Description

This meeting will be supported by two NSF funded projects: the Data In Inquiry RCN, and the newly funded Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and SynthesisProject (QUBES). The Data in Inquiry RCN is wrapping up its activities but the community we established and many of the educational issues we addressed will be picked up as part of the QUBES project. QUBES will focus on supporting faculty throughout their efforts to bring a more quantitative perspective as they teach biology, including providing students with opportunities to work with modern tools and data. This support extends from learning about new quantitative approaches, to finding and adapting existing quantitative teaching resources, implementing new lessons, and evaluating their effectiveness.

At this meeting we will build on the initial work generated by the Data in Inquiry RCN and the QUBES RCN - forerunner of the current QUBES project - and establish priorities for our future efforts.  We will discuss the immediate, “low hanging fruit” as well as the long term challenges in quantitative biology education.  Specifically, we hope to make progress in two areas: 1) identifying critical next steps required to move undergraduate biology classrooms into the 21st century and 2) an analysis of the kinds of data inquiry currently being used in biology classrooms.

We are interested in building on, and learning from, previous and ongoing projects as we launch the 5-year Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) project: http://www.qubeshub.org/.  We will be identifying objectives for immediate action, as well as strategizing for longer term projects.  

This meeting will be a unique opportunity to work collaboratively to survey the dynamic field of quantitative biology education and share input on strategies for advancing our knowledge and practice around effectively teaching modern biological methods. It will be a working meeting that will involve some pre-meeting responsibilities and opportunities to contribute to the meeting products. Additional information about pre-meeting work and potential products will be in the next update email. Together we hope to lay out a clear path for both the near and far futures of quantitative biology education.

Organizing Committee:

Kristin Jenkins, QUBES, BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

Sam Donovan, QUBES, Biology Dept., University of Pittsburgh

Tanya Dewey, Data In Inquiry RCN-UBE, Animal Diversity Web

S. Tom Gower, QUBES, Dept of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University

Drew LaMar, QUBES, Biology Dept., College of William and Mary

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