SUMS4BIO: Strengthening Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics Education for Biologists

所有的生物学学生都需要对数学和统计学有全面和功能性的理解。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。生物系教师正在与数学统计学院合作，设计课程策略和材料，以提高生物学专业的定量技能。教师团队正在开发两个新的课程：一个新生级的生物学数学（M4 B）课程和一个小学生级的生物学统计（S4 B）课程。M4 B课程与两门生物学入门课程密切相关：生态适应和生物学入门研讨会。通过纵向整合的有意计划，学生扩展和发展剩余的生物学核心课程的基本技能。在大二期间，这两个部门明确将新的S4 B课程与生物学专业的最后一门核心课程有机生物学联系起来。S4 B课程让学生探索统计测试的基本假设和原则。学生利用这些新知识在有机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;数学专业的学生指导和建议生物专业的学生，因为他们开始在他们的课程中使用更复杂的定量工具。该项目正在为人口统计学上类似的机构提供生物学数学教学模式。所有的课程材料都可以在网上找到，在国家会议上提出，并在同行评审的科学教育期刊上发表。最后，拉德福大学正在为来自类似机构的生物学教育工作者主办一次全国会议，为传播该项目的模式并将其与其他地方开发的方法相结合提供一个论坛。

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.