Body Physics: Motion to Metabolism

Reviewed by Sean Jones, Instructor, Lane Community College on 7/31/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This text seems to cover exactly what it advertises. It provides an adequate foundation in Physics, then translates those principles to movement and metabolism. This would be quite helpful for Kinesiology students, particularly those who wish to work in Physical/Occupational Therapy, Clinical or Sport research, or even medicine.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content seems to be accurate and free of academic bias. The same can be said about the additional materials that are linked to.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

To my knowledge, the principles and their application to the body are up to date. I do not foresee the information changing.

Clarity rating: 5

While there is obvious technical jargon, it is necessary given the subject, and the authors have done a good job keeping the text easy to understand. The “Everyday Examples” provide clarify to the sometimes-confusing concepts, then demonstrate their use. Furthermore, the “Reinforcement Exercises” provide an external link to online media resources (typically a word problem) which I think students will really appreciate. This feature also provides the opportunity for the Instructor to check for understanding and award points.

Consistency rating: 5

Each section seems be consistent in how they organize and present information. The terminology is also consistent, building on previously learned terms and concepts.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is divided into logical sub-sections, which include Physical principles (e.g. Temperature Units) and those principles applied to the body (e.g. Hypothermia), which are paired together in each main section. If necessary, later sections could be re-arranged as necessary, while still providing a logical structure by which to learn the overall subject matter.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The organization and flow of the content is overall very good and easy to follow.

Interface rating: 5

I really enjoy how easy this resource is to use. Rather than the traditional textbook reading followed by lab, I think that students will really enjoy this format of reading, practical examples, checking for understanding, and interactive media. I think this course would work especially well for online or hybrid courses.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No obvious grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I did not find the material to be in any way insensitive or offensive. The included pictures and external links (YouTube, etc.) provide multicultural examples.

Reviewed by James Rittenbach, Science Instructor (mostly physics), Rogue Community College on 7/16/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Electricity as a specific topic is treated only in the context of electrical conduction and its relation to the same atomic properties of thermal conduction. That is, things that are good electrical conductors tend to also be good thermal conductors. Magnetism isn’t treated specifically at all. (Using the search feature in a PDF is handy for checking this sort of thing.) However, electromagnetism (e.g., sunlight) and electromagnetic waves are treated. An introductory physics course in 11 weeks necessarily covers fewer topics than a general physics sequence of 33 weeks and something has to be cut. In my OER introductory text (https://legacy.cnx.org/content/search?words=Rittenbach&allterms=weakAND&search=Search&weights.author%3Aint%3Arecord=50&subject= ), I cut a lot of the fluid stuff and have electrical circuits and the creation of magnetic fields due to any moving charge. So I would say this text is as comprehensive as mine with some difference choices in what content was cut.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Not only is the material accurate as to what is known now, the nature of the electronic version is such that it is easily updated and will easily allow student interactive testing on the updates via the H5P.org content. Examples can, of course, be seen in the text but are also highlighted on the OpenOregon site: https://openoregon.org/body-physics-h5p/

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Some aspects of this is addressed in the Accuracy section but the relevance aspect is particularly well done in this text. Every student has a human body so having this system as an overlying theme for an introductory physics text necessarily makes it relevant to the student.

Clarity rating: 5

Not only are terms introduced well but the key terms are hyperlinked. After the jargon is introduced, students are given a short interactive H5P quiz on it for immediate feedback.

Consistency rating: 5

The material is consistent not only in terminology but also the use of additional materials such as YouTube videos and H5P quizzes.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is broken into small sections. This is true not only of the written text but also the multimedia aspects incorporated into it.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

It is very much presented in a logical and clear fashion. That’s hard to mess up in a physics text, though. You pretty much have to talk about speed before you talk about kinetic energy (the energy an object has due to its speed).

Interface rating: 5

This text has a wonderful interface of seamless text, multimedia and interactive quizzes that all look great. I’m inspired to improve my OER physics text in a similar way.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not find any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Use of multicultural descriptions/uses of/etc. of physics is well done, especially in the YouTube linked content.

Comments

This is so very well done. I'm going to be using this layout in my next major edit of my OER physics text.