For many students, particularly nonmajors, the history of life is far more exciting than the details of how evolution works. Stanley's textbook _Earth Systems History_ is quite good, as is Dawkins _The Ancestor's Tale_ and Richard Fortey's book _Life_. (The latter is a bit dated, as it was published in 1992.) Actually, my favorite book on the subject is a children's book from the 1980s: _The Evolution Book_ by Sara Stein. You might want to keep a copy on hand for teaching ideas.
Jane Shevtsov On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 9:08 AM, Madhusudan Katti <mka...@csufresno.edu> wrote: > Just following up on my earlier suggestion, there is a positive review of > "The Tangled Bank" in the recent American Biology Teacher: > > http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1525/abt.2010.72.3.13 > > “For students of evolution or scholars who want to know the specifics about > particular evolutionary processes, this is an excellent read. The fact that > it is understandable to beginners and fascinating to scientists makes this > book truly unique and valuable.” > > I would also recommend Carl Zimmer's excellent blog The Loom > (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom) as a companion to any course on > evolution. > > I like some of the other suggestions in this thread as well, especially Sean > Carroll's book. Coyne is very good too, and Dawkins new book is probably > dependable in getting the students' attention (I haven't read it). The > Selfish Gene is too old to be used as a general text for a course on > evolution. Moreover, with Coyne and Dawkins, I'd worry about alienating some > of the religious-minded students. I would hesitate to use those in a > non-majors class here in the central valley of California, for example. In > fact, I suspect that Coyne's book may have played a role in pushing one of > my own students (a grad student no less!) away from Biology because the > evidence/arguments in that book were too strong for this religious student > to handle. Of course that end result was good in some ways, but it depends > on what your goals are with the class. Besides, your audience in Princeton > (presuming it hasn't changed in the decade since I was there) will be rather > different from what I face here in Fresno - so your mileage may vary! > > __________________________________________ > Madhusudan Katti > Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Biology > Department of Biology, M/S SB 73 > California State University, Fresno > Fresno, CA 93740-8034 > > +1.559.278.2460 > mka...@csufresno.edu > http://www.reconciliationecology.org/ > __________________________________________ > -- ------------- Jane Shevtsov Ecology Ph.D. candidate, University of Georgia co-founder, <www.worldbeyondborders.org> Check out my blog, <http://perceivingwholes.blogspot.com>Perceiving Wholes "The whole person must have both the humility to nurture the Earth and the pride to go to Mars." --Wyn Wachhorst, The Dream of Spaceflight
