Integrating Quantitative Thinking into an Introductory Biology Course Improves Students' Mathematical Reasoning in Biological Contexts (original) (raw)
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CBE life sciences education, 2016
Redesigning undergraduate biology courses to integrate quantitative reasoning and skill development is critical to prepare students for careers in modern medicine and scientific research. In this paper, we report on the development, implementation, and assessment of stand-alone modules that integrate quantitative reasoning into introductory biology courses. Modules are designed to improve skills in quantitative numeracy, interpreting data sets using visual tools, and making inferences about biological phenomena using mathematical/statistical models. We also examine demographic/background data that predict student improvement in these skills through exposure to these modules. We carried out pre/postassessment tests across four semesters and used student interviews in one semester to examine how students at different levels approached quantitative problems. We found that students improved in all skills in most semesters, although there was variation in the degree of improvement among ...
1, 2, 3, 4: infusing quantitative literacy into introductory biology
CBE-Life Sciences …, 2010
Biology of the twenty-first century is an increasingly quantitative science. Undergraduate biology education therefore needs to provide opportunities for students to develop fluency in the tools and language of quantitative disciplines. Quantitative literacy (QL) is important for future scientists as well as for citizens, who need to interpret numeric information and data-based claims regarding nearly every aspect of daily life. To address the need for QL in biology education, we incorporated quantitative concepts throughout a semester-long introductory biology course at a large research university. Early in the course, we assessed the quantitative skills that students bring to the introductory biology classroom and found that students had difficulties in performing simple calculations, representing data graphically, and articulating data-driven arguments. In response to students' learning needs, we infused the course with quantitative concepts aligned with the existing course content and learning objectives. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by significant improvement in the quality of students' graphical representations of biological data. Infusing QL in introductory biology presents challenges. Our study, however, supports the conclusion that it is feasible in the context of an existing course, consistent with the goals of college biology education, and promotes students' development of important quantitative skills.
Infusing quantitative approaches throughout the biological sciences curriculum
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2013
A major curriculum redesign effort at the University of Maryland is infusing all levels of our undergraduate biological sciences curriculum with increased emphasis on interdisciplinary connections and quantitative approaches. The curriculum development efforts have largely been guided by the recommendations in the NRC BIO 2010 report and have resulted in revisions to courses in biology, mathematics, and physics over a period of 10 years. Important components of this effort included (1) developing online modules to infuse more mathematical content into six biology courses taken by biological sciences majors during their first two years of study, (2) strengthening the interdisciplinary connections of ancillary courses in mathematics and physics to support the development of quantitative skills in biological contexts, and (3) creating more quantitatively intensive courses for the final two years of the bachelors of science program. These efforts, carried out by a large, multidisciplinary team of faculty, have resulted in increased coherence in the undergraduate biological sciences curriculum, increased quantitative skills in first and second year students, and a greater appreciation among graduates for the essential relationship between mathematics and modern biology.
2016
Integrating mathematics into science classrooms has been part of the conversation in science education for a long time. However, studies on student learning after incorporating mathematics in to the science classroom have shown mixed results. Understanding the mixed effects of including mathematics in science has been hindered by a historical focus on characteristics of integration tangential to student learning (e.g., shared elements, extent of integration). A new framework is presented emphasizing the epistemic role of mathematics in science. An epistemic role of mathematics missing from the current literature is identified: use of mathematics to represent scientific mechanisms, Mechanism Connected Mathematics (MCM). Building on prior theoretical work, it is proposed that having students develop mathematical equations that represent scientific mechanisms could elevate their conceptual understanding and quantitative problem solving. Following design and implementation of an MCM uni...
