Biology undergraduate Mathematics Attitudes and Anxiety Program (BioMAAP)

雷德福大学(RU)获得了改善本科生STEM教育：教育和人力资源局(IUSE：EHR)探索和设计奖，该项目旨在设计、实施和评估干预措施，帮助生物专业本科生改善态度，减少他们对数学的焦虑。数学入门课程是许多有兴趣从事科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科的学生的主要障碍。由于学生对数学的态度与他们的表现密切相关，因此当前工作的目标是开发和研究减少学生对数学的阻力的策略。生物本科生数学态度和焦虑课程(BioMAAP)是一个具有凝聚力的课程，可以添加到现有的课程和课程中，而不需要取代内容教学。这些方法，包括生物反馈和元认知反思，易于采用，并积极地让学生减少自己的数学焦虑，改善他们对数学的态度。该计划的核心是一系列在线活动，并在当地资源允许的情况下提供补充的面对面小组活动。在生物反馈活动中，学生们使用简单的智能手机设备来收集他们自己对数学的生理反应的数据，并衡量他们对减轻焦虑干预的反应。元认知活动引导学生有目的地反思自己解决数学问题的方法和学习量化内容，有助于揭开数学的神秘面纱，改善学生的态度。虽然目前的研究涉及生物专业，但本项目产生的知识将适用于改善所有STEM学科学生的数学焦虑。这反过来将增加这些专业的持久性，并增加STEM专业进入研究生院和劳动力市场的数量。

Radford University (RU) has received an Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources Directorate (IUSE: EHR) Exploration and Design award for a project to design, implement and assess interventions to help undergraduate biology majors improve their attitudes and decrease their anxiety towards mathematics. Introductory mathematics courses are a key roadblock for many students interested in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Since student attitudes toward mathematics are strongly correlated with their performance, the goal of the current work is the development and study of strategies that reduce student resistance to mathematics. The Biology undergraduate Math Attitudes and Anxiety Program (BioMAAP) is a cohesive program that can be added to existing courses and curricula, without replacing content instruction. The approaches, which include biofeedback and metacognitive reflection, are readily adoptable and actively engage students in reducing their own mathematics anxiety and improving their attitude toward mathematics. The core of the program is a set of online activities, with supplemental in-person group activities available when local resources permit. In biofeedback activities, students use simple smartphone devices to collect data on their own physiological responses to mathematics and to measure their responses to anxiety reducing interventions. Metacognitive activities lead students through purposeful reflections on their own methods of solving mathematics problems and learning quantitative content, which will help to demystify mathematics and improve student attitudes. While the current study involves biology majors, the knowledge generated by this project will be applicable to the amelioration of mathematics anxiety in students in all STEM disciplines. This, in turn, will increase the persistence of these majors and increase the number of STEM majors entering the graduate school and the workforce.