covered more in depth in a separate chapter.  Finally, there should be chapters on soils, agriculture, environment and human health, and municipal and hazardous waste.  Much of the environmental issues we are currently experiencing are related to these topics (i.e global pandemic, soil degradation and food shortages, and plastic pollution)","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall the book is very accurate.  I would like to see an updated version with more recent statistics.  Some of the data is from 2015 and a lot has changed since then especially with renewable energy.  Also, in the non-renewable energy chapter I would like to see some information on tar sands.  Furthermore, for nuclear energy the authors only discuss light water reactors and the environmental issues with nuclear.  This leads the reader to feel that there is no place for nuclear power in the worlds energy portfolio. There is a whole new generation of nuclear reactors and a recent surge in start up companies examining nuclear energy as a bridge energy source to help us meet our climate goals (i.e terra power).  I think this information is critical for environmental science.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I think updates will be relatively easy and straightforward. However, as mentioned above much of the statistics and data is outdated and the authors need to keep current with new technology such as the next generation of nuclear reactors and advances in renewable energy.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Overall the book is well written and clear and easy to follow.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Overall this is true except for the first chapter.  This was called an introduction but many of the topics covered in this chapter could be stand alone chapters.  Much of this information lays the critical framework for subsequent chapters in environmental science.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I have examined a myriad of environmental science textbooks and this book is consistent with the structure of an introductory environmental science textbook.  Introduction, ecology (Which is included in the introduction and should be expanded as a chapter(s)), human population, energy, and pollution.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found the text to be free of significant errors.  In fact I liked the interface as too many of the environmental science textbooks on the market today are littered with figures, tables, graphs, and side bars that they become distractive.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I only found a few grammatical errors that could easily be corrected.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book is not culturally insensitive in anyway.  In fact I encourage the authors to bring in more cultural examples related to environmental science.  For example the hypothesized beginning of Covid-19 in the wet markets of China, high concentration of POPs in the Inuits, and human demography comparisons between developed and developing countries.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reading this textbook and if the authors expanded the subject matter to include additional topics nd the introduction I would consider using it in my introductory environmental science course.","created_at":"2022-05-17T13:11:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-05-17T13:11:58.000-05:00"},{"id":34880,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Schliemann","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University of Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is missing many critical environmental subjects including agriculture, conservation, waste disposal, environmental justice, and environmental policy (among others). The book is also missing the human- environment connection. In addition, there is little to no discussion of solutions to environmental issues. There is no glossary or index.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Environmental science evolves very fast. Many of the figures and data were very outdated, even considering the book is from 2018. For example, in the Human Demography chapter, the age structure diagrams for the United are from 2000, 2005, and 2010. In the alternative energy chapter, it still says \"The main problem with the electric car is that it cannot go very far before it needs to be recharged, something that takes between three to six hours.\" This statement is not accurate today since fast chargers can fully charge a vehicle in under 30 minutes and many EVs now can go for hundreds of miles without recharging.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"As I said above, many of the figures and data are outdated. However, I don't know if there is a way to avoid this issue in environmental science without citing data, which would be problematic as well. Environmental science evolves very quickly and this book would need constant updates.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is clearly written and easy to follow.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent and is easy to navigate.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The sections are well defined, with headings and subheadings. It could easily be broken up.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The organization is clear and logical. However, each chapter feels like it is isolated from the others. There isn't a theme running through the whole book.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Images and text are clear and easy to read.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't notice any grammar errors.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The book is lacking a global perspective on environmental issues.","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2024-02-02T16:44:58.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-02-02T16:44:58.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introduction-to-environmental-science-2nd-edition","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:31:42.000-06:00"},{"id":67,"title":"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2011,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems integrates key concepts behind the technology with practical concerns and real-world applications. Recognizing that many potential GIS users are nonspecialists or may only need a few maps, this book is designed to be accessible, pragmatic, and concise. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems also illustrates how GIS is used to ask questions, inform choices, and guide policy. From the melting of the polar ice caps to privacy issues associated with mapping, this book provides a gentle, yet substantive, introduction to the use and application of digital maps, mapping, and GIS. In today's world, learning involves knowing how and where to search for information. In some respects, knowing where to look for answers and information is arguably just as important as the knowledge itself. Because Essentials of Geographic Information Systems is concise, focused, and directed, readers are encouraged to search for supplementary information and to follow up on specific topics of interest on their own when necessary. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems provides the foundations for learning GIS, but readers are encouraged to construct their own individual frameworks of GIS knowledge. The benefits of this approach are two-fold. First, it promotes active learning through research. Second, it facilitates flexible and selective learning—that is, what is learned is a function of individual needs and interest. Since GIS and related geospatial and navigation technology change so rapidly, a flexible and dynamic text is necessary in order to stay current and relevant. Though essential concepts in GIS tend to remain constant, the situations, applications, and examples of GIS are fluid and dynamic. Though this book is intended for use in introductory GIS courses, Essentials of Geographic Information Systems will also appeal to the large number of certificate, professional, extension, and online programs in GIS that are available today. In addition to providing readers with the tools necessary to carry out spatial analyses, Essentials of Geographic Information Systems outlines valuable cartographic guidelines for maximizing the visual impact of your maps. The book also describes effective GIS project management solutions that commonly arise in the modern workplace.","contributors":[{"id":3708,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Jonathan","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Campbell","location":"UCLA","background_text":"Jonathan E. Campbell is a GIS analyst and biologist based in the Los Angeles office of ENVIRON. ENVIRON is an international environmental and health sciences consultancy that works with its clients to manage their most challenging environmental, health, and safety issues and attain their sustainability goals. Dr. Campbell has twelve years of experience in the application of GIS and biological services in conjunction with the implementation of environmental policies and compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. He has extensive experience collecting, mapping, and analyzing geospatial data on projects throughout the United States. He holds a PhD in geography from UCLA, an MS in plant biology from Southern Illinois University—Carbondale and a BS in environmental biology from Taylor University. He has been an adjunct professor of GIS and physical geography courses at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Santa Monica College,"},{"id":3709,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"MIchael","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Shin","location":"UCLA","background_text":"Michael Shin is an associate professor of geography at UCLA. He is also the director of UCLA’s professional certificate program in Geospatial Information Systems and Technology (GIST) and cochair of the Spatial Demography Group at the California Center for Population Research (CCPR). Michael earned his PhD in geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) and also holds an MA in geography and a BA in international affairs from CU as well. Michael teaches Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Intermediate GIS, Advanced GIS, and related courses in digital cartography, spatial analysis, and geographic data visualization and analysis. He was also recently nominated to receive UCLA’s Copenhaver Award, which recognizes faculty for their innovative use of technology in the classroom. Much of Michael’s teaching materials draw directly from his research interests that span a range of topics from globalization and democracy to the social impacts of geospatial technology. He has also worked with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and USAID to explore and examine food insecurity around the world with GIS."