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Apple recently updated iTunes U with new tools for educators and students to better create, edit, and collaborate. While looking into the updates to iTunes U, I noticed a spotlight for a series of books I recall reading when I was in school. As it turns out, Dr. Edward O. Wilson’s “Life on Earth” has been completely redesigned as an immersive, interactive textbook series that is now available for free on the iPad.
Thanks to donations from supporters of the author’s Biodiversity Foundation, “Life on Earth” will be presented with animations, videos, and interactive modules in a 41-chapter series that meets the Next Generation Science Standards for high school curriculum.
“’Life on Earth’ comes alive on iPad, providing a stunning perspective on life. The interactive experience will ignite in students an appreciation for what they have inherited—this beautiful planet and every living thing on it—and an understanding of the role and responsibility we all have to preserve the biodiversity around us,” said Wilson. “I am immensely proud of the iBooks textbook series that the Foundation is providing at no cost to students and the public, allowing us to bring the meaning and importance of biodiversity to life for a global audience.”
The seven-unit iBooks textbook series was created using iBooks Author and is specially designed for the iPad although it can be read on Mac.
“We are very proud of the enormous effort by all involved in making E.O. Wilson’s ‘Life on Earth’ a reality. We have created a state-of-the-art teaching tool that brings a new dimension to our understanding of nature and biodiversity, and how it should be presented in classrooms,” said Dr. Paula Ehrlich, President and CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. “We aim to inspire a new generation of explorers and informed citizens who are prepared to take responsibility for conserving and protecting the biological richness of nature as a treasure to be passed on.”
The series of textbooks comes with an iTunes U course that adds even more interactive immersion to students. The course includes reading assignments, project-based learning exercises, and more using iPad compatible apps that are linked in the course material outline.
The first nine of the 41 chapters is available for free today in the iBookstore. Other chapters will be released throughout 2014. Free copies of the course will be available to interested teachers with iTunes U accounts the winter of 2014. Visit the “Life on Earth” page in iTunes to find more.
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