Seeing the goal of their text as the growth of students' general scientific skills and understanding of their application to different situations, Closs (zoology, U. of Otago, New Zealand), Downes (environmental studies, U. of Melbourne, Australia), and Boulton (ecosystem management, U. of New England, Australia) introduce freshwater ecological science. In pursuit of their goal, they emphasize the scientific method and the effects of scaling on the measurement of ecological patterns.