Math: EAGER: Assessing Impacts on Student Learning in Mathematics from Inclusion of Biological, Real-World Examples

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Students frequently struggle with mathematical concepts, computations, and applications because they do not see a direct connection between the mathematics they are studying and, for example, their academic discipline interests. This project from the University of Tennessee Knoxville will develop, implement, and evaluate methods to assess students' mathematical abilities as these are affected by the use of real-world examples from the life sciences. In particular, the investigators will design, create, and test a new instrument that will assess the impact on mathematics education of examples from life sciences. This approach will address a fundamental research-based issue in teaching and learning mathematics: placing the mathematics in a concrete, real-world context helps students learn and understand the mathematical ideas and enhances their skills in applying the mathematics. While focusing specifically on life science students and biological examples, the methods developed will inform mathematical comprehension in other areas of science. In line with this, the project will contribute to more efficient and effective teaching that, in turn, will enhance student engagement, retention, and graduation. The underlying goal of this project is to develop and evaluate an interdisciplinary instrument--a Quantitative Biology Concept Inventory (QBCI)--which will allow assessment of mathematics and quantitative concept learning goals in the context of concrete, real-world life science data examples and models. A research goal of the project is to investigate and compare the learning impact on the ability of life science student, who take a mathematics course that places mathematics in a biological context, to develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts as well as the skills to transfer the knowledge and understanding to applications, versus students who have not had this exposure to examples from the life sciences. The impact on students' quantitative comprehension and skills, based on different types of life science examples, also will be determined. This will require an initial concordance on the key quantitative concepts appropriate for such an instrument to assess, emphasizing those for which there is reason to expect that explicit examples based on real-world situations might reduce rates of miscomprehension among life science undergraduates. In determining the impact on student quantitative comprehension, the instrument will provide insight as to whether explicit examples based on experimental or observational data, or more general examples of biological phenomena (e. g. population growth, drug decay) without explicit data are equally effective in advancing quantitative understanding. Overall, the project will provide a novel means to assess different pedagogical approaches to mathematical and quantitative concepts and skill development for life science undergraduates. At the national level, the QBCI instrument will serve as a model to assess the impact of interdisciplinary examples on enhancing mathematical and quantitative comprehension and skill development, impacting many areas of undergraduate STEM education beyond life science students.