This editorial serves as an introduction to Part 2 of the Special Issue Mathematics and the Life Sciences–a collection of articles showcasing ideas, examples, pedagogical frameworks, and curricular materials aiming to bridge the stubbornly persistent gap at the undergraduate level between the mathematical and the life sciences. The special issue features authors from public and private institutions of diverse types, sizes, and geographic locations: community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and research-oriented universities. We hope this special issue will serve as a resource to faculty who seek to make changes to their own course(s) or initiate curriculum reforms at their own schools. This Part 2 special issue features course materials and programs based on discrete mathematics, computational approaches, and statistics. It also includes articles on internship programs and co-curricular opportunities. Part 1 focuses on educational initiatives that are appropriate for calculus classes or require calculus as a prerequisite

Comar, Timothy D.

Diaz Eaton, Carrie

Robeva, Raina

English

Bates College: SCARAB (Scholarly Communication and Research at Bates)

Bates College SCARAB All Faculty Scholarship Departments and Programs 1-1-2022 Can We Bridge the Gap? Mathematics and the Life Sciences: Part 2–Discrete Models, Statistics, Co-Curricular Opportunities Raina Robeva Randolph-Macon College Timothy D. Comar Benedictine University Carrie Diaz Eaton Bates College, cdeaton@bates.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://scarab.bates.edu/faculty_publications Recommended Citation Robeva, R., Comer, T.D., and Eaton, C.D. 2022. "Can We Bridge the Gap? Mathematics and the Life Sciences: Part 2–Discrete Models, Statistics, Co-Curricular Opportunities." PRIMUS. 32(3), 299-303. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511970.2022.2025507 This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by the Departments and Programs at SCARAB. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of SCARAB. For more information, please contact batesscarab@bates.edu. Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttps://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=upri20PRIMUSProblems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics UndergraduateStudiesISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/upri20Can We Bridge the Gap? Mathematics and the LifeSciences: Part 2 – Discrete Models, Statistics, Co-Curricular OpportunitiesRaina Robeva, Timothy D. Comar & Carrie Diaz EatonTo cite this article: Raina Robeva, Timothy D. Comar & Carrie Diaz Eaton (2022) Can We Bridgethe Gap? Mathematics and the Life Sciences: Part 2 – Discrete￿Models,￿Statistics,￿Co-CurricularOpportunities, PRIMUS, 32:3, 299-303, DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2022.2025507To link to this article:  https://doi.org/10.1080/10511970.2022.2025507Published online: 15 Feb 2022.Submit your article to this journal Article views: 253View related articles View Crossmark dataPRIMUS2022, VOL. 32, NO. 3, 299–303https://doi.org/10.1080/10511970.2022.2025507EDITORIALCanWe Bridge the Gap? Mathematics and the Life Sciences:Part 2 – DiscreteModels, Statistics, Co-CurricularOpportunitiesRaina Robeva , Timothy D. Comar and Carrie Diaz EatonABSTRACTThis editorial serves as an introduction to Part 2 of the SpecialIssue Mathematics and the Life Sciences – a collection of articlesshowcasing ideas, examples, pedagogical frameworks, and cur-ricularmaterials aiming tobridge the stubbornlypersistent gapatthe undergraduate level between the mathematical and the lifesciences. The special issue features authors from public and pri-vate institutions of diverse types, sizes, and geographic locations:community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and research-orienteduniversities. We hope this special issue will serve as a resource tofaculty who seek to make changes to their own course(s) or ini-tiate curriculum reforms at their own schools. This Part 2 specialissue features course materials and programs based on discretemathematics, computational approaches, and statistics. It alsoincludes articles on internship programs and co-curricular oppor-tunities. Part 1 focuses on educational initiatives that are appro-priate for calculus classes or require calculus as a prerequisite.KEYWORDSMathematical biology;computational biology;mathematical biologyeducation; interdisciplinaryeducation; curriculumreform; discretemathematics; statistics;co-curricular opportunitiesThis is the second Special Issues on Mathematics and the Life Sciences. It featuresinitiatives and materials that could be used for discrete mathematics and statis-tics courses, as well as internship programs and co-curricular opportunities. Thecomplementary special issue Mathematics and the Life Sciences Part 1: Calculus-BasedModules, Programs, Curricula [5] compiles resources appropriate for calculuscourses and courses that require calculus as a prerequisite. The collection of arti-cles in these special issues showcase ideas, examples, pedagogical frameworks, andcurricular materials aiming to bridge the stubbornly persistent gap at the under-graduate level between the mathematical and the life sciences. Despite urgent callsfor education reform made by high-profile reports at the national level (see, e.g.,National Research Council reports [2,3]), the pace of change has been slower thandesired. Our editorial on the first special issue [5] provides more details and offerssome possible explanations.CONTACT Raina Robeva rainarobeva@rmc.edu Department of Mathematics, Randolph-Macon College,114 College Avenue, Ashland, VA 23005-5505, USA© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC300 EDITORIAL1. MATHEMATICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES: PART 2 –DISCRETEMODELS,STATISTICS, CO-CURRICULAROPPORTUNITIESMany problems in biology require mathematical, statistical, and