Dennis Holley
Looking back, it's clear that I have been a science nerd my entire life. A simple, almost toy-quality microscope my poor parents scraped and saved to buy me for Christmas when I was a child led to a career in science education that has spanned nearly 40 years.
During my science teaching career I have taught physical science, earth science and life science at all levels--elementary, high school and college. Concurrent with my teaching career has been my shadow career as a writer and author. At the classroom level I wrote all my own curricular materials--lectures, lab activities, homework assignments, review sheets, tests. All my materials were content-driven and inquiry-oriented. In my classroom the overpriced, colored picture books that pass for textbooks never came off the shelf. At the commercial level I have written and had published numberous curriculum supplement books ranging from microbiology to zoology to the development of critical thinking skills in students. Since retirement, I have continued my freelance science writing endeavors and most recently finished an introductory level college science textbook and lab manual for Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
I live in a very small community in the midwest where I enjoy a huge yard and garden. Most evenings during favorable weather you can find me out beside my large pond enjoying the fish, frogs, and water lilies and contemplating my next writing challenge.
Latest Articles
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The Ecological Importance of Reptiles
While reptiles are not as ecologically important to humankind as are fishes, birds, and mammals, they suffer at the hand of humans more than any other animal group.
Jan 10, 2010
- Dennis Holley
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The Cultural Impact of Reptiles
Every culture since prehistoric times has worshipped and revered or loathed and feared reptiles. Few animals evoke the range of human emotions as do the scaly creatures.
Jan 8, 2010
- Dennis Holley
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The Economic Importance of Reptiles
From the Biblical serpent in the Garden of Eden to present day rattlesnake roundups and the use of alligator hide as leather, humans have always interacted with reptiles.
Jan 7, 2010
- Dennis Holley
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Economic and Ecologic Importance of Amphibians
Humans have interacted with amphibians since antiquity. Some of these exchanges are direct and easily understood while other connections are more difficult to discern.
Dec 11, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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The Ecology and Taxonomy of Reptiles
Although most abundant in the tropics and subtropics, the nearly 8,000 species of living reptiles inhabit every continent except Antarctica.
Dec 10, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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The Ecology and Taxonomy of Amphibians
At around 5,400 species of frogs and toads, salamanders and caecillians, the extant (living) amphibians are the smallest group of tetrapod vertebrates.
Dec 10, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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The History of Reptiles
The species of modern reptiles are but mere shadows representing the shattered remains of what was once the grandest collection of animals on the planet.
Dec 8, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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Venomous Snakes
Only about 250 species of snakes have venom powerful enough to kill a human. Those snakes account for the deaths of an estimated 30,000-40,000 people per year worldwide.
Oct 5, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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The Characteristics of Snakes
"Always carry a small flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
(W. C. Fields)
Oct 4, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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The Characteristics of Lizards
Lizards and snakes are so morphologically similar that they are classified together into the same order and suborder.
Oct 2, 2009
- Dennis Holley
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