}],"subjects":[{"id":3,"name":"Computer Science","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"QA76","visible_textbooks_count":137,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/computer-science-information-systems"},{"id":44,"name":"Earth Sciences","parent_subject_id":8,"call_number":"QE1","visible_textbooks_count":54,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology"},{"id":23,"name":"Information Systems","parent_subject_id":3,"call_number":"QA76","visible_textbooks_count":27,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/information-systems"},{"id":41,"name":"Geography","parent_subject_id":9,"call_number":"G128","visible_textbooks_count":20,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geography"}],"publishers":[{"id":66,"url":"http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Essentials%20of%20Geographic%20Information%20Systems.pdf","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:36.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:36.000-05:00","name":"Saylor Foundation"}],"formats":[{"id":248,"type":"PDF","url":"http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Essentials%20of%20Geographic%20Information%20Systems.pdf","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":249,"type":"Online","url":"https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_essentials-of-geographic-information-systems/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":15,"reviews":[{"id":154,"first_name":"Jeffrey","last_name":"Widener","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"The University of Oklahoma","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"A new textbook covering fundamentals of geographic information systems (GIS) may cost a buyer between $25 and $150. Geographers Dr. Jonathan Campbell and Dr. Michael Shin have delivered an open textbook alternative to students and professionals. Compared to the paid for versions I am familiar with, their version is comprehensive with no sacrifice of content.\r\n\r\nThe authors begin with a chapter on spatial thinking. They describe geographic questions before moving into a discussion in Chapter 2 on “Map Anatomy.” In this chapter, on page 24, is the actual definition of GIS—perhaps a bit too far into the text to adequately explain GIS. \r\n\r\nChapters 3 through 8 pry deeper into the world of GIS. Chapter 3 covers the way data and information from various sources coalesce to move us from analog to digital maps. Chapter 4 covers the basic data models—vector and raster (order of the two models is not consistent in the text)—used in GIS, while chapters 5 and 6 detail how we manage information and work the data to make it visually accessible. Chapters 7 and 8 explain some basic analysis capabilities within information systems for vector and raster data models. Chapter 9 diverges from the discussion of GIS and introduces readers to basic cartographic principles. Campbell and Shin conclude their textbook with Chapter 10 and a discussion on management of GIS projects. \r\n\r\nThe PDF version lacks an index and a glossary, which would benefit readers, particularly since GIS is such a jargon-filled tool. \r\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Campbell and Shin took care in making general statements about the application and use of GIS, which will help sustain this book. Some of the website links the authors placed in the text, on the other hand, have already broken (see pgs. 19 and 101, for example). Adoptees and readers, of course, will want to supplement the text with short articles on advancements in geospatial technologies, as the authors advise in Chapter 1. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This textbook is easy to follow and the inherent technical jargon of GIS is explained well. Repetitive sentences and unnecessary phrasing, however, abound, and a few of the context examples the authors provide are too in-depth for an introductory textbook. Such examples are more suitable for a GIS module/lab book. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Terms used in the text and the framework stay consistent for the most part. \r\n\r\nThere is a noticeable variance in the ordering of discussions about the two types of basic data models in the textbook. In Chapter 4, the subsections are 4.1 Raster, 4.2 Vector, and 4.3 Satellite Imagery and Aerial Photography. But in the data model analysis chapters (7 and 8), vector appears first in Chapter 7. \r\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The authors did an excellent job of partitioning the text. Not only do chapters contain subheadings to guide the reader, but each chapter is broken up into three to four subsections—5.1, 5.2, 5.3, for example. The length of these subsections will serve well the needs of instructors as they assign course readings or of professionals looking to brush up on their GIS terminology. The chapters can easily be rearranged to meet the needs of the user. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Aside from the raster/vector order discrepancy already mentioned, the general flow and organization within the chapters is fine. However, the chapter flow is interrupted with Chapter 9’s placement. The information in Chapter 9 would fit better after Chapter 2 or as the conclusion to the book.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall, the text is satisfactory. Some images and tables, however, have awkward breaks between the pages, such as the Exercise Table on pages 119 to 120. \r\n\r\nThe PDF document I downloaded from the Open Textbook Library at the University of Minnesota lacked the table of contents and the list of figures and tables, and the blue links (or at least that is what I thought they were) on certain captions, endnotes, and figures for navigating the PDF did not work. \r\n\r\nIn Chapter 2, the authors placed a box at the end of the chapter called a “Waypoint,” which contained an intriguing dialogue on satellite images. The authors could place more of these boxes throughout the text to showcase the power of geospatial technologies.\r\n","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical errors were minimal, but several words and sentences could be removed to make the book more concise.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant and not offensive. Branching out and discussing what other countries and unions are doing with geospatial technology, particularly regarding satellite data collection, would add to the overall picture the authors present on GIS. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":282,"first_name":"Stephen ","last_name":"Leisz","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers all the essentials of GIS as its title says, and more so.  The most comprehensive parts of the book are chapters 2 through 8 which cover Maps and Cartography, the differences between Data and Information, where to find data, Data models, Geospatial Data Management, Data descriptions and summaries, and Geospatial vector and raster analysis.  These points are well presented, clear and easy to follow.  The information is also general enough (and fundamental) and will not need to be updated soon.  The last two chapters on Cartographic principles and GIS Project Management, are not always as thoroughly covered as they could be in basic GIS classes that I have reviewed and these two chapters are a welcome addition to the basic GIS coverage of the book.\r\n\r\nThe first chapter where information related to the background of GIS is covered is adequate, but not as well organized as I had expected, especially on reflection after having read and reviewed the whole book.  The first chapter doesn't introduce a definition of GIS until the third section. I found this slightly annoying as I felt that a first time reader would be slightly lost, not having a definition of the subject that the textbook is covering.  When the definition of GIS is discussed it is discussed through an overview of the 'three approaches to GIS'. For my class when I teach it I prefer to augment this type of discussion with an explanation of my preference for what 'GIS' is.\r\n\r\nThe second chapter does a nice job of overviewing maps and cartography and is useful as presented. In this chapter I would have also liked to see a more thorough discussion of moving from 3-D space to 2-D space and at least a mention of the the geoid, eillipsoid and more discussion of datums.  A list of datums used worldwide would be a nice addition as an appendix.\r\n\r\nAnother weakness to the book, but one that the authors cannot fix, is the way that the textbook is presented thorough umn.edu as it is without a title page, author page, or table of contents. This is a weakness to the presentation of the book and to the use of the book.  It makes it more complicated for the user to assign specific chapters to students (as I like to do).\r\n\r\nOverall I would recommend this book for use in an intro GIS class or as a basic reference for the casual user (and have already done so).  All the essentials are there and if the lecturer mixes and matches the chapters to their specific classroom flow, it will be a good complement to a class on GIS.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I didn't find any inaccuracies in the book. Concepts are clearly and accurately explained. The examples to the vector and raster analysis, and data models are very nicely laid out.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is general enough that it will not be outdated quickly as a basic text. However some of the online links are no longer up / available. That is a minor annoyance if one wants to click through to the book's linked examples.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"From chapters 2 through 9 I found the explanations offered in the book very clear and concise and easily understood.  Chapter 1 could be reorganized to provide a clearer introduction to the subject.