Anthologies Author: Ricki Lewis
When mathematics professor Mark Snavely needed a textbook for his interdisciplinary science course-called, simply, "Discovery"-at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., he didn't know where to turn. What text covered chaos theory, climate change, infectious disease, and the theory of relativity? Unwilling to make students purchase several books and use little of each, Snavely did what many creative professors are doing-he designed his own text.
WHAT THE PROFESSOR ORDERED: Mark Snavely, custom published a textbook for his interdisciplinary science course. "I pulled articles out of Scientific American and Science News; used chapters on ozone and the greenhouse effect from the American Chemical Society's book Chemistry in Context [Washington, D.C., American Chemical Society, 1993]; used a chapter from a book explaining relativity; and I wrote context-setting pieces," Snavely says. College textbook publisher William C. Brown Communications in Dubuque, Iowa, produced just what the professor ordered. The company...