Examining Undergraduate Attitudes Toward the Use of Mathematics in Biology

德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校获得了NSF改进本科STEM教育探索轨道奖，以开发和利用一种工具来衡量本科生命科学专业重视数学理解和回答生物学问题的程度。 根据期望价值理论，分配给任务的个人价值，例如使用数学来理解和预测生物现象（“生物学-生物学任务”），可以影响学生决定参加与任务相关的未来课程以及他们在任务中的表现。因此，培养生命科学专业学生的生命科学-生物学任务价值观，对提高学生的定量应用能力，培养合格的定量生物学家至关重要。为了实现这一点，现有的，验证数学任务价值的工具，数学价值清单（MVI），将适应和经验验证，以产生数学生物学价值工具（MBVI）。 MBVI将测量学生在生物学中使用数学的价值的四个维度：享受，有用性，高成就的需要和感知成本。 在由心理测量学，统计分析和定量生物学教育专家组成的咨询委员会的指导下，PI团队将使用形成性评估和修订的迭代周期，这将产生一个有效和可靠的措施，用于确定生命科学专业重视生物学-生物学任务的程度。 该工具将用于评估生命科学专业学生的生物学-生物学任务价值观的景观，包括实施不同类型的定量生物学教育改革的机构中男性和女性，入门级和高级，以及多数和少数民族学生之间的任何差异。

The University of Texas at Austin has received an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Exploration Track award to develop and utilize an instrument to measure the extent to which undergraduate life science majors value mathematics for understanding and answering biological questions. According to expectancy-value theory, the personal values assigned to a task, such as using mathematics to understand and make predictions about biological phenomena ("mathematics-biology tasks"), can influence a student's decision to enroll in future courses related to the task and their performance on the task. Thus, cultivating life science majors' value of mathematics-biology tasks is critical to their overall ability to apply quantitative skills and to the development of quantitative biologists. To accomplish this, an existing, validated mathematics task-value instrument, the Mathematics Value Inventory (MVI), will be adapted and empirically validated to produce the Mathematics-Biology Value Instrument (MBVI). The MBVI will measure four dimensions of student value of using mathematics in biology: enjoyment, usefulness, need for high achievement, and perceived cost. With guidance from an Advisory Board consisting of experts in psychometrics, statistical analysis, and quantitative biology education, the PI team will use an iterative cycle of formative assessment and revision that will produce a valid and reliable measure for determining the extent to which life science majors value mathematics-biology tasks. This instrument will be used to assess the landscape of life science majors' mathematics-biology task-values, including any differences between male and female, introductory and upper-level, and majority and minority students at institutions implementing different types of quantitative biology education reforms.