scholarly journals Development of the BioCalculus Assessment (BCA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. ar6
Author(s):  
Robin T. Taylor ◽  
Pamela R. Bishop ◽  
Suzanne Lenhart ◽  
Louis J. Gross ◽  
Kelly Sturner
Keyword(s):  
Life Science ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Large Network ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Undergraduate Biology ◽  
Validity Assessment ◽  
Learning Success ◽  
Evidential Support ◽  
Calculus Instruction ◽  
The Rasch Model

We describe the development and initial validity assessment of the 20-item BioCalculus Assessment (BCA), with the objective of comparing undergraduate life science students’ understanding of calculus concepts in different courses with alternative emphases (with and without focus on biological applications). The development process of the BCA included obtaining input from a large network of scientists and educators as well as students in calculus and biocalculus courses to accumulate evidential support of the instrument’s content validity and response processes of test takers. We used the Rasch model to examine the internal structure of scores from students who have experienced calculus instruction in the two methods. The analysis involved three populations (Calculus 1, Calculus 2, and Biocalculus) for which the Calc 1 and Calc 2 students were not exposed to calculus concepts in a life science setting, while the Biocalculus students were presented concepts explicitly with a life science emphasis. Overall, our findings indicate that the BCA has reasonable validity properties, providing a diagnostic tool to assess the relative learning success and calculus comprehension of undergraduate biology majors from alternative methods of instruction that do or do not emphasize life science examples.

scholarly journals On a Calculus-based Statistics Course for Life Science Students

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph C. Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Life Science ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Scientific Background ◽  
Statistics Course

The choice of pedagogy in statistics should take advantage of the quantitative capabilities and scientific background of the students. In this article, we propose a model for a statistics course that assumes student competency in calculus and a broadening knowledge in biology. We illustrate our methods and practices through examples from the curriculum.

Global reconstruction of surface temperature fields for past equilibrium climates

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Hargreaves ◽  
James Annan
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Temperature Fields ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Large Network ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates ◽  
Global Reconstruction

<p>Paleoclimate simulations are widely used as a test of the ability of climate models to simulate climate states that are substantially different to the present day, and quantitative reconstructions of these climate states is an essential component of model evaluation.  With there being no large network of instrumental observations from these periods, we must rely on inferences from a relatively modest number of unevenly distributed proxy records which are believed to be quantitatively indicative of the climate state.  In order to robustly establish climatic conditions over global scales, we require methods for smoothing and interpolating between these sparse and imperfect estimates.  In recent years, we have worked on this problem and created a global reconstruction of the Last Glacial Maximum [Annan and Hargreaves, 2013, Climate of the Past] using the data and models which were available at that time.  The method uses scaled patterns from the PMIP ensemble of structurally diverse climate simulations, combined with sparse sets of proxy data, to produce spatially coherent and complete  data  fields  for  surface  air  and  sea  temperatures  (potentially  including  the  seasonal cycle)  along  with  uncertainty  estimates  over  the  whole  field.   This  approach  is  more  robust than alternative methods, which either perform a purely statistical interpolation of the data or at best combine the data with a single climate model. Here, we aim to improve the method, update the inputs, and apply the same technique to both Last Glacial Maximum and mid Pliocene climate intervals. As well as generating spatially complete and coherent maps of climate variables, our approach also generates well-calibrated uncertainty estimates.</p>

scholarly journals Att börja tala ’biokemiska’ - Betydelsen av metaforer och hjälpord för meningsskapande kring proteiner

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 30-42
Author(s):  
Carl-Johan Rundgren
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Life Science ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Theoretical Description ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Secondary School Education ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Scientific Terms

This paper deals with the process of acquiring a subject-specific language. When confronted with the visual representations and scientific terms of molecular life science, students try to make meaning using the language they have access to and their prior experience. In this process students use a kind of intermediate language, with frequent use of metaphors. Some metaphors can be traced back to the teaching they have experienced, while some are spontaneous metaphors created by the students. They also make use of words that seemingly have no meaning, here referred to as helpwords. The results from this study indicate that spontaneous metaphors and helpwords are important in learning situations, especially in an abstract discipline such as molecular life science. This paper aims to give a preliminary theoretical description of the phenomenon of helpwords, based on an interview study of 20 students taking natural science courses in their upper secondary school education.

scholarly journals Study Approaches of Life Science Students Using the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F)

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Miguel Leiva-Brondo ◽  
Jaime Cebolla-Cornejo ◽  
Rosa Peiró ◽  
Nuria Andrés-Colás ◽  
Cristina Esteras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Science ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Deep Approach ◽  
Approach To Learning ◽  
Factor Study ◽  
Study Process ◽  
And Gender ◽  
High Consistency ◽  
Item Reliability

Students’ approaches to learning can vary between students of different ages, genders, years, degrees, or cultural contexts. The aim of this study was to assess the approaches to learning of different students of life science degrees. The Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) has been used to assess the approaches to learning of 505 students of thirteen different subjects of four different degrees at Universitat Politècnica de València in order to study the factors that influence their approaches. Results show a higher deep approach of the students. Differences were observed between subjects and gender, not related to level (bachelor or master) or year. The item reliability analysis showed a high consistency for the main scales, but not for the secondary scales of the R-SPQ-2F questionnaire. High correlation between the deep and surface scales were observed. These data can provide more information to the teachers, which may help them to develop strategies focused on promoting a deeper approach to learning for the students, more adapted to their subject, level, and year.

Teaching Politics to Nurses

1986 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Bristol
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Student ◽  
Life Science ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Health Care Industry ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Political Skills ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Understanding

Nurses, as other life science students, have been prejudiced against politics, imagining that it only contaminates techno-scientific enterprises. However, the new, professional nurse is aware of the need for political understanding and political skills. The transformation of the socio-economic status of the health care industry from a social service to a business provides an excellent opportunity for introducing the nursing student to political thought in a positive conjunction with practical analysis.To generate a credible metapolitical framework, I embrace rather than avoid the current problems about the nature of the subject matter of politics. An aggressive, philosophically informed attack on the myth of autonomous, objective science opens the student's intellectual map of reality, and lays the groundwork for a proposed (paradoxical) complementarity of the two traditional models: politics as a science and politics as a humanity. This uncomfortable, middle ground position, abandoning any global Rationalism, again makes historical and contemporary case studies a relevant—in fact essential—part of political education. This is an effective approach to introducing the nursing student, whose education is dominated by classical, rationalistic, scientific images, to political studies.

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