Organized by: Stacey Smith? (The University of Ottawa)

Note: this minisymposia has multiple sessions. The other session is: and Part-2.

1. Kathleen Hoffman University of Maryland, Baltimore County
   "Improvement of Quantitative Reasoning Skills in Transfer and Direct Entry Students Exposed to Cell Biology Modules"
Calls for transforming biological curricula have emphasized a need for interdisciplinary STEM education. To address this, we designed six modules to develop quantitative reasoning competencies for a sophomore-level Cell Biology course. We analyzed validated, pre-post measurements of specific quantitative competencies to determine the effects of the modules on student proficiencies. Students showed significant total growth in quantitative goals for all modules and had significant positive correlations between final course grades, post-assessment performance, and overall gain across the modules with some differences between direct-entry and transfers students. Attitude assessments showed that students had an overall positive experience with the modules. Our data suggest that adding quantitative modules to core biology courses can promote student understanding of quantitative concepts for both direct entry and transfer students and can promote transfer student success in particular.
2. Meredith Greer Bates College
   "Assessment Strategies in the Teaching of Mathematical Biology"
Students have great fun learning about mathematical models in biology, and many faculty love to create these experiences. However, it can be challenging to develop meaningful ways to assess student progress. Exams in a modeling class may be an option, but the full modeling process can be messy, and modeling requires the sort of iteration that does not fit well into a timed test. Homework, papers, and projects all have potential advantages, such as allowing plenty of time for thinking, revision, and perhaps teamwork. Yet grading these assignments takes a long time in a way that does not scale up well to large courses, and faculty want to make sure the work is done by students, not generative AI. In-class activities, possibly in groups, and complete with deliverables, provide yet another possibility to consider. In this session we discuss multiple possibilities in greater detail. Time-permitting, we also open up discussion to the audience, to share more ideas and build a conversation about feasible and productive ways to assess student work in mathematical biology courses.
3. Angela Peace Texas Tech University
   "Teaching Mathematical Ecology across the disciplines"
Effective collaboration between mathematics and biology is essential for tackling today’s complex ecological challenges—but it starts in the classroom. Here, I explore strategies for teaching Mathematical Ecology in a cross-disciplinary setting, with a focus on fostering communication and collaboration between mathematics and biology graduate students. I’ll share approaches for designing integrative courses and team-based projects where students learn not only ecological modeling and quantitative analysis, but also how to bridge disciplinary languages, assumptions, and problem-solving styles. I will highlight lessons I learned in designing and delivering curricula that bring students together and discuss common challenges: like mismatched expectations, uneven preparation, and differing views on modelling approaches.
4. Rebecca Everett Haverford College
   "Building an Applied Track at a Small Liberal Arts College: A Work in Progress"
As a new hire at Haverford College seven years ago, one of the goals of the department was to incorporate applied math into the math major. We have now completed our second year with three focuses/tracks through our major: pure, applied, and statistics. In this talk, I will reflect on various aspects of incorporating applied mathematics into our program. We will discuss our applied track courses and adjustments we are making along the way, applied projects in the intro and upper-level courses, and the department’s learning goals of mastery; communication; breadth of knowledge; and independence, resilience, and persistence.

Organized by: Stacey Smith? (The University of Ottawa)

Note: this minisymposia has multiple sessions. The other session is: and Part-1.

1. Michael Kelly Transylvania University
   "Beyond an introduction: advanced interdisciplinary data science in the liberal arts."
With data playing an increasingly central role in shaping society, it is essential for students not only to interpret and analyze data, but to apply advanced techniques across disciplines with purpose and ethical awareness. As part of Transylvania University’s new interdisciplinary data analytics minor, this talk will be a discussion of the two upper-level courses developed (and recently taught) to build on foundational skills through project-based learning, critical thinking, and domain-specific applications. Topics include machine learning, data wrangling, text mining, and data ethics, all grounded in liberal arts inquiry. This talk will discuss the development and implementation of these advanced courses. In addition, assessment data will be shared from across the minor to reflect on student outcomes, successes, and ongoing challenges.
2. Stacey Smith? The University of Ottawa
   "To pre-record or not to pre-record? Lessons learned from video instruction in a flipped classroom"
Educational theory suggests that students benefit when students become responsible for their own learning outside the classroom while utilising the teacher's expert knowledge for in-class help. However, flipping a large classroom without additional resources requires scaling up strategies from smaller classrooms. A calculus class was flipped twice in successive years, once requiring the students to read the course notes in advance, the second time requiring them to watch pre-recorded videos. Metrics of learning included Bloom's taxonomy, grades, teaching evaluations and anecdotal feedback. Class participation was high and phone use was low, but students largely did not read the material in advance. However, they did watch the videos before and during class. Exam marks were not noticably different without videos, but improved markedly with them. Metacognition was significantly improved in both semesters, with students gaining a deeper insight, more peer connection and less classroom fear than had previously been available. Flipping a large classroom requires significant investment outside of the classroom. Students learn best from visual aides, so pre-recorded videos are a vital tool in managing such an educational delivery option.
3. Reginald McGee Haverford University
   "Teaching Reflections One-Year Post Tenure"
'Life is what you make it, I hope you make a movement' -Nipsey Hussle. This talk is the next installment after my 2019 and 2023 reflections from my first and fifth years teaching full-time at a private liberal arts college. We will discuss recent moves to better align assessments and activities with stated course objectives. In particular, we consider tasks that give students agency in showing mastery of core concepts in the context of their own interests, and a first attempt at a class journal club.
4. Elissa Schwartz Washington State University
   "Should we teach a course on writing to graduate students?"
For the graduates of our master’s and Ph.D. programs, future careers are likely to involve professional communication skills. Yet, traditional curricula seldom include formal coursework in writing. Furthermore, many students in graduate programs in mathematical biology have arrived on this career path due to their proficiency in mathematics or interdisciplinary applications, without a focus on training in written or oral communication. Incorporation of training on writing has begun in some graduate programs to benefit their thesis and dissertation writing, manuscript submissions, grant proposal writing, and beyond. In this talk, data and experiences will be shared from a pilot course on professional communication for graduate students in STEM. Topics covered in the course included grant proposal writing, poster presentation, the three-minute thesis (3MT), writing assistance from large language models, and other topics in professional development.