Teaching quantitative ecology online: An evidence‐based prescription of best practices

Acevedo, Miguel A.

doi:10.1002/ece3.6607

Cited by 12 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…The figure shows how interest in online learning, measured as relative number Google searches for "online learning" beginning January 2019 up to June 30 2020 in the USA, increased exponentially in parallel to the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 infections. Data used in the figure are available at https://github.com/maace vedo/covid 19gtr ends for students (e.g., Hsu, 2020), providing guidelines, insights, and instructions to safely maintain experiential or active learning or teach topics not well-suited to online delivery (e.g., Acevedo, 2020;Creech & Shriner, 2020;Hines et al, 2020;Lashley & McCleery, 2020), contributions highlighting sources of inequity and strategies to be more inclusive in online delivery (e.g., Brandt et al, 2020), and ideas for use of tools, apps, and novel media to enhance engagement (e.g., Holt et al, 2020;Strickland et al, 2020). The COVID-19 crisis demanded action, and with over 40 submissions to this special issue by our community, you have risen to the occasion.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

How the ecology and evolution of the COVID‐19 pandemic changed learning

Lashley

Acevedo

Cotner

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

How the ecology and evolution of the COVID‐19 pandemic changed learning

Lashley

Acevedo

Cotner

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…There have been a number of course reforms from infusing biology examples into calculus and to modeling in introductory biology as well as new biology or mathematical biology courses at the interface (e.g. Diaz Eaton and Callender Highlander 2017, Robeva et al 2022, Weisstein 2011, Acevedo 2020). There are also a number of funding initiatives and communities of support which support mathematics and biology instructors to meet the demand for a more integrated education (Diaz Eaton et al 2020, Akman et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Interdisciplinary Teaching through a Complexity Lens

Neitzel

Zhao

Eaton

2022

Preprint

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In this article, we discuss the use of bipartite network analysis to understand and improve interdisciplinary teaching practice. We theorize mathematics and biology as part of a coevolving mutualistic ecosystem. As part of an interdisciplinary teaching initiative, we inventoried mathematics topics appearing in the marine biology classroom and their associated marine context. We then apply techniques of mutualistic bipartite networks analysis to this system to understand the use of mathematical concepts in a marine biology classroom. By analyzing the frequency and distribution of mathematics topics, we see that a variety of mathematical concepts are used across the course with most appearing only a few times. While this is an inherent trait of mutualistic coevolutionary networks, it can create a logistical challenge to supporting mathematics in the marine biology classroom. We find that marine biology topics containing the most mathematics are either close to the instructor's research area or were introduced through externally-developed educational resources. Finally, we analyze groups of topics that appear connected to each other more frequently in order to inform both interdisciplinary education development as well as disciplinary support. We also suggest ways to use network metrics to track interdisciplinary connections over time, helping us understand the impact of interventions on interdisciplinary teaching practice.

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“…Information-oriented, inquirybased explorations of natural systems (3), ecological simulation models (6, Virtual Biology Lab), or mock datasets (5) can all be effective forms of active learning. Mock data sets in particular can help students practice critical thinking and quantitative reasoning while exploring the ecological principles that govern community ecology without the distracting "noise" of real data (7). The purpose of such activities is not for students to generate novel information, but to use the tools of scientific reasoning to arrive at a better understanding of pre-existing information (8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Community Ecology Into the Study of Parasites: Exploring the Effect of Host Behavior on Parasite Transmission Rates

Ryan

Sestero

2022

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Organismal life cycles are often presented as a set of facts to