MS08 - OTHE-03

Recent perspectives on mathematical-biology education (Part 2)

Friday, July 18 at 10:20am

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

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.

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.

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.

Reginald McGee

Haverford University

"Probabilistic models and methods course"

'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.

Elissa Schwartz

Washington State University

"Educational outreach via international workshops"

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.

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Annual Meeting for the Society for Mathematical Biology, 2025.