computationalmethods beyond calculus and difference/differential equations. Although still lesscommon in the classroom, such approaches provide numerous opportunities forstudent engagements with problems from gene regulatory networks and genomics,RNA folding, infectious disease and drug resistance modeling, phylogenetics, eco-logical networks and food webs, and many others. Several of the National ResearchCouncil reports already mentioned (e.g., [2, 3]) have called for broadening theundergraduate exposure at the interface of mathematics and biology by includingmethods from modern discrete mathematics and their biological applications.In his paper, Biological Models for Finite Mathematics, Jungck presents a richcollection of modules inspired by biological research that benefits from the useof methods from discrete mathematics. All of them use freely-available software,include a visualization interface, and can be used as virtual laboratories for exper-imentation and for forming hypotheses. Individual modules may be inserted intoexisting courses, although the author also provides a syllabus for an entire coursein discrete mathematics influenced by Ralston [4]. The collection presented in thepaper engages students with important biological questions by using highly visualand aesthetically pleasing aspects of contemporary mathematical topics.In Implementation of a New Quantitative Biology Course: Assessment of Students’Abilities and Confidence, Rahmoeller and Steinweg describe a curricular decisionto replace a calculus course for biology majors with a new course in quantitativebiology covering a broad range of mathematical and statistical tools and focusingon applications relevant to biological content and experiments. The course is meantto (1) reinforce the connections between biology and mathematics and (2) utilizegenuinemathematical and statistical content in real-world applications.Mathemat-ical topics include rates of change, discrete, and continuous-time modeling anddata visualization, and the statistical content covers t-test, chi-square, analysis ofvariance (ANOVA), and regression hypothesis testing. The authors also presentassessment results that demonstrate the benefits of this change.In their article, Integration of Biology, Mathematics and Computing in the Class-room through the Creation and Repeated Use of Transdisciplinary Modules, Ayalewet al. grapple with quantitative and computational integration across multiplecourses at an HBCU context at Spelman College. In this project-based approach, ahighlight is an attention on language and culture and its ability to foster or obstructlearning. Another strength is the multidisciplinary authorship team. Readers whoare interested in collaborating across multiple disciplines will find useful insightsas well as ready-made project ideas as well as practical implementation suggestionsfor courses that incorporate programming.In Phylogenetic Analysis and Molecular Evolution (PAME), Yoshida and Pagedescribe an interdisciplinary course in phylogenetics using RStudio through Ama-zon Web Services. The course is designed to serve advanced undergraduate andPRIMUS 301graduate students in biology and computer science as well as undergraduate stu-dents in statistics and mathematics. In addition to describing the course structure,the authors provide a brief introduction to evolutionary biology and phylogenetics.Exercises are provided throughout the article, which include examples of real-worldphylogenetic problems. Examples of final course projects are also provided.Undergraduate research and internships, as well as learning communities, havebeen shown to improve student learning and increase retention for underrepre-sented groups in STEM, and in the biological sciences in particular [1, 6, 7]. Thespecial issue includes four articles that feature such programs.To help students discover the value of learning by engaging with authentic inter-disciplinary problems and applications, in Creating and Assessing an AcademicLearning Community between Biology and Statistics Courses, Ryu and Zhu presenta learning community (LC) between an ecology course and a biostatistics course.The authors discuss the structure of the LC, developmental details, and assessmentdata from comparing LC and non-LC groups at their institution. They present ini-tial evidence for its effectiveness, reflect upon key institutional factors that helpedcreate the LC, and discuss ways for future improvement. The paper includes someof the project descriptions as well.In Impacts of a Cross-Institutional Undergraduate Research Experience Workshopon Student Understanding of and Self-Efficacy for Research, Antonuo, Liesman, andPowell begin with the observation that student perceptions of what undergraduateresearch experiences entail do not always align with their actual experiences. Thismay cause frustration and disengagement and negate the benefits of such programs.The authors analyze the impact of an undergraduate researchworkshop on students’understanding of academic research as well as the impact on their self-efficacy forconducting research. The data comes from two Cross-Institutional Research Expe-rience workshops offered in 2018 and 2019 by the Intercollegiate BiomathematicsAlliance.Educational approaches in computationalmathematical biology require the inte-gration and application of multiple fields and, therefore, can benefit from appliedresearch experiences. The article Supporting computational apprenticeship througheducational and software infrastructure: A case study in a mathematical oncologyresearch lab by Madamanchi et al. discusses how his laboratory approached creat-ing a successful undergraduate student research experience by adopting a cognitiveapprenticeship model termed “Computational Apprenticeship.” They adapt thismodel for the MathCancer laboratory by using engineering design principles andshare the revision process with the