SUMS4BIO: Strengthening Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics Education for Biologists

所有生物专业的学生都需要对数学和统计学有全面和实用的理解。该项目侧重于学生在较低水平的定量技能发展，并逐步发展他们的技能，以更复杂的水平。生物系教员正与数学系教员合作设计课程策略和教材，以提高生物学专业学生的定量分析能力。教师团队正在开发两门新课程：大一的生物学数学（M4B）课程和大二的生物学统计学（S4B）课程。M4B课程与两门生物学入门课程紧密相连：生态学与适应和生物学入门研讨会。透过有意的垂直整合计划，学生可在余下的生物核心课程中拓展及发展基本技能。大二时，两系明确将S4B课程与生物专业的最后一门核心课程《有机体生物学》联系起来。S4B课程让学生探索统计检验的基本假设和原则。学生利用这些新知识在有机体生物学实验室中发展概念更丰富和更独立的研究项目。该项目广泛采用同伴指导；当生物学学生开始在他们的课程中使用更复杂的定量工具时，数学专业的学生指导和建议他们。该项目为在人口结构相似的机构中教授生物学数学提供了一种模式。所有的课程材料都可以在网上获得，在国家会议上展示，并在同行评议的科学教育期刊上发表。最后，雷德福大学正在为来自类似机构的生物教育工作者举办一次全国会议，提供一个论坛来传播该项目的模式，并将其与其他地方开发的方法相结合。

All biology students need a comprehensive and functional understanding of mathematics and statistics. This project focuses on students at a lower level of quantitative skill development and incrementally develops their skills to more sophisticated levels. Biology Department faculty are collaborating with Mathematics & Statistics faculty to design curricular strategies and materials for improving quantitative skills of the Biology major. Faculty teams are developing two new courses: a freshman-level Mathematics for Biology (M4B) course and a sophomore-level Statistics for Biology (S4B) course. The M4B course is closely linked with two introductory biology courses: Ecology & Adaptation and Introductory Seminar in Biology. Through an intentional plan of vertical integration, students expand and develop basic skills in remaining biology core courses. During the sophomore year, the two departments explicitly link the new S4B course to Organismal Biology, the final core course in the Biology major. The S4B course engages students in exploring underlying assumptions and principles of statistical tests. Students use this new knowledge to develop conceptually richer and more independent research projects in Organismal Biology labs. The project makes extensive use of peer instruction; math students mentor and advise biology students as they begin to use more sophisticated quantitative tools in their courses. The project is providing a model for teaching mathematics in biology at demographically similar institutions. All curricular materials are available on the web, presented at national meetings, and published in peer-reviewed science education journals. Finally, Radford University is hosting a national conference for biology educators from similar institutions, providing a forum for disseminating the project's model and integrating it with approaches developed elsewhere.