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Except for the reversal of the order that vector and raster data and analysis are talked about from chapter to chapter I found the book consistent in its presentation.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter covers one subject.  It would be easy to use the chapters as stand alone additions to a lecture course on GIS.  However, the lack of a table of contents makes it harder to gain an overview of the modules and harder to direct the students to the specific chapter of interest.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The books organization is logical and consistent (expect for chapter 1).  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"It is easy to navigate through the book, although a table of contents and index would help with this aspect.  The images and charts are easy to look at, expect for figure 1.6 which seems to run off of the page.  ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book is well written with few grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No cultural problems jumped out at me as I was reading it.  Examples are drawn from all over the world and overall culture is discussed neutrally in the book.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall this book covers the basics of GIS and can be easily and usefully adopted into an introductory GIS course. It is a very good alternative to the more expensive GIS texts which are otherwise available.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":559,"first_name":"Kathleen","last_name":"Nuckolls","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Kansas","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is comparable in scope to many GIS texts on the market, and would provide students with a level of detail appropriate for an introductory course. Its straight-forward explanations and emphasis on cartographic literacy make it a particularly strong choice for non-geography majors. In addition, the text covers some topics that are often excluded or glossed-over by other authors. I particularly appreciated the last two chapters on cartographic principles and project management. Although many introductory texts mention cartography, I have found that few explain it in sufficient detail to allow students to make consistent, informed choices when designing map products. The last chapter is similarly important for students wishing to pursue a career in GIS, who will be happy to have a basic knowledge of project management before landing their first GIS job. This text provides a solid introduction for students of many disciplines, as well as for working professionals who need to understand the strengths and limitations of GIS. Unfortunately, its usefulness as a potential reference resource is hampered by the book’s lack of a glossary or index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not find any errors or evidence of bias.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text explains the fundamental concepts of GIS, with a few references to emerging trends and technologies. It should remain relevant over the long-term, with a few judicious updates. However, the book includes many URL’s which would need to be checked and updated regularly.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book does not assume any prior knowledge of the topic, beyond the basic map skills familiar to any adult. The writing is clear and understandable, without either talking down to the reader or using unnecessary jargon.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book’s framework is consistent and useful. Every chapter includes an introduction and three of four subsections, each of which begins with one or more learning objectives, followed by topic headings, “key takeaways,” and exercises. Terminology is used consistently throughout.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text does a nice job of using pop-ups associated with keywords to orient readers to definitions that have been covered in other chapters. For more in-depth coverage of concepts, the reader is referred to the appropriate chapter and section. These references are generally useful, but some of them seem unnecessary and might prove annoying if the chapters were assigned in a different order.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics within each chapter are organized in a logical order, as are the chapters themselves, with the possible exception of chapter nine. I would have preferred to keep the cartographic principles covered in chapter nine together with the information on “map anatomy,” which is located it the second chapter.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The pdf version of the book lacks a table of contents, which would make navigation much easier. However, the html version of the text begins with a hyperlinked table of contents, which includes separate links for each chapter and subsection. Furthermore, each portion of the book contains links to the previous section, next section, and back to the table of contents, making navigation easy and intuitive. Unfortunately, the in-text references to other chapters do not work as hyperlinks, as they were apparently intended to. The html version also includes bolded key terms that provide pop-up definitions for each term.\nThere is also a Word version of the book available from http://www.saylor.org/books/. Although this version does not currently contain a table of contents, the text is organized under appropriate section headers, which would allow instructors to easily rearrange contents and construct a custom, hyperlinked table of contents. The word version also includes references in footnotes, rather than including them in the body of the text, improving the flow (references are cited in the body of the pdf and html versions). Unfortunately, the word version does not highlight keywords, which would likely be a problem for some students.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is written in an inclusive and inoffensive manner.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":788,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Hall-Brown","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"University of North Carolina Greensboro","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems\" truly does cover the essentials of an introductory level GIS textbook. Campbell and Shin's discourse on the basics of GIS is exceptional while still maintaining a very \"readable\" text.   Examples are relatable and presented in a down to earth manner.  From \"What is GIS?\" to basic spatial analysis, the GIS component is nicely covered. I appreciate the chapters on Cartography and Project Management. While Cartography is occasionally included in introductory GIS textbooks, the depth of the information is usually lacking. Everything is for naught if your intended audience cannot understand your final product.  I also especially appreciated the chapter on Project Management. The information provided within this chapter offers the student an insight into how a project moves from inception to completion. With the costs of GIS textbooks climbing to well over $100, I am grateful that there is an online option.  \"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems\" is a comprehensive and well written book... (minus some editing issues).  \n\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the book is accurate. I did not find any errors of content within this book. I appreciate that the authors did not highlight one GIS program or company over another. The book focused on GIS basics that transcend individual GIS companies. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"\"Essentials of Geographic Information\" will be able to stay relevant for quite some time as the concepts presented within this book (What is GIS?, Map Anatomy, Vector vs Raster datasets, Cartographic principles) are general and basic enough to ultimately be timeless. Even the technical explanations are presented in such a way that they too will not become obsolete quickly. The URL links are the only things that may become questionable, and as such, will need to be checked and updated.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is written very well. The headings, examples and figures provided in the first chapter are lighthearted keeping the tone of the book friendly and fun. The discussion of each chapter's topic is both clear and concise. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book makes it easy to assign any GIS topic in any order. The understanding of the material in one chapter does not depend on previous chapters. There are places, however, where the reader is referred to previous chapters where a definition and/or discussion of a term is located. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization of the book make sense. Chapters cover one topic and are broken down into subsections. Each subsection is preceded by bulleted \"Learning Objectives\" with \"Key Takeaways\" provided at the end. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I saw only two instances of where images had gone awry; pages 248 and 256. The information is not lost but the image is too large for the page. The bookmark navigation within the pdf is correct. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I saw no grammatical errors. However, there were several references within chapters 9 and 10 (citations and figures) that were omitted. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"I don't believe \"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems\" to be offensive to anyone. The examples used in the cartography chapter, 9, are relevant to US elections.     ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I will use this book next year for my introduction graduate level course, Understanding Geographic Information Systems.  It would be nice if the citations and figures within the last two chapters are corrected before then. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1235,"first_name":"Darlette","last_name":"Meekins","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Virignia State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is too convoluted for my students to follow alone.  For my beginners GIS course, the book neglects to introduce the basic principles.  It lacks practical exercises that allow the students to work directly in the ArcGIS workspace. Thus familiarizing them with the software.  