SMB/MAA MathFest San Jose 2007

SMB/MAA MathFest

San Jose 2007

Short Course:

Implementing Biology

Across the Mathematics Curriculum

John R. Jungck

International Union of Biological Sciences

Society for Mathematical Biology

BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

Beloit College

The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

is funded by HHMI, NSF, and EOT
-
PACI

Howard Hughes Medical Institute,

Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation,

and Education Outreach and Training
-


Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure

Previous major funding:

Annenberg Project/Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Foundation for Microbiology

Beloit College

University of Chicago

Center for Biology Education,

University of Wisconsin
-

Madison

Apple Computer

Pew Midstates Science & Mathematics Consortium



Collaborative Mathematical Modeling

Top
-
Down

ODE’s

PDE’s

(Symbolic Algebra Packages)

Bottom
-
Up

Cellular Automata

Individual
-
Based Modeling

Particle
-
Based Modeling

Engineering Control

Nonlinear

Feedback

Hysteresis

(Stella, Simul, Extend)

Statistics

Multivariate

Resampling (bootstrapping, etc.)

Bayesian

HHMI subcontract from Claudia Neuhauser,

HHMI Fellow & Chair, Ecology & Evolution,

College of Bioloogical Sciences, University of Minnesota

Mathematical biology
education and a
response to NRC’s

Bio 2010
recommendations




National Research Council


Bio 2010: Transforming Undergraduate

Education for Future Research Biologists


Recommendation #2:


Concepts, examples, and techniques from
mathematics, … should be included in
biology courses. … Faculty in biology,
mathematics, and physical sciences must
work collaboratively to find ways of
integrating mathematics … into life
science courses …


ISBN 0
-
309
-
08535
-
7


(2003)

Recommendation #1:


Those selecting the

new approaches should

consider the importance


of mathematics,

Meeting the Challenges:

Education Across the Biological, Mathematical, and
Computer Sciences

Sponsored by:


National Science Foundation


National Institute of General Medical
Sciences


American Association for the
Advancement of Science


Mathematical Association of America


American Society for Microbiology


pub.nigms.nih.gov/challenges/

www.maa.org/mtc/

Mathematics in Biology Curricula

WHY?

RESPECT


CONSISTENCY


EMPOWERMENT

Lynn Arthur Steen, editor

Math & Bio 2010: Linking Undergraduate Disciplines

Mathematics Association of America (2005).

Raina Robeva

Sweet Briar College

Probability

and

Statistics
-
based

Models

Anton Weisstein

Truman State University

Biological

ESTEEM:

Linear Algebra,

Population

Genetics, and

Microsoft Excel

Jennifer Galovich

College of St. Benedict &

St. John’s University


Bioinformatics

from an

Applied

Combinatorics

Perspective

Renee Fister

Murray State University

OPTIMAL CONTROL

THEORY

IN

BIOLOGY

Gretchen Koch

Goucher College

Teaching Mathematics to Biologists

and

Biology to Mathematicians:

Pharmacokinetic

Modeling

BioGrapher (Graph Theory in Biology)

Julius Jackson

Michigan State University

Number Theory

and

Genomics

Holly Gaff

Old Dominion University

Epidemiology

And

Modeling:


The Basics of

Infectious

Disease

Modeling

Two Challenges


(1)

Deluge of data



(2) Working together,
Working apart

Tsunami of Data

Tsunami of Data


Terrabytes

Per

Day


www.calacademy.org/.../ stories/horizons.html
. Kathleen M. Wong. “Food Web Sandwich”


A more comprehensive yeast protein
interaction network

Deletion p
henotype:


Red = lethal

Green = non
-
lethal

Orange = slow growth

Yellow = unknown


Source: Jeong H et al
(2004)
Nature
411
:41
-
42


An example of a scale
-
free network

•
Most nodes have few
connections

•
A small number of nodes
(network hubs) are
connected to a large
number of other notes


Working Together, Working Apart

Participation:


Not just PI’s

Post
-
docs

Graduate & Under
-

graduate students

Technicians


More democratic

= Creativity,

Innovation


Less isolation & NIH

Syndrome (Not In
-

vented Here)


Mayo Clinic Model

Bioinfor
-
matics

Bioinfor
-
matics


Surgery


Oncology

Pathol
-
ogy


Epidemi
-
ology

Applied

Mathematics

Working Together, Working Apart


Synergisms


Specializations
provide expertise



Respecting
difference


Tolerance

Why 2020?

Microsoft Science 2020 report

What mathematical reasoning should
we expect biologists to develop?

The Challenges for 2020
STUDENTS

Multivariate

Multicausal

Multidimensional

Nonlinear

Multi
-
scale

Analyses of Complex Data

Where are we now? Where do we need to go?


General biology texts:



have less than 3
equations


Rarely have
quantitative data


Graph complexity
primarily linear


No quantitative
problems


Biology education that
uses calculus, discrete
mathematics, & statistics


Quantitative problem
solving throughout


Modeling top down,
bottom up, nonlinear
feedback


Deal with complexity of
terabytes of data per day

How close is 2020?

Today’s kindergarden student will
be in college in 2020


In other words, the student of
tomorrow is already in school!


Will biology education be as
similar as 1994 was to 2007?

“ For Yesterday is but a Dream

And To
-
morrow only a Vision;

But To
-
day well lived makes

Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,

And every Tomorrow, a
Vision

of Hope.”









-

Kalidasa

Indian poet and philosopher

VIII. Conclusion

Staying with Tradition and Seeing Change


An Anthropologist’s Advice

“… there are a good many more
ways of getting it wrong than
getting it right, and one of the
most common ways of getting it
wrong is through convincing
ourselves that we have gotten it
right …”



-

Clifford Geertz