As far as I can tell, Wile has a PhD in chemistry and his research focus was nuclear chemistry. Additionally, his last professional article was published in 1993, and since 1995 he appears to have absolutely no association with any accredited university. From 1995 to 1998 he wasn't even doing vaguely academic work; he was doing database programming or something. Why would you use a biology course written by someone who doesn't have any credentials in biology?
Here is what one Amazon reviewer had to say about Wile's biology course:
At one point Wile compares a certain basic protein, which is known to scientists as one of the simplest building blocks of life, and that is present across all species, and compares the differences between the protein in one animal and the protein in another, and shows that there is no relation between how distant the animals are related evolutionarily and the differences in the proteins: but this is very poor science, proteins are heavily modified after they are made, which is why scientists go to the blueprint of the protein: the DNA. DNA is the genetic material We've all heard of the "human genome project", which mapped out the DNA of human beings, and we all know that the project found the DNA of humans was only one spot different from chimps, and a couple from gorillas and orangutans and so on, and it all confirmed what had been previously theorized about human evolution. Well while Wile presents "evidence" from a single protein, which really can tell us nothing about evolutionary history, he decides not to even tell the student about the Human Genome Project! This is gross negligence!Is it true that Wile doesn't even mention the Human Genome Project? If so, that's incredibly dishonest of him. What arguments for evolution does Wile discuss?
“Why would you use a biology course written by someone who doesn’t have any credentials in biology?”
Keep in mind this is a high school course.
To teach high school science in a public or private school, you need only your teaching degree and (normally) a Master’s in some sort of physical science. So, in your local high school, your science teachers may have a chemistry degree, or a biology degree, or physics, or marine biology, or oceanography, or any other number of hard science degrees.
So I don’t know why you find a Phd in Chemistry to be inappropriate for writing a high school biology text. College level, I could understand your concerns.
In regards to his not doing academic work since 1995, I imagine he was spending considerable time writing his textbooks. To ascertain their quality, visit www.apologia.com (I am not a salesman or any such thing, I am just providing the info for your perusal.) Tell me what you think about their quality. I have found no better high school level textbooks.
One of the things I especially like about Apologia Science is that Dr. Wile makes himself available via email to his students. I love it when someone stands behind their product in such a personal matter.
My Saxon DIVE CDs (Algebra 1, Algebra II) and my Spelling curriculum (Spelling Power) have the same accessibility to the writers. I love it.
In re: the human genome project, I don’t see where it is mentioned in the Biology course. Of course it may be, but it’s not in the appendix.
Module 7, mostly about cell reproduction, discusses Mendel, the definition of genetics, genes, chromosomes, DNA, histones, you do a DNA extraction (from an onion), mitosis (prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase), asexual and sexual reproduction, karyotypes (including male human cell mitosis), and viruses.
Module 8, mostly about genetics, teaches about true breeding, self-pollination, the four principles of genetics, alleles, genotypes, Punnett squares, pedigrees, monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, autosomes, sex chromosomes, autosomal inheritance, and mutation.
A reasonable amount of coverage of high school biology on the subjects of cell reproduction and genetics? What do you think?