The basic components of GIS are  not covered in-depth.  Students need to know how to create spatial features as well as to use them as representation.  It does not explain GIS and its concepts to the novice student.  The pdf lacks a glossary, Index or table of contents.\nAs the Instructor, however, there are some chapters that I would use in my course during the mid portion of my term.\n\nOverall, the book is quite thought provoking and will provide a challenge and offer additional critical thinking to the concept of GIS.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The concepts were clearly explained.  The content is accurate and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the text content is written in a way that updates will not be necessary in the near future.  The content is up to date, but several of the resource links were broken.  If this PDF is used in my course, I will have to supplement it with additional exercises, references, and expand upon the applications from a more basic perspective.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Some of the content in the chapters are advanced for my general education students taking GIS for the first time.  The text is clear and comprehendible for me but I will have to supplement each chapter, maybe use  PowerPoint.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent with the chapter headings and subtitles","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Great job was done in partitioning the chapters,subheading and sections.  The lack of a table of contents made it difficult to navigate through the book; when searching for a specific topic","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization and structure order appear to flow rather well, accept for The Cartography Chapter.\nThis chapter should have been presented earlier in the book.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is satisfactory; the broken links are causing some navigation problems.  The display features were necessary and relevant.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant and not offensive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, the book is Good and I will recommend it to my colleagues and eventually to my students.  It covers principles related to GIS but not the actual principles involved in GIS for the Novice.  I would gladly use the book as a reference.  I hope to incorporate portions of this book into my course with some adjustments and more hands on activities in ArcGIS Desktop.  My students need to the fundamentals; i.e. the components of ESRI ArcGIS: ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox. In addition to how to create spatial features and data within the attribute tables.\n\nI do appreciate the efforts put forward in writing this Publication.\n\nRespectfully.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1320,"first_name":"Thomas","last_name":"Allen","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Old Dominion University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The authors cover a wide range of GIScience that would allow for a core foundation combining geographic abstraction and \"spatial thinking,\" data models and structures, cartographic representation, and importantly, a variety of data sources (e.g., GPS and remote sensing.)  Some included content is rather surprising, yet also welcomed, such as the strong coverage given to \"map anatomy\" and GIS project management.  Oftentimes other \"cookbook\" approaches to introductory GIS will omit the vital issues of cartographic principles (color, symbology, and design).","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Fundamental GIS data and analytical techniques are presented very accurately. The conceptual basis of GIS is rooted in geographic and spatial abstraction, which provides for a sound mix of \"spatial thinking\" applied to actual GIS data. Terminology is introduced and referred later unambiguously.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Currency is an enormous challenge for any textbook in GIScience and Technology. GPS technology is presented rather lightly and historically, with accurate but limited currency, for instance on international GNSS constellations (GNSS includes Galileo, GLONASS, for instance, as well as regional satellites for positionining such as BeiDou-2 and WAAS.) Overall, however, the material presented at a fundamental learning level balances rigour and relevance with longevity. Map essentials or \"anatomy\" are critical and timeless in this sense.  Raster and vector data models are also time invariant. As compared to some texts, the book focuses on essentials and not the rabbit hole of arcane historic structures (e.g., GBF DIME files).  The revolutionary development of LiDAR, however, is something that may merit introduction at this level, and it blends vector and raster data structures (LAS files, point clouds, and derivative DSM and DEMs.)  Unfortunately, LiDAR is not introduced.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Spatial data and analytical techniques are quite clearly presented in the text. Illustrative figures are well chosen and augment the textual content. A few additional graphics might further improve students comprehension of new, abstract spatial structures. For instance, TINs are introduced and only one graphic of a TIN surface model is given. This rather limits the fundamental notion of TINs as vector structures with attributes, as well as their intrinsic relationship to topography and surface modeling.  TINs are not mentioned in the vector GIS data structure section nor the single-layer vector analysis section.  \n\nThough there are moderate gaps in some of the individual sections, overall the content presented is clearly conveyed. The written explanations are easily followed. White space and interspersed figures supporting concepts are replete. The style and length of subsections allow for one to easily and non-fatiguingly read through chapters.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The layout and presentation are quite consistently organized among sections.  Learning objectives, key concepts, and after-chapter mental exercises are very integrative as well as keeping the learner on track within chapters/modules.  Between sections, key terms are also unambiguously mentioned.  One COULD see a bit more synthesis or even repetition fruitfully employed, however. For instance, TINs not presented again after a cursory introduction in data structures, yet they could be reviewed or mentioned again usefully in the vector structures, spatial interpolation, or terrain mapping sections.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapter organization balances content and length very well.  Ten chapters would conform very well to applications in weekly readings in a course that supplemented the text with other exercises, yet allowing for emphasis or de-emphasis as an instructor chose.  No chapters too lengthy or conceptually overburdened.  Some modules could be dropped in actual instructional use if, for instance, an instructor wished to use another source for greater detail.  There is very little burden of self-referencing, almost to a fault, as some re-enforcement or application of data concepts might be useful.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"A logical and cumulative structure of content is used that makes great sense and jives with most other GIS texts and authoritative pedagogical references (e.g., GIS Body of Knowledge and other related \"core curricula\".)","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Available as a PDF and online, both formats are stylistically easy to navigate, cogent, and appropriately supported with embedded graphical content. The online format is easy to page and refer or jump to alternative sections.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is free from grammatic errors and would be easy to read and follow from a very wide range of readers.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No cultural biases are evident in the book, and there are no national or unusual localized biases toward data structures or sources or terms as sometimes can be found in GIS texts.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"\"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems\" is exactly what it is entitled, providing introductory concepts that are importantly rooted in spatial thinking, mapping and related geographic concepts. Although a few concepts tend toward a light or cursory nature, these are easily augmented by an instructor with other resources.  The book is to be prized for its accessibility, pragmatism, and provision of a rigorous yet easy to follow framework for GIS concepts, spatial analysis, and future learning.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1386,"first_name":"Joanne","last_name":"Logan","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of Tennessee","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was thoroughly impressed by the comprehensiveness of this book. It covered most of the important aspects needed for an Introductory GIS class - from GIS and mapping basics all the way to project management. The book does not currently have a glossary nor an index, which would make it even more useful for instruction. Therefore, I highly recommend that the authors include a glossary and index in the next edition.  There are several new areas of GIS that were not covered in this book, due to the fact that it was published in 2011, more than 6 years ago. Since that time, LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) has become an invaluable addition to the GIS data inventory, and entire chapter could easily be devoted to this topic. Also, online mapping tools and mashups deserve more coverage in this book. However, I very much appreciated the generality of the book, i.e. it did not often mention specific formats or programs or data sources, which  of course, are moving targets and would require continual and frequent updates.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book was very accurate and error-free. The only misspelling I found was under the Table of Contents/Licesning Information instead of Licensing Information. Other than that silly error, the text was spot on with terminology and concepts. I have used mostly ESRI books in the past, which of course are biased toward their software platform and data formats. I believe the authors did a good job or presenting the wide array of GIS options, including open-source. Much of their information was generalized enough that it could be applied across a wide array of GIS platforms.