Mathematical Biology Education: Changes, Communities, Connections, and Challenges
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
Mathematical biologists have been leaders in many of the programmatic efforts over the past 60 years to reform both mathematics and biology education. This issue brings together a review of initiatives that have been particularly effective as well as addressing challenges that we need to face. In planning the issue, we discussed how the variety of methods to cover mathematics for biology students have changed since the Cullowhee Conference on Training in Biomathematics held in 1961 at Western Carolina (see Rashevsky 1962) and the NRC/NAS publication of Bio 2010. When Bio 2010 initially appeared, a special conference at NIH organized by MAA brought together three funders: NSF, NIH, and HHMI to address the challenges and an edited collection of responses appeared in book format: "Math and Bio 2010: linking undergraduate disciplines" (2005) edited by Steen. Since the re-activation of the Educational Committee of the Society for Mathematical Biology in 1996, authors have been invited to submit educational articles to the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, but this is the first special issue on education. The timing for this issue is propitious because it has been ten years since a National Academy of Sciences symposium celebration of the NRC/NAS (2003) publication Bio 2010. While three major publications resulted from that symposium: (1) a special issue of cbe Life Science Education (2010) edited by Jungck and Marsteller; (2) a special issue of Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena (2011) edited by Jungck and Schwartz; and (3) Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences: Models, Processes, and Directions (2013) edited by Ledder, Carpenter, and Comar, there has been a significant change in the past decade and many resources were not described in
Cell Biology Education, 2004
Too often, biology has been considered by both students and faculty as the ideal major for the scientifically inclined but mathematically challenged, even though the advantage of quantitative approaches in biology has always been apparent. Increasingly, biologists are utilizing mathematical skills to create simulations or manage and query large data sets. The need for basic mathematical and computer science (CS) literacy among biologists has never been greater. But does this require a fundamental change in the organization of the undergraduate biology curriculum? What is the utility of math/CS in different areas of biology? How can we best provide math/CS instruction to biologists so that the utility is appreciated? Do all biology students require a stronger math/CS foundation, or only those interested in research careers? Given the speed at which technology changes, what is the best preparation? Three different points of view are offered below. Dr. Roger Brent, President and Director of the Molecular Sciences Institute, reflects on the "innumeracy" common among biologists and argues that significant insights into biological problems may be gained from better mathematical intuition.
Essay A Transformative Model for Undergraduate Quantitative Biology Education
2010
Monitoring Editor: John Jungck The BIO2010 report recommended that students in the life sciences receive a more rigorous education in mathematics and physical sciences. The University of Delaware approached this problem by (1) developing a bio-calculus section of a standard calculus course, (2) embedding quantitative activities into existing biology courses, and (3) creating a new interdisciplinary major, quantitative biology, designed for students interested in solving complex biological problems using advanced mathematical approaches. To develop the bio-calculus sections, the Department of Mathematical Sciences revised its three-semester calculus sequence to include differential equations in the first semester and, rather than using examples traditionally drawn from application domains that are most relevant to engineers, drew models and examples heavily from the life sciences. The curriculum of the B.S. degree in Quantitative Biology was designed to provide students with a solid ...
LeBard RJ, Thompson R, Quinnell R. Quantitative Skills and Complexity: How can we Combat these Challenges and Equip Undergraduate Students to Think and Practice as Biologists?International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education. Special Issue: Biology Education Futures. In press October 2014. Mapping the pedagogical process of learning in biology has shown that fieldwork and laboratory practicals require students to use quantitative skills in a high-level learning context. These tasks include creating graphical representations of data or performing statistical analysis and are major areas of disengagement and poor performance. Biology educators face a challenge: how to keep students engaged in mastering new techniques and methodology to develop the ‘thinking of a scientist’, while developing confidence using quantitative skills (the ‘maths’). Here we investigate how an online learning module on the regulation of gene expression was used in a molecular biology course to simplify this complex process of learning in science. The module emphasised the links between the concept (gene regulation), experiments (growing Escherichia coli in the presence of different effector molecules and substrates) and the data recorded. An audit of student assignments and surveys before and after the introduction of the module indicated that students improved their data presentation skills. Results highlight the complexity of the task students have to perform and the usefulness of consolidating information and providing extra time via a blended approach to laboratory practicals and are discussed in relation to the theoretical frameworks of threshold concepts, thinking dispositions and mindfulness.