Do you integrate quantitative skills into your biology course?

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are looking for instructors who take different approaches to integrating quantitative skills with biology concepts in their courses to participate in an NSF-funded research project. Examples include working with graphs/formulas, developing quantitative models, or reflecting on the purpose of mathematical models.

Participating instructors will be engaged intermittently over the course of three years and will be compensated $500. 

Read more about the details below, or sign up to participate in the study here. Questions can be directed to Joe Dauer (joseph “dot” dauer ”at” unl” dot” edu).

More information:

We are recruiting faculty who:

1. Teach a biology class or have a life science focus;
2. Integrate (even occasionally) quantitative interpretation (figures, data tables, trend lines, extrapolation, etc.) and/or quantitative modeling (creating, testing, revising models of phenomena) and/or metacognition of modeling (purpose or steps of modeling, theory building) into your biology instruction;
3. Are willing to talk about their teaching and their students’ learning of quantitative topics;
4. Are willing to include an assessment (can be done outside of class time) into their course. The assessment is available here.

We expect the time commitment to be approximately 5 hours, spread over 3 years and are only requesting the inclusion of the assessment into your normal teaching practices. At the end, you would receive a $500 stipend.

Details of Expectations:

Year 1 (fall 2020/spring 2021)

• Complete survey of how you integrate QM into your biology classroom
• Send materials related to 2-3 representative class periods (target periods)

Year 2 (fall 2021/spring 2022)

• Recruit students to complete an early and late semester assessment
• Determine incentive level for completing assessment and provide it to students when given list of students who complete the assessment
• Video-record 2-3 target periods (camera can be provided if needed)
• Submit video recording electronically along with materials related to the target periods
• Complete a brief follow-up conversation about target periods

Year 3 (fall 2022/spring 2023)

• Complete an interview about your motivations for integrating QM, implementation challenges and benefits, and student assessment results

Sign up to participate!

1. education research
2. Opportunity