Developing Quantitative Expertise in the Undergraduate Biology Curriculum (QEUBiC)

Faculty #3
Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: STEM Science and Mathematics Education
- Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Florida
Co-Author(s): Katharina C. Wollenberg Valero, Kelly Carey, Seenith Sivasundaram, Martine Levy Nelson, Sarah Johnson, Thomas Roper, Sunil David, Vivian Jones, Sulakshana Sen, Donald Spence, Yungkul Kim, Asia Anuwa, Sarah Krejci, Sidney Bolden, Baraka Mapp, Albert Hayward II, Irving Robinson, Danyell Wilson, Hector Torres, Allen Pelley, Masood Poorandi, Elizabeth Congdon, Herbert Thompson; College of Science, Engineering and Mathematics, Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Florida

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The National Science Foundation’s HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project (August 2014 to July 2018) at Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU), Florida is entitled “Developing Quantitative Expertise in the Undergraduate Biology Curriculum (QEUBiC).” The overall goal of the project is to provide learning experiences for students to develop quantitative and computational skills for biological discovery and analysis. Three additional goals were established through three supplemental funding. The first goal (MATH Supplement in 2015) is to improve mathematics success by providing learning experiences in data analytics to biology undergraduates enrolled in lower level college math courses. The second goal (NSF HBCU Pilot Program Supplement in 2016) is to identify the best predictive metacognitive behavior for developing quantitative expertise in the context of cognitive tutors that facilitate robust learning. The third goal (Public Participation in STEM Research (PPSR) Supplement) is to enhance the research productivity of the faculty and students in the biology program through collaboration with citizen researchers and groups in east central Florida. The PPSR project at B-CU is entitled “Bacteria Influences on the Health of Water Bodies, Soil, Plants, Animals and Humans.” Several key achievements include an operational model for developing quantitative expertise in the undergraduate biology curriculum. The model consists of intra-and extracurricular, modular learning transactions that simultaneously targeted the development of student strategic learning, quantitative abilities, and scientific literacy. The project is infusing strategies to enable students acquire robust knowledge of math and statistics characterized by knowledge that is deep, connected, and coherent. The project has collated theoretical frameworks for robust learning of biology with Big Data. The Transdisciplinary Data Scholars Career Development Program (https://goo.gl/oLWTiX) was established to develop the capacity of individuals and teams to harness the data revolution. The QEUBiC infusion project has enhanced the infrastructure for research, instruction and learning of biology at Bethune-Cookman University. Finally, peer-reviewed publications from the project included datasets suitable for infusion into biology courses.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): National Science Foundation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) HRD-1435186; Dear Colleague Letter: Increasing College Opportunity Through Improved Mathematics Success in the First Two Years of College (NSF 15-026); Dear Colleague Letter: Strengthening Research Capacity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (NSF 16-080); Dear Colleague Letter: Public Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Research: Capacity-building, Community-building, and Direction-setting (NSF 17-047)

Faculty Advisor: None Listed,