May 17-18, 2013

Announcing:  We are hosting a small, active workshop focused on improving the quantitative education of biology undergraduates.  We envision a collaborative working group in which we tackle common/persistent problems faced by biologists and mathematicians/statisticians who teach biology students. Funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation - see here for a summary of the overall project at Radford University.

 

Details:  The conference will be held over two days at the Selu Conservancy, a small conference center in a beautiful natural setting, near Radford University in Radford, VA.  Participants will likely want to arrive the night before.  Housing and food will be provided for all participants. Travel costs to and from the conference will be the responsibility of the participants.  The natural setting of the conference will allow for some hiking and nature appreciation.

 

Check-in from 4:00-7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 16 (location TBA).  Late check-in can be arranged.  There will be an informal reception with food that evening.

Check-out from 7:00-9:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 19.  (note that there is likely to be a final conference session in the evening on Saturday, May 18 -- probably in conjunction with dinner).

Shuttle arrangements will be made for transportation to the Roanoke Airport.  Please provide flight information.

More conference details will be forthcoming later in April.

 

Activities:  We expect to organize small working groups around themes of common interest (rather than talks by each participant).  We are proposing several themes, and welcome the suggestion of other themes.  Potential working topics might include: the integration of intuitive, non-technical applications of calculus into biology curriculum, translating biological concepts into mathematical formulas, and/or vertical integration of math/stat concepts across sequences of courses. 

Depending on the state of knowledge and progress for each topic, and the will and interests of the small groups, the workshop might be spent developing new curricular materials or perhaps synthesizing existing, proven approaches in a review paper.

Our goal is that particpants will produce publications, presentations, and/or course materials published in digital repositories. To facilitate progress and allow for the completion of useful products within the time frame of a short meeting, we expect participants will communicate via online discussion groups before the meeting.