Experimenting with Mathematical Biology (original) (raw)
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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
A New Undergraduate Curriculum in Mathematical Biology at the University of Dayton
researchgate.net
The beginning of modern science is marked by efforts of pioneers to understand the natural world using a quantitative approach. As Galileo wrote, "the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics." The traditional undergraduate course curriculum is heavily focused on individual disciplines like biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics with lesser emphasis on interdisciplinary courses. This fragmented teaching of sciences in the majority of universities leaves biology outside the quantitative and mathematical approaches and vice versa. The landscape of biomedical science has transformed dramatically with ad-* Corresponding Author
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.
Science One: Integrating Mathematical Biology into a First-Year Program
Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences
Structure about 45,000 students on the Vancouver campus large public medical-doctoral university recent high school graduates with interests across the scientific disciplines Faculty of Science has separate departments for each discipline sending instructors to Science One
New math for biology is the old new math
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.
2010
Biological problems in the twenty-first century are complex and require mathematical insight, often resulting in mathematical models of biological systems. Building mathematical-biological models requires cooperation among biologists and mathematicians, and mastery of building models. A new course in mathematical modeling presented the opportunity to build both content and process learning of mathematical models, the modeling process, and the cooperative process. There was little guidance from the literature on how to build such a course. Here, I describe the iterative process of developing such a course, beginning with objectives and choosing content and process competencies to fulfill the objectives. I include some inductive heuristics for instructors seeking guidance in planning and developing their own courses, and I illustrate with a description of one instructional model cycle. Students completing this class reported gains in learning of modeling content, the modeling process, and cooperative skills. Student content and process mastery increased, as assessed on several objective-driven metrics in many types of assessments.
Cell Biology Education, 2014
Recent calls for improving undergraduate biology education have emphasized the importance of students learning to apply quantitative skills to biological problems. Motivated by students’ apparent inability to transfer their existing quantitative skills to biological contexts, we designed and taught an introductory molecular and cell biology course in which we integrated application of prerequisite mathematical skills with biology content and reasoning throughout all aspects of the course. In this paper, we describe the principles of our course design and present illustrative examples of course materials integrating mathematics and biology. We also designed an outcome assessment made up of items testing students’ understanding of biology concepts and their ability to apply mathematical skills in biological contexts and administered it as a pre/postcourse test to students in the experimental section and other sections of the same course. Precourse results confirmed students’ inability...
We describe a unique Research Experience for Undergraduates and Research Experience for Veterinary students summer program at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis on the campus of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The program focused on interdisciplinary research at the interface of biology and mathematics. Participants were selected to work on projects with a biology mentor and a mathematics mentor in an environment that promoted collaboration outside of the students' respective disciplines. There were four research projects with teams of four participants and two faculty mentors. The participants consisted of a mixture of 10 undergraduates in biology-and mathematics-related disciplines, four veterinary students, and two high-school teachers. The activities included lectures on both the biological and mathematical backgrounds of the projects, tutorials for software, and sessions on ethics, graduate school, and possible career paths for individuals interested in biology and mathematics. The program was designed to give students the ability to actively participate in the scientific research process by working on a project, writing up their results in a final report, and presenting their work orally. We report on the results of our evaluation surveys of the participants.