Improving Quantitative Skills of Life Science Majors at Cal State Los Angeles

描述（由申请人提供）：加州州立大学洛杉矶分校提议进行一项为期五年的课程改革项目，以提高其生物学和生物化学本科生的定量技能，并为他们在生命科学领域的职业生涯做好准备。未来十年毕业的学生将有机会对个性化医疗、转基因作物和生物恐怖主义战争等不断发展的领域产生重大影响。面临的挑战是，生物数据的收集和特征正在以越来越快的速度进行，数据分析的工具很复杂。为了让未来的生物学家在这些令人兴奋的新领域做出贡献，传统的生命科学课程需要改变。自然与社会科学学院院长是该项目的项目主管，并将监督一个由生物科学系、化学与生物化学系、物理系、数学系和计算机科学系教师组成的工作组的活动。为了帮助我们的学生掌握他们成功所需的技能，我们制定了以下具体目标：(1)提高生命科学本科生的定量技能，(2)整合生物和定量科学课程（物理，数学，化学和计算机科学），(3)为学生准备研究生课程和生物信息学的职业生涯。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): California State University, Los Angeles proposes to engage in a five-year project for curricular change that will improve the quantitative skills of its biology and biochemistry undergraduates, and prepare them for careers in life science. Students graduating over the next ten years will have the opportunity to make a strong impact on the growing fields of personalized medicine, genetically modified crops, and the war on bioterrorism. The challenge is that biological data are being gathered and characterized at an increasingly rapid pace and the tools for data analysis are complex. For future biologists to contribute to these exciting new fields, a change in the traditional life science curriculum is required. The Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences is program director of the project, and will oversee activities of a working group of faculty from the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. To help equip our students with the skills necessary for their success, we have formulated the following specific goals: (1) improve quantitative skills of life science undergraduate students, (2) integrate the biology and quantitative sciences curricula (physics, math, chemistry, and computer science), (3) prepare students for graduate programs and careers in bioinformatics. To strive toward these goals we propose to accomplish the following specific aims during the project duration: (1) modify the mathematics curriculum for the Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, (2) introduce quantitative teaching modules into biology courses, (3) offer a minor in Bioinformatics for students with cross-disciplinary interests, and (4) create a campus-based Center for Interdisciplinary Quantitative Analysis. Our rationale is that meaningful collaboration between life scientists and quantitative scientists can occur only if there is substantive communication, at a high level, between them. By applying new pedagogical approaches, such as the scientific teaching approach, we expect that students will improve their quantitative skills and better understand the connections between the scientific disciplines.