Marshall Jill A, Durán Pablo
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Department of Mathematics, Universidad de Valparaiso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2018 Nov;46(6):612-618. doi: 10.1002/bmb.21178. Epub 2018 Nov 2.
Several major organizations have recommended revisions to mathematics requirements for biology majors. To determine whether these changes would benefit future biologists, we investigated mathematics use in research biology. We surveyed prominent journals in high and low math-use areas for articles referencing the use of quantitative methods. In addition, we conducted a large-scale survey of research biologists within these fields about their use of, and training in, mathematics and statistics. We then performed follow-up interviews with a purposeful sample of respondents. Our results indicate that biologists need a base in descriptive and inferential statistics and mathematical modeling, including some concepts from calculus, focused on conceptual understanding rather than computational accuracy, followed by differentiated programs of study in mathematics and statistics, depending on intended discipline within biology. Comparison of our findings with the recommended requirements from major stakeholder groups indicates some alignment but also some discrepancies. © 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(6):612-618, 2018.
几个主要组织已建议修订生物学专业的数学要求。为了确定这些变化是否会使未来的生物学家受益，我们调查了生物学研究中的数学应用情况。我们在高数学应用领域和低数学应用领域的著名期刊中，查找引用定量方法使用情况的文章。此外，我们对这些领域内的研究生物学家进行了大规模调查，了解他们对数学和统计学的使用及相关培训情况。然后，我们对有目的抽样的受访者进行了后续访谈。我们的结果表明，生物学家需要具备描述性和推断性统计学以及数学建模的基础，包括一些微积分概念，重点是概念理解而非计算准确性，随后根据生物学内的预期学科进行差异化的数学和统计学学习计划。将我们的研究结果与主要利益相关者团体推荐的要求进行比较，发现既有一些一致之处，也存在一些差异。© 2018国际生物化学与分子生物学联盟，46(6):612 - 618，2018年。