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Because the author's did a good job of keeping the text as general as possible, the relevance of this 2011 book was a pleasant surprise. I expected it to be quite out of date, but not so. Of course, several of the links provided in the text were broken and need to be updated. Also, some of the images were pretty old and newer ones could be inserted. I think the authors could perhaps review some of the text that refers to specific sources of data, satellites, etc. and try to generalize even more. Also, some of the proposed exercises were perhaps a little too specific and might become outdated with new technologies and websites.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Due to the nature of the book, a certain level of jargon/technical terminology is to be expected. That is why a glossary would have been oh-so helpful. However, I felt that the terminology was appropriate for an entry level GIS book. Most of the book is very readable and easy to understand, even for a newbie. Perhaps several of the sections could be lightened up a bit, such as the vector data model topic.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The authors were very consist in terms of terminology and framework. I liked the way they often linked back to previous concepts to show the relevance of the newly presented information. The framework was also very consistent - learning objectives, materials in a digestible chunk (not too much, not too little for the most part), basic concepts learned, and further practice with exercises.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I found the modularity to be on of the best  aspects of this book. Some GIS books have very long and complex chapters, and students get lost or distracted. Their chapters and sections are very concise, with clearly stated objectives. Many of the sections are stand alone and not highly dependent on other sections, which is excellent for those of us wishing to daisy chain elements from several books.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"There are so many different ways that GIS instruction can be presented, but I thought their flow was as good as any of the other books I have used. The authors did jump around a bit between raster and vector, so perhaps those two aspects could be presented more cohesively.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I thought the interface was fine. The pdf file worked great in IBook and was easy to navigate. However, it could be improved by having a linkable table of contents (like it is in the html format), and a linkable glossary and/or index. I thought the figures and tables were very helpful, but some of them could use more descriptive captions.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"My only suggestion for improvement would be too keep the same grammatical tone as much as possible throughout the book. In some parts, it's very light and readable, in other parts, it gets quite complex and deep.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. They included some diverse examples of GIS applications, but even more diversity would be appreciated.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would use this book for sure, in the GIS class that I teach. I was pleasantly surprised by the rigor, breadth, and content.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1511,"first_name":"Joe","last_name":"Gordon","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Campbell and Shin’s “Essentials of Geographic Information Systems” provides a comprehensive overview of GIS.  They begin with a general introduction to geographic and spatial concepts (and the role of GIS within geography), and proceed to lay out the fundamental conceptual components of GIS in Chapters 2 through 5, including common elements of maps, common data types and metadata, challenges of researching, identifying, and finding relevant data, GIS data models (raster/vector), and database management.  Chapters 6 through 9 are dedicated to visualization and analysis, including selecting, searching and querying data, classifying data, common single- or multiple-layer analyses, raster and surface analysis, and basic cartography (color, symbology, map design).  Chapter 10 concludes with an important, albeit often overlooked, discussion about the challenges of effective project management, both in general and as specifically relates to the particularities of GIS projects.\n\nSubjects that could perhaps use greater exploration in Campbell and Shin’s book, include (a) geodesy (e.g., geoids, datums), (b) coordinate transformation, (c) global navigation satellite systems, (d) photogrammetry, (e) development of various satellite sensors, (f) lidar, (g) network analysis, and (h) types of geospatial models (e.g., weighted, spatio-temporal, agent-based).\n\nThe concepts in Campbell and Shin’s book that are particularly unique for an introductory GIS textbook include (a) spatial thinking (e.g., mental maps), (b) map abstraction (e.g., what is a forest?), (c) the challenges of acquiring accurate and relevant data, (d) the challenges of implementing effective database management, and (e) the practice of good project management.\n\nAlthough aiming toward providing a broad overview of GIS, Campbell and Shin also elaborate on a fair amount of subfield specifics, but not so much as to obscure or distract from the central points of interest.  The strength of the book is the emphasis on GIS practice and the actual decisions that lead from conceptualization and project planning to an effective deliverable with useful information.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Both in terms of broader GIS concepts as well as domain-specific and technical skills, Campbell and Shin’s book accurately provides the “essentials” of GIS.  I found no glaring conceptual errors or omissions.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is generally relevant and up-to-date, as relates to the current ecosystem of common GIS software, hardware, workflows, and functions.  That said, technology, data, methods quickly evolve, and the book will need to be updated as-needed.  The structure of the book, especially in the online version, allows for flexible inclusion of new material or elaboration upon specific components of existing material.\n\nI was a little surprised that Python was not mentioned regarding development in GIS, especially related to its current role in Esri tool development and general rise in data science.  That said, for an \"essentials\" book that is not focused on Esri software specifically, this omission does not seem that important.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear, and it is evident that the authors write from experience.  Throughout the different sections, a good balance exists between detail and conciseness.  Where detail is omitted, it seems that the authors implicitly suggest that some of the onus is on the student for a deeper understanding of the specific subfields, such as the case of transformations between projections, where the authors simply state that although “most GISs include functions to assist in map projections[...]an awareness of the potential and pitfalls that surround map projections is essential.”","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in structure (e.g., primary learning objectives at the beginning and key takeaways and exercises at the end of each section), tone (e.g., a guidebook of “essentials” for working with and understanding GIS), and GIS-specific content (e.g., lists of relevant GIS definitions and geography-specific jargon are laid out prior to exploration of subject).","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book lends itself well to modular assignment of sections, as needed in coordination with lecture or lab topics.  There are internal cross-referencing when topics intersect or overlap, but the references do not break the modular cohesiveness of the sections being read, especially in the online version where links are provided and use of the web browser enables easy navigation between sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization and structure of the subjects in the book are appropriate, beginning broadly with a discussion of geography and spatial thinking, moving on to GIS and maps (the most prominent or identifiable aspect of GIS), and finally the complex decision-making processes involved with data management, analysis, cartography, and project management.  The balance that Campbell and Shin strike regarding detail and conciseness on specific topics also plays out well in the overall structure of the book, whereby chapters are split into a few manageable sections each.  Compared with, hypothetically, on one extreme, a book with a few long chapters or (on the other extreme) many short chapters, Campbell and Shin have designed their “essentials” such that each chapter is suitable for about a week’s worth of reading and exercises, both in terms of required reading time as well as conceptual modularity.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Overall, the online interface is seamless.  Navigation via linear links (i.e., next/previous section) and nonlinear links (i.e., table of contents) are available, as well as subject-specific links within the text.  The charts are simple, appropriate to the subject, and intuitive.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Noticed one or two spelling or grammar errors, but overall the writing is professional and enjoyable.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"In Chapter 1 and 2, the book contextualizes GIS in terms of the ongoing development of social technologies and the related democratization of GIS, which is important for introductory students to understand in terms of the moving ground upon which GIS is evolving.  Additionally, the authors explore the ideas of bias and generalization, and the responsibility of GIS practitioners in the communication of information through maps.\n\nAlso, occasionally, the book provides examples of the incorporation of social data into GIS workflows, primarily by providing brief references to data sources for social or demographic data (e.g., census data) or types of data in potential analyses (e.g., income data in mall suitability analysis).