MS07 - OTHE-03

Recent perspectives on mathematical-biology education (Part 1)

Thursday, July 17 at 4:00pm

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

Stacey Smith? (The University of Ottawa)

Description:

This minisymposium will bring together education experts to examine up-to-the-minute problems that showcase the usefulness and applicability of mathematical biology in education in a post-COVID world. Now that online and hybrid teaching are tools that can be easily integrated, how has the classroom changed? What are the challenges in teaching a cohort that is effectively missing high-school education? How do educational philosophies differ across global communities? The audience is the mathematical biologist with an interest in education. This includes students, postdocs and professors, mathematicians interested in seeing biological applications and biologists who wish to see how mathematics can be used in teaching.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Annual Meeting for the Society for Mathematical Biology, 2025.