Quantitative Modeling in Undergraduate Biology Courses: Teaching Approaches and Student Outcomes

该项目旨在服务于国家利益，在优秀的本科生物学教育中支持学生的定量推理技能。为了实现这一目标，该项目将考察生物教师实践对提高学生数量推理能力的影响。随着技术的进步，科学家越来越依赖于量化方法来开发自然现象的模型和理解。同样，公民需要能够解读日常生活中的量化信息，以做出支持社会健康和福祉的重要决策。几份著名的国家报告和教育标准都强调，本科生物教育需要更加重视数量技能的发展。然而，教师如何设计针对量化技能的课程，以及哪些教学策略最能支持学生发展这些技能，目前仍不清楚。因此，这个项目的主要目标将是调查教师使用什么类型的实践来教授量化技能，并确定不同的教学策略在多大程度上产生预期的学生学习。有了更多关于哪些教学实践是有效的信息，教师们就可以就如何帮助学生发展量化技能做出更好的选择。这个项目有可能对教学实践和学生结果之间的联系产生新的见解，同时也培养和支持致力于教授生命科学中量化技能的教员社区。本项目将调查本科生定量建模技能的发展。定量建模代表了一个复杂的过程，包括使用数学过程、对定量信息进行解释、开发描述给定现象的模型以及反映这些模型的性质和目的。随着技术进步推动了海量数据的收集和分析，定量建模在帮助研究人员描述复杂全球问题背后的动态方面发挥了越来越大的作用。这个项目将使用课程观察、人工制品分析和教师访谈来描述教师如何教授定量建模，重点是教师是否倾向于一起采用特定的实践组。参与教师课程的学生将完成一项评估，他们的回答将被用来确定定量建模不同方面之间的相互联系。最后，通过衡量全国生物课程的教学实践和学生结果，该项目将对特定的教学实践群体是否与定量建模知识和技能的特定方面的发展相一致进行大规模分析。一旦完成，这个项目将收集到所需的证据，以确定能够成功地将量化素养和定量生物学整合到本科生物学课程中的教学实践。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest in excellent undergraduate biology education that supports students’ quantitative reasoning skills. Toward this goal, the project will examine the effects of biology instructor practices on improving students' quantitative reasoning. As technology advances, scientists have increasingly relied on quantitative approaches to develop models and understandings of natural phenomena. Similarly, citizens need to be able to interpret quantitative information in their daily lives to make important decisions that support the health and well being of society. Several prominent national reports and educational standards have stressed the need for undergraduate biology education to put more emphasis on the development of quantitative skills. However, it remains unclear how instructors design lessons to target quantitative skills and which instructional strategies best support student development of those skills. Thus, the major goals of this project will be to investigate what types of practices faculty use to teach quantitative skills and to determine the extend to which different teaching strategies produce the intended student learning. With more information about what instructional practices are effective, faculty could make better choices about how to help students develop quantitative skills. This project has the potential to produce new insights into connections between instructional practices and student outcomes, while also cultivating and supporting a community of faculty committed to teaching quantitative skills in the life sciences.This project will investigate the development of quantitative modeling skills in undergraduate biology students. Quantitative modeling represents a complex process consisting of using mathematical processes, making interpretations of quantitative information, developing models that describe the given phenomena, and reflecting on the nature and purpose of these models. As technological advancements propel the collection and analysis of massive volumes of data, quantitative modeling has taken on an increasing role in helping researchers describe the dynamics underlying complex global problems. This project will use course observations, artifact analysis, and faculty interviews to characterize how faculty teach quantitative modeling, with emphasis on whether faculty tend to adopt certain groups of practices together. Students enrolled in the courses of participating faculty will complete an assessment, and their responses will be used to determine the interconnections between the different aspects of quantitative modeling. Finally, by measuring the teaching practices and students’ outcomes in biology courses across the country, the project will conduct a large-scale analysis of whether specific groups of teaching practices align with the development of particular aspects of quantitative modeling knowledge and skills. Once completed, this project will have gathered the evidence needed to identify teaching practices that can successfuly integrate quantitative literacy and quantitative biology into undergraduate biology courses. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.