An introductory open textbook for Animal Physiology

University of Toronto Mississauga offers a large introductory animal physiology course (BIO202, 480 students). It has been a challenge to recommend a single textbook that students can use effectively in BIO202. Introductory animal physiology chapters are often included in introductory biology textbooks and they cover some physiology topics extremely well. However, many topics that students should explore in more detail in a second-year physiology course are not available in such texts. Therefore, BIO202 students have been using more advanced physiology textbooks. Although these advanced textbooks have an adequate amount of information for some concepts, they also contain many advanced topics that students may be unfamiliar with and that may cause confusion. We would like to combine and adapt available open introductory biology and introductory physiology resources together in an open textbook that would be available for BIO202 students and would be a better match for introductory animal physiology courses.