Hello, all, What an interesting discussion. I am a master's student in ecology. I am also from a very rural area in Colorado that has poor public math education, and am a first generation college student from a low-income family. Calculus requirements were much of the reason I initially dropped out of my undergraduate schooling in an aerospace engineering program. When I finally returned to finish my undergraduate studies, I went to the humanities instead of the sciences, because I had completely lost my confidence in my quantitative abilities. It has taken me a long time to develop the confidence and skills to circle back to the sciences for my master's degree. That said, I don't think even my sort of experience is a reason to not have calculus as a requirement for at least those ecology tracks that are meant to lead to a career in academia. Academic rigor has become something I deeply value, and I don't feel our pity or coddling will help students succeed in a field that requires increasing amounts of quantitative skill. However, I think such requirements must also be paired with academic tutoring programs that ACTIVELY reach out to students who are struggling, and that do so early and often. In my opinion, it is not enough to just have the tutoring programs be passively available to students. When I struggled in my calculus classes, I was not at all a lazy student, but I was ashamed of my struggles, and I found it too embarrassing to ask for help when no one else in my class seemed to need it. This was the early 2000s and I was one of probably ten female students in my freshman calculus class at that time. Boys in my class would make fun of me and ask me questions like, "Why don't you just major in psychology?" At our school, the calculus tutors were all male, and I did not want to have them laugh at me either, so I never went to them. I just bit my nails in anxiety, writing almost nothing on my calculus exams while other students madly scribbled answers. I think the challenge of keeping careers in science accessible to people of all socioeconomic groups, genders, backgrounds, etc. lies in not having a disparate negative impact on some student populations while also not compromising academic rigor. If these two goals share equal priority, then I feel students can only benefit from adding the calculus requirement. But the goals must share equal priority to not exacerbate or perpetuate historical patterns of exclusion from the sciences. If I were the chair of an ecology department, I would design it so that any ecology students whose GPA dropped below a certain level in calculus would be required to let the department match them with a tutor they felt comfortable with.
-Loretta On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Kyle Whittinghill < [email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > I agree with the points everyone has stated so far in support of > Calculus. In an ideal world students would have the options calculus > courses geared toward the environmental/life sciences rather than the > traditionally taught ones. There are books that are oriented for this > purpose (i.e. Neuhauser *Calculus for Biology and Medicine* > https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Biology-Medicine- > Life-Sciences/dp/0321644689). Just as many institutions offer applied > statistics courses. > > More and more of ecology and environmental biology requires modeling, > statistics or both. My anecdotal evidence from teaching Ecology courses > and environmental computer modeling courses is that students who have taken > calculus (not required in either case) perform better in the population > growth parts of an Ecology class and in computer modeling than students who > have not had calculus. My guess is that when surveyed students would not > say that they used calculus in either course, despite the benefits they had > from a better understanding of derivatives, integration, and fitting > functions. While I don't have data to back this up, it might be an > interesting question which someone else has researched. > > Developing a quantitative methods course geared towards biology majors > would give students the directly applicable skills to the major if done > well. While I am someone who has used a significant amount of mathematics > in my teaching and research and personally believe the more math the > better, I understand students are limited in the time/money they have for > taking courses. Therefore, I worry requiring students to take a > quantitative methods class when they might have to take calculus and/or > statistics anyway (for medical school, graduate school, etc.) means > essentially requiring more courses either now or in the future for your > majors. > > Kyle > > -- > Dr. Kyle Ann Whittinghill > Lecturer and Undergraduate Advisor > Department of Geology and Environmental Science > University of Pittsburgh > 4107 O'Hara St. > Pittsburgh, PA 15260-3332 > Office Phone: 412-383-7052 > Office: SRCC Room 216 >
