Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (The FIU Q'BIC Implementation Plan)

描述(由申请人提供)：佛罗里达国际大学(FIU)是位于佛罗里达州最大的人口中心迈阿密的一所授予博士学位的城市机构。FIU目前招收了超过70%的未被充分代表的少数族裔学生(URMS)，其使命是将“健康”作为主要战略主题，并确保其本科生在生物科学方面获得尽可能好的基础教育，这符合既得利益。FIU是MARC U*STAR机构之一，它提交了一份建议，旨在实施一项创新的、战略性开发的计划，以量化课堂上的生物学(Q‘BIC计划)。Q‘BIC是一个综合的锁步队列计划(A Block Program)，短期内是作为定量生物学轨道提供的，长期目的是成为我们生物课程的格式。该区块的课程已经确定并协调了重叠协同的领域。由25名学生组成的小组一起学习这些课程，并在一个完整的概念框架内工作。 课程中的教学单元使用主动和合作的学习技术和基于问题的学习理念。该计划将数学、统计学和计算结合在一起，这样生物实验室产生的数据就可以用来教授统计概念，而生物过程就可以用来说明数学技术。因此，Q‘BIC的学者能够看到数学是如何对生物过程进行建模的。这种联系在可教单元中得到了强调，并展示了合理的生物学理论是如何产生的。Q‘BIC允许从解释实验和观测测量的角度来教授数学和统计学，激励学生学习统计学，并教他们如何成为科学家。Q‘BIC分为两部分：第一部分从大一开始，一直持续到大二；第二部分涵盖大三和大四。该块程序具有同步性和顺序性。Q‘BIC包括第一部分之后的Capstone夏季研讨会，该研讨会专注于建模和仿真。第二部分提供量身定制的高级课程，并鼓励学者参与资助的研究项目。 Q‘BIC有一个完善的形成性和终结性评估和评估部分，它有效和高效地衡量项目目标是否得到满足，最重要的是衡量Q’BIC学者是否真的在学习。Q‘BIC计划的总体目标是，完成该项目的学生将拥有在解决生物问题的概念、分析和定量方法之间流畅移动所需的技能，最终增加进入并完成生物医学研究生项目的URMS的数量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Florida International University (FIU) is an urban, doctoral-granting institution located in Miami, Florida's largest population center. FIU, with its current enrollment of over 70% underrepresented minority students (URMS), has a mission which includes "Health" as a primary strategic theme, and has a vested interest in ensuring that its undergraduate students are provided with the best possible foundational education in the biological sciences. FIU, a MARC U*STAR institution, submits its proposal to implement an innovative and strategically developed plan to quantify biology in the classroom (the Q'BIC Plan). Q'BIC is an integrated lock-step cohort program (a Block Program) which for the short term is being offered as a Quantitative Biology Track, with long-term intentions of being the format for our biology curriculum. Courses in the block have identified and coordinated areas of overlapping synergy. Groups of 25 students take these courses together and work within an integrated, conceptual framework. Teaching units within courses use active and cooperative learning techniques and problem based-learning concepts. The program integrates mathematics, statistics and computing such that data generated in the biology labs are used to teach statistical concepts and biological processes are used to illustrate mathematical techniques. Thus, Q'BIC scholars are able to see how mathematics can model biological processes. This connection is emphasized in the teachable units and shows how sound biological theories are generated. Q'BIC allows the teaching of mathematics and statistics from the perspective of interpreting experimental and observational measurements, motivates students to learn statistics and teaches them how to be scientists. Q'BIC is organized in two parts: Part 1 begins in the freshman year and continues through the sophomore year; Part 2 covers the junior and senior years. This block program has synchrony and is sequential. Q'BIC includes a capstone summer workshop following Part 1, which concentrates on modeling and simulation. Part 2 offers tailored upper level courses and encourages scholars to participate in funded research programs. Q'BIC has a well-developed formative and summative evaluation and assessment component that effectively and efficiently measures whether the objectives of the program are being met and, most importantly, measures whether Q'BIC scholars are actually learning. The overall goal of the Q'BIC Plan is that students finishing the program will have the skills needed to move fluidly among conceptual, analytical and quantitative approaches to solving biological problems, ultimately increasing the number of URMS who enter and complete biomedical graduate programs.