I teach molecular biology at a respected liberal arts college in Indiana. As a first year molecular instructor I went looking for advice on textbooks. Under recommendations from the previous instructor of this course I chose Weaver's book as an alternative to the now aging Albert Text. Frankly, the text has been a flop.
Why? Because it assumes a certain level of understanding of molecular coming into the course. A highly motivated student who has a strong background in research will enjoy this book, but as a general text it just doesn't work well. I find my students are just lost in the chapters. They are getting bogged down trying to work through all the gels and are missing the concepts being presented. I find that I must use figures from Albert's or Stryer (Biochem) to make the concepts clear. Perhaps it would be a good grad textbook with a student population that has an excellent understanding of 'gel science'.
Mostly I find it is just missing in general concepts. They summarize sections up in little orange boxes at the end which seems to be all the class seems to understand from the readings. I think they need to put more effort into making the general text more understandable to students by working on the model end and less on the experimental end.
I am not alone in my poor evaluation of this text. A prof who has been teaching the class for 15 years finally made the switch to this book this year to replace Albert. She gave up on Weaver two weeks into the class because of her class' fustration.
I would recommend this book ONLY to those who have first read it and feel it is going to be PERSONALLY useful.
