Jacksonville University offered a course in Statistics for the Biological Sciences. I learned a lot from that course and desperately wished that there was a similar Calculus course. I would really like to advance my knowledge in Calculus so that I may continue to Calc II and III, just to open the door for a Meteorological Masters, but I totally did NOT understand my required general Calc class. I worked "around" my calc test problems using any method I could remember from Algebra, Geometry, Trig, or trial and error in order to get a correct answer. I just didn't understand how Calc worked. I know I will eventually retake it in order to replace the low C I earned in the class...but I hope to find a biological/marine science geared Calculus course so that I can better understand the material....now that I know those specialized courses in Calc exsist! Thank you for starting this thread! I had no idea such a course existed.
Cheers! Trish ________________________________ From: Robert Ford <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 10:44 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Calculus for Biology Majors I would love if more institutions offered math courses tailored to specific fields of study. I can say that as an undergraduate, I did not fair well in my general calculus course because I did not see the application of it for the natural resources realm. I also feel that teachers/teaching assistants play a huge factor. For my one required calculus course, I had a teaching assistant that was not fluent in English that taught my recitations as well as the teacher, and it was incredibly difficult to understand concepts and how they might apply. That opens up a whole different can of worms, but the general principle is that teachers should try to meet students half-way when it comes to enthusiasm and real world applications. I feel that tailored math courses would help many students realize why math is so important in the first place. Rob ________________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [[email protected]] on behalf of Sarah Shannon [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 8:51 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Calculus for Biology Majors When I was getting my B.S. in Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis, we were required to take a full year of Calculus. They had an excellent course called "Calculus for Biology Majors". It was quite rigorous, and required a lot of work from us, but was the best math course I've ever taken. All questions were in the form of word problems (e.g., given the following information, how often must a patient take the drug to maintain a concentration level above 100ppm in the blood?). I highly recommend courses like this for biology programs. I can think of ways to adapt physics and statistics courses in a similar manner. Sarah Shannon Indiana University
