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。这个项目关注的是数量技能发展水平较低的学生，并逐渐将他们的技能发展到更复杂的水平。生物系教员正在与数理统计教员合作，设计课程策略和教材，以提高生物专业的量化技能。教师团队正在开发两门新课程：一年级生物数学(M4B)课程和二年级生物统计学(S4B)课程。M4B课程与两门生物学入门课程紧密相连：生态学与适应课程和生物学入门研讨会。通过有目的的垂直整合计划，学生在剩余的生物核心课程中扩展和发展基本技能。在二年级，两个系明确将新的S4B课程与生物专业的最后一门核心课程--组织生物学联系起来。S4B课程让学生探索统计检验的基本假设和原理。学生利用这些新知识在组织生物学实验室开发概念更丰富、更独立的研究项目。该项目广泛使用同伴指导；当生物学学生开始在课程中使用更复杂的量化工具时，数学学生会对他们进行指导和建议。该项目正在为人口统计相似的机构教授生物数学提供一个模式。所有课程材料都可以在网上找到，在国家会议上介绍，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，为传播该项目的模型并将其与其他地方开发的方法相结合提供了一个论坛。

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.