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"No other comments other than I really like this book.  Our current textbook is good, as well, but perhaps too detailed for an introductory class of students using ArcGIS for the first time.  This book will be a good conceptual accompaniment to our Esri-based labs.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1683,"first_name":"David","last_name":"Ramos","position":"Professorial Lecturer","institution_name":"American University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Comprehensive information about data formats, data operations, and analysis. Less coverage of fundamental concepts, applications, and cartography.\n\nThe chapters about GIS data formats and data management are thorough and well-organized, though they too would read better if they included more narratives and concrete examples from the field. The information here is dense and thoughtfully explained, and diagrams support the concepts well. These chapters form the heart of the book, and represent the book’s greatest value.\n","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"No errors stand out; the book shows a certain level of generalization, appropriate for an introductory text.\n","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book takes an ecumenical approach to the choice of software; the authors wisely observe that GIS software changes quickly, and that students and instructors might choose any number of tools. This approach is welcome, in a world that too often teaches the details of one piece of software rather than the longer-lived principles that underly that software. Some more discussion of the ideas that programs embody, though, would help introduce in students a useful skepticism.\n","clarity_rating":2,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written.\n\nThe quality of the graphics varies considerably, an issue in a book that leans heavily on diagrams, example data, and model maps. Some sections would be clearer with more skillfully-drawn graphics. The explanation of projections, particularly, suffers. Other sections, like the chapters on searches and queries, and on vector operations, are accompanied by excellent graphics. \n\n\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"A quite internally consistent book, in terms of perspective and use of language.\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Chapters are self-contained and would read well in more than one order.\n","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"More case studies and narratives would help readers, particularly novices. The book offers a handful of examples—a glimpse at deforestation in the Amazon, or a hypothetical database query and its effects on returned data—but they are rare and abbreviated. More stories, and more real-world data, would help turn abstract concepts into concrete ones. \n","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The design of the book deserves a note. I read the PDF-formatted book. Whether for screen viewing or for printing, the book would be far more readable if lines were shorter. \n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatically, fine.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Generally neutral; appropriate awareness of the cultural frameworks that surround our use of maps.\n","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1901,"first_name":"Donna","last_name":"Dambrosio","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"University of South Florida","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is an excellent resource as an introductory GIS course for undergraduate and graduate students in a computer technology curriculum who have not had any prior experience with GIS. As the introduction states it “is designed to be accessible, pragmatic and concise.” (pg.2).There are ten chapters in the text which review GIS in a logical flow beginning with chapter 1 explaining GIS and why it is used. Within this chapter there is a discussion of spatial thinking and how we use special thinking every day. Chapter 1 also provides an overview of geographic concepts which define GIS and how GIS is currently used and how it may be used in the future; in addition, there is a discussion on the geospatial web. All of this affords a good foundation for the remaining chapters. An important component of this online text is the student’s ability to click on the external links to additional information. The remaining chapters present understandable lessons on cartography and cartographic principles, maps, map types, data and information, data files and formats, GIS data models, satellite imaging, data visualization, geospatial analysis and GIS project management. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with a review of concepts learned and topical exercises. In addition, the charts and illustrations provide good visual learning support. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content seems accurate.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content seems relevant and up-to-date since the authors provide link to pertinent websites. It seems that any updates can be added to the chapters if needed. An important component of this online text is the student’s ability to click on the external links to review additional information. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written and there are explanations of technical terminology.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"It seems internally consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"A chapter or portions of a chapter could be assigned for each week of the semester.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"There are ten chapters in the text which review GIS in a logical flow beginning with chapter 1 explaining GIS and why it is used. Within this chapter there is a discussion of spatial thinking and how we use special thinking every day. Chapter 1 also provides an overview of geographic concepts which define GIS and how GIS is currently used and how it may be used in the future; in addition, there is a discussion on the geospatial web. All of this affords a good foundation for the remaining chapters. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is accessible as are the external links.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical errors were not found.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There was no evidence of insensitivity.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall this text presents a well-balanced, clearly written and informative introduction to Geographic Information Systems. I enjoyed reading this text and will use it for the GIS course.","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2220,"first_name":"Elia","last_name":"Machado","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY)","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"“Essentials of Geographic Information Systems” provides an accessible foundation of GIS and mapping at the undergraduate level, suitable for readers without previous experience with GIS, mapping, or spatial thinking. \n\nThe book is not very concise, but it is well written, engaging, and promotes the critical thinking of the reader by interspersing several questions and comments to encourage the critical examination of the content presented (e.g., what is included in mental maps, section 1.1). I also appreciate that it helps developing a sense of the type of questions that can be examined using a GIS and spatial thinking skills.  \n\nEach unit starts with a clearly laid out set of objectives and concludes with a summary of the main takeaways and a set of exercises. Altogether the units provide a broad foundation of GIS and mapping. Some of the main topics covered include: Spatial Thinking and GIS definition, map types (mental, reference, thematic, dynamic), map elements and scale representation, GIS data models and associated file formats (vector vs. raster), coordinate systems (only GCS) and projections, remote sensing and remote sensing data resolutions (very basic introduction), data quality (accuracy vs. precision), descriptive statistics and histograms, attribute and spatial queries, data classification methods, vector and raster data operations (including local, neighborhood, and zonal operations, and interpolation), cartographic principles and map design, and project management. \n\nOverall, the level of depth is adequate for an introductory textbook, but there are few potential weaknesses: i) the unit on coordinate systems and projections did not seem to offer the necessary depth, and did not include a discussion on planar coordinate systems, omitting two widely used coordinate systems in the U.S. (UTM and State plane), ii) the textbook does not cover how to read and specify coordinates from paper maps or USGS digital topo maps, iii) the unit on remote sensing is also quite brief and defines spectral resolution using the term wavelength without defining it first, some additional links would be helpful in this regard, iv) there is no coverage of the different types of thematic maps (choropleth, dot density, graduated symbols, flow maps, etc) and the data suitable to be represented by each type. Choropleth maps are briefly defined in unit 6, but the definition omits an important characteristic of them: the data represented in choropleth maps are aggregated by area (e.g., administrative areas). In addition, the authors use a choropleth map of population by county in the U.S. to illustrate the effect of different classification methods on the spatial patterns of the same dataset. Choropleth maps are ideal to identify spatial patterns, but their use with absolute numbers is discouraged because in many cases the aggregation units differ in size. Since it is difficult to make comparisons across units of varying sizes, transforming the data to percentages and rates is recommended when using choropleth maps. \n\nA table of contents is provided in the description of the textbook, but not in the version of the .pdf that I have downloaded. There is no glossary or index of terms, which would be very useful.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the content of the book seems accurate.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the book focuses on the fundamentals of GIS, is up-to-date, and will remain relevant over the long term. Some references to GIS applications, external links, and software will need to be checked and updated on a regular basis.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is well written at an introductory level. Most of the concepts included are defined in a clear, accessible manner, with a few exceptions (e.g., wavelength).","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The terminology used throughout the book is consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is subdivided in a logical manner and can be read/assigned as separate chapters. There are internal references to other chapters in the book. It would be very useful to have a table of contents in the .pdf version with page ranges for easier navigation, reference, and identification of the length of each section.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The sequence of topics and chapters progresses logically, but personally I would have preferred having Chapter 9 (cartographic principles) after Chapter 6 (data characteristics and visualization).","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"A table of contents is included in the description of the book, but there is not a table of contents included in the .pdf of the book I downloaded from the Open Textbook library. This hinders navigating through the text and having a sense of the extent and structure of the book. It is also more difficult to refer to specific chapters for assignment. The online version starts with a hyperlinked table of contents and each chapter has links to the table of contents, as well as the previous and next chapter. The internal links to other chapters included in the text do not seem to work, this is also true for the .pdf version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I have not found major grammar errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. The authors promote a critical examination of what information is presented in map and the implications of how it is presented (e.g., mental maps, section1.1; map abstraction, section 2.3). These discussions are not typically included in “traditional”  introductory level GIS textbooks.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2579,"first_name":"Edward","last_name":"Davis","position":"Professor, Depat. of Geography \u0026 Earth \u0026 Environmental Sciences","institution_name":"Emory and Henry College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Campbell has covered GIS in a very complete way - the text may not include every possible element of the subject, but I think all the GIS essentials are given very complete explanations.  I particularly like the excellent coverage of data structures and statistics. These are areas sometimes given inadequate coverage, but Campbell gives them very good attention.  The latter chapters on cartography and project management are often neglected in GIS textbooks, but Campbell provides solid chapters that should really benefit students. One area that could have more coverage is remote sensing, which is a closely related field, but that is seldom taught within a GIS course - it is best taught separately.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is quite accurate, in my opinion.  I am a stickler for accuracy, but I found just a few errors - fewer than in most textbooks.  One small error will be discovered by students in Figure 4.11, where the topology table is missing a few values. But other than that, and a few typos, I am impressed with the writing, editing, and overall attention to the subject.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The textbook is designed to be relevant for years. Published in 2011, it is now 8 years old, and it seems quite up-to-date.  Yes, some of the references may seem outdated, but Campbell has written the book in such a way that the essentials are not hidden by a fascination with rapidly shifting technology.  For example, the data structures and the computer languages being used in relation to GIS now are mostly the same or simply derivative of those the author describes.  It would be impossible to keep up with all the computer language options in this kind of text - any professor will have to supplement the text with updates on that. This is not a flaw in Campbell's book.   The same is true for examples.  Campbell tries to avoid using examples that would be easily outdated.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing is clear and easy to follow.  I think students should have no trouble reading and even being fascinated by the field as presented here.  I do think three improvements could be made:   A. The text could have more structural highlighting, such as bold terms, headings or colored guides, so that as a student reads she/he finds the important terms and concepts easily.     B. Many of the diagrams could be better designed.  I find quite a few of them to be overly simplistic, to the point where the reality being modeled is too hard to imagine.     C. More examples from the real world should be included, particularly when talking about the most difficult subjects, such as data structures and project management.  Students will easily follow the examples already shown, but in some sections, the author seems to have forgotten to maintain his good style.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in its presentation of the subject.  Campbell shows he is a good writer and organizer.  We should also credit the editor(s).  The quality shows.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The chapters are logically structured and not too long.   But sometimes the author goes on too long without subheadings, which can allow the reader to be distracted.  Our modern culture creates short attention spans, unfortunately.  The book should work to reflect the typical student reader's ability to focus.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Most teachers will find the book to be logically organized and each chapter properly connected to the others.  One complaint I have is the decision to place cartography at the end of the book.  In my experience, students enjoy knowing these design principles earlier, so they can apply them in the middle of the course.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I encountered no interface problems other than a few defunct links, which is inevitable. The simplicity of design helps in this regard.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I am a careful reader, yet I found no grammar problems.  This is impressive.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is US-centric, but as far as I could see it is not insensitive to culturally diverse groups. Perhaps more examples from other cultures could be included.  In act, as I think about it, it seems the book could use more examples, so if there is to be a second edition, the best choice would be examples from outside the US.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like the book so much that I may adopt it for my course next year. Where it is flawed, I can make up the difference with a few adjustments (additional examples and diagrams).","created_at":"2019-02-23T10:07:40.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-02-23T10:07:40.000-06:00"},{"id":3964,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Kelly","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"University of Colorado Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is where I feel the text struggled the most. Some of the basic and very important topics, such as projections, data classification, and visual hierarchy, were mentioned in such brevity that the reader is left without proper instruction on these topics. The text tries to cover so much that it often seems rushed and lacks comprehensiveness in many areas. No index or glossary is included.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I was pleasantly surprised to find the text mostly free of errors. However, with the text having been published 8 years ago some of the links provided were no longer active or incorrect. I did find some areas in which the terms or explanations used did not fit standard conventions. Additionally, in a portion of Chapter 9 the figures are not referenced to in the text, only empty parentheses are included.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"With a technology like GIS, changes happen very quickly and with a major software revision to one of the most widely used commercial products occurring in 2015 updates would be needed to portions of the text to increase relevance. While some of the information may at first glance seem dated, the historical information presented provides the reader with background as to where GIS has been. On the converse, the text is not forward looking which is needed for a text based on computer technology.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book was designed as an introductory text for individuals that are not familiar with GIS. It introduces “key concepts behind the technology with practical concerns and real-world applications”. There are a lot of terms to learn with each indicate in bold text and well explained, but no index or glossary is provided. If a term/concept is discussed in multiple sections of the text they are indicated as such so the reader can switch between sections to gain full understanding of the concept. Many practical examples are used throughout the text which helps the reader understand the application of the concepts presented.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I found no issues with internal consistency. The framework used - a chapter introduction, and learning objectives at the beginning and key takeaways at the end of each section lends to a well thought out text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text can be readily broken down into smaller sections, not only by chapter, but within each chapter there are multiple sections that are clearly divided by topic. However, there are multiple incidences in the text where the author refers to other sections/chapters of the text that could make some divisions more difficult than others.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"I found the text topics did not flow well between a few of the chapters (3-5 and 6-9) with some rearrangement recommended. Furthermore, some of the chapter and section titles did not accurately represent the content or in one incidence repeated similar information. What did work was the use of an introductory section at the beginning of each chapter along with basic exercises provided at the end of each section within a chapter.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"In the PDF form there are quite a few images that run off the page, but when viewing the text online these issues do not exist. Otherwise, the graphics and interface work well.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Well written with no grammatical errors found.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"All information presented is done so in a culturally sensitive manner.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-06-11T16:19:48.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-11T16:19:48.000-05:00"},{"id":4023,"first_name":"Patrick","last_name":"Kennelly","position":"GIS Program Director","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Essentials of Geographic Information Systems is designed to be a book for an introductory book in GIS. It is comprised of ten chapters which include introduction, map anatomy, data/information and where to find them, data models for GIS, geospatial data management, data characteristics and visualization, geospatial analysis (vector), geospatial analysis (raster), cartographic principles, and GIS project management. I would say the first and final chapter of this book are relatively unique when comparing it to other introductory GIS textbooks. The first chapter focuses on mental maps, which could be part of a more basic course typically called something like “spatial thinking”. The final chapter is a summary of elements of project management. It doesn’t hurt to introduce GIS students to PM in an introductory textbook, but many might find this the most surprising chapter to include.\r\n\r\nEach chapter begins with learning objectives and then gets into the main portion of the chapter. The authors include images that are generally informative and colorful. They end each chapter with key takeaways and exercises. The exercises are typically reflective (e.g. compare and contrast), or task oriented (e.g. find your home). This textbook does not include GIS exercises or labs, so instructors using this book would need to have another source of these. Finally, the authors end with a few references that are designed as overviews of the ideas such as Monmonier’s How to Lie with Maps.\r\n\r\nThis book covers the main basics of GIS, but is not a deep dive into the technology and what it can do at the introductory class level. It was originally published with Flatworld as an OER, then when Flatworld was purchased only available at a cost for a while, and now it is available again as an OER. I reviewed some of the original chapters in 2011 when they were first written, and like the style and writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I would describe the content as accurate, error-free and unbiased. Each author is going to have specific ideas about how to present content, but I think book does so in a fair and balanced manner. It focuses more on the concepts of GIS as opposed to how it works, which I think is appropriate for this type of introductory text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content covered tends to be the fundamentals of GIS, so I would say that the longevity is good by design. The big ideas in GIS covered in an introductory class are not evolving rapidly, but of course the software and applications are. This only means that this book would have to be coupled with other lab or exercises resources if the instructor wants to include hands-on GIS work in his/her class.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing is clear and concise. It doesn’t go too deep into the jargon, and clearly explains the terminology that it does use.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The materials in this book are consistent in terms of terminology. I am unsure what is meant by framework, but I would say at times the internal arrangement of materials was not always the most intuitive to me. For example, the final chapter on project management includes sections on working with CAD data, applications development, map series and grid-to-ground transformations.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This seems like a very modular textbook to me. However, since it only has ten chapters, I don’t think it could be used for more than an introductory course, and the materials here might not be enough to cover every topic in that course in sufficient detail, depending on the instructor’s curriculum.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are organized in a logical manner, and probably follow the typical organizational structure of many GIS instructors when teaching an introductory course. There is always room for potential reorganization depending on how topics are covered, and the sections would help the instructor assign specific readings from chapters.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The book is available in both a pdf and online format. The online format is nice, and has a table of contents with links to all chapters and sections within the chapters. In summary, it’s very easy to navigate. I wasn’t as impressed with the pdf, as it doesn’t include a table of contents or links to specific chapters/sections. Moreover, only page numbers appear on each page, there is no indication of what chapter you are in unless there is a figure number or section heading. I’d suggest sticking to the online version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn’t notice any grammatical errors. I also know that the original material was reviewed by external reviewers, so I hope that such edits were made during this process.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This material is not culturally insensitive in any way. The authors also try so show some maps related to social justice when appropriate, such as deforestation, worldwide life expectancy, GDP and literacy disparities, etc.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Good as an introductory textbook, but will need accompanying exercise/lab materials.","created_at":"2020-06-20T19:51:59.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-20T19:51:59.000-05:00"},{"id":4130,"first_name":"Ashok","last_name":"Pandey","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Massachusetts Maritime Academy","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"As an introductory book on GIS, the authors have done a commendable piece of work. The book has a constant flow connecting all the ten chapters succinctly. Each chapter starts with a ‘learning objective’ and ends with a take –away summary and some simple exercises for the reader. The associated graphics and illustrations in the chapters are well conceived and literally say a thousand words! A good piece of work for the uninitiated as it tells a simple story of a complex subject.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"'Essentials of Geographic Information Systems' covers almost all a beginner would like to know about GIS. It makes an interesting read and I found the contents precise and accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The authors have written the book skillfully and retained its relevance although the world of GIS is transforming so rapidly with evolving technology and multi-disciplinary applications. The examples cited in the chapters are aptly put and retain their logical connection even though the book was first published in 2011.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The authors have demystified the complexity of GIS with a clarity of thought and purpose in this book. As an introductory book, the chapters give a peripheral knowledge that the student must possess. Connecting the chapters to practical to-do lab exercises may have made each chapter more interesting.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in its style and presentation. Complex and intricate terminologies have been avoided as far as practicable especially in the first five chapters to engage the reader and make the subject matter engrossing.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"A requirement for modularity is to clearly define the interfaces between modules and enable the modules to work together. The steps involved in the transfer of the flow of control between the author(s) and reader seems well defined through the organization of chapters and dissemination of introductory information. Small chapters keep the readers’ focus better that the book clearly displays.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is well organized for the teacher and well- balanced for the taught. The structure, flow and organization of the various sections is tidy, well-kept and straight.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I do not see a Table of contents in the .pdf version. The online format looks better. I suggest a modification of the .pdf format for people to read and save offline. All the associated web links work well in the .pdf format. The Kindle file format may increase readership particularly among students with PDA's/mobile phones.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book has been through multiple reviews to date. I did not notice any grammatical errors as such. The book has a lucid syntax and makes splendid reading.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The subject matter of the book is largely technical interspersed with management techniques.  The examples and illustrations cited in the chapters could be drawn from multiple regions and industries, however. The world of GIS encapsulates almost every activity and it may interest readers and instructors far and wide.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I shall recommend  this book to any reader who wants to understand the world of GIS. If a book can tell a complex subject and reads like a storybook, the authors have succeeded in making an impact on the uninitiated as well as the seasoned GIS practitioner.","created_at":"2020-06-29T12:15:29.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-29T12:15:29.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/essentials-of-geographic-information-systems","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:55.000-06:00"}],"links":{"self":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology.json?page=1","total_pages":6,"total_count":57,"next":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/geology.json?page=2"}}