Implementing a Math Prerequisite - Does it help or hurt?
Author(s): Stacey Kiser1, Christine Andrews2, Matthew Fisher3, Shannon Seidel4, Molloy Wilson2, Natalie Wright5
1. Lane Community College, BioQUEST 2. Lane Community College 3. Oregon Coast Community College 4. Pacific Lutheran University 5. Kenyon College
965 total view(s), 190 download(s)
Summary:
Poster on the effect of math prerequisite courses on student success in introductory biology. Presented at the 2020 BIOME Institute: Cultivating Scientific Curiosity
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Tamara Basham @ on (Edited: @ on )
Thank you for sharing your work. This is something that we have questioned, too.
I teach Environmental Science at a Community College. We have Math prerequisites (Foundations in Math and Intro Algebra) for our courses, and so do our Biology courses. In our first semester course we also spend an entire lab period reviewing the Math and graph interpretation skills that students will use during the course. I'm uncertain how effective this is.
It would be really interesting to see an analysis across campuses. Do you think that there is a certain level of Math that needs to be reached in order to see an improvement in success in Science courses, or is it more the problem solving skills that are gained from the Math courses that is helpful? Also, would you expect to see similar results for other Science courses?
I look forward to seeing the results of your other analyses!
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Gabriela Florido @ on
With AB705 implemented it seems like our students are coming in with a huge gap of knowledge.
If you are seeing it in Biology imagine how bad it is in Mathematics courses like Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus and Statistics. Thank you for sharing your research findings. Our college currently does not have a pre-requisite for Biology but college algebra would be a good pre--req option, it is still a transferable course.
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J. Phil Gibson @ on (Edited: @ on )
We have been shifting away from my intro being so heavily focused on writing to make it more about data collection and analysis. Math pre-req would help.
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Marie C. Montes-Matias @ on (Edited: @ on )
Very interesting. I also teach at a community college and our General Biology courses do not have a Math Pre-req. Wondering if results would be comparable.
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Pat Marsteller @ on
Very interesting. I hope that you can gather some of the data from attendees on pre-reqs. Another question of interest might be per or joint enrollment in Chem
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Adania Flemming @ on (Edited: @ on )
Thank you for sharing the feedback. I liked that the presentation was animated so that in some ways I was presenting to myself. I would love to chat with you all about the surveys you used and any potential guiding theories.
Please check out our poster to learn more about three different approaches to broadening diversity on STEM using natural history collections.. The course that I created and teach is the one that has some parallels to your project in terms of looking at how students are prepared to be successful in STEM.
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