reader. The article closes with some thoughts andreflections about scaffolding computational education for mathematical biology.Finally, in Active Participation in Current Faculty Research Inspires StudentAchievement, Masso, whose research focuses on computational approaches forstudying the sequence, structure, and function of proteins, shares thoughts aboutthe annual Aspiring Students Summer Internship Program (ASSIP) for high schooland college students atGeorgeMasonUniversity. The programhas been offered reg-ularly since 2007 and students participate as interns in ongoing researchwith faculty302 EDITORIALacross all STEMdisciplines. The author shares how student interns are recruited andprepared to engage with a research project and presents three intensive interactingmodules that help interns get up to speed during the first week of the program.Suggestions for replication of the program at other institutions are also provided.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe special issue editors would like to thank the PRIMUS Editors-In-Chief Jo Ellis-Monaghanand Matthew Boelkins for inviting them to edit this special issue and for the support they pro-vided throughout. Their gratitude extends to all contributing authors, as well as the reviewerswhose in-depth consideration of submitted manuscripts and constructive suggestions to authorsled to many improvements and increased clarity. When in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic puta temporary hold on this project, necessitated work from home, and increased the challenges ofjuggling family and professional duties, their contributing authors, reviewers, and PRIMUS staffshowed great professionalism and flexibility. The special issue editors are grateful to all of themfor their patience and dedication.FUNDINGThe work of the first editor was supported in part by the Karl E. Peace Fellowship in Mathemat-ics at Randolph-Macon College, VA. The work of the third editor was supported in part by theNational Science Foundation [grant number DUE-1446258]. Any opinions, findings, and con-clusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do notnecessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.ORCIDRaina Robeva http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6697-2417Timothy D. Comar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8724-0274Carrie Diaz Eaton http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3645-4560REFERENCES[1] Kinzie, J., A. C. McCormick, R. M. Gonyea, B. Dugan, and S. Silberstein. 2020. Assessingquality and equity in high-impact practices: Comprehensive report. Initial Report on ProjectFindings Submitted to Lumina Foundation.[2] National Research Council. 2009. A new biology for the 21st century. Washington, DC: TheNational Academies Press.[3] National Research Council. 2013.TheMathematical Sciences in 2025.Washington, D.C.: TheNational Academies Press.[4] Ralston, A. 1992. The impact of computers and computer science on the mathematics cur-riculum. The influence of computers and informatics on mathematics and its teaching.Science and Technology Education, Document Series. 44: 19–32.[5] Robeva, R., T. Comar, and C. D. Eaton. 2021. Can we bridge the gap? Mathematics and thelife sciences: Part 1 – Calculus-based modules, programs, curricula. PRIMUS.[6] Russell, L. 2017. Can learning communities boost success of women and minorities inSTEM? Evidence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Economics of EducationReview. 61: 98–111.[7] Solanki, S., P. McPartlan, D. Xu, and B. K. Sato. 2019. Success with EASE:Who benefits froma STEM learning community? PLoS ONE. 14(3): e0213827.PRIMUS 303BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHESRaina Robeva is a Professor of Mathematics at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. She is thelead author/editor of several textbooks and volumes in mathematical biology, including An Invi-tation to Biomathematics, Algebraic and Discrete Mathematical Methods for Modern Biology, andAlgebraic and Combinatorial Computational Biology. She has led numerous educational and pro-fessional development initiatives at the interface of mathematics and biology sponsored by NSF,NIH, andMAA among others. Her service to the community includes serving twice as Presidentof the MAA Special Interest Group in Mathematical and Computational Biology (BIO SIG-MAA) andChair of the Advisory Board of theNational Institute forMathematical and BiologicalSynthesis (NIMBioS).TimothyD. Comar is a Professor ofMathematics at BenedictineUniversity in Lisle, IL. He earnedhis Ph.D. inMathematics at theUniversity ofMichigan specializing in low-dimensional topology.He is currently working in mathematical biology with interests in the dynamics of determinis-tic and stochastic models for pest management, vaccination strategies for epidemics, and generegulatory networks using impulsive differential equations, difference equations, Boolean mod-els, agent-based models, and computing-intensive techniques. He taught biocalculus courses formany years and mentored many undergraduate research projects in mathematical biology, someof which have been published in professional journals. He has served in several leadership rolesfor the BIO SIGMAA and is the Group’s Past-President.Carrie Diaz Eaton is Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies at Bates Collegeand is aMathematical Biologist turned inclusive and interdisciplinary undergraduate STEMedu-cation researcher. Diaz Eaton also spends time raising two kids and enjoying the beautiful Mainesummer and fall weather.

Can We Bridge the Gap? Mathematics and the Life Sciences: Part 2–Discrete Models, Statistics, Co-Curricular Opportunities

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Can We Bridge the Gap? Mathematics and the Life Sciences: Part 2–Discrete Models, Statistics, Co-Curricular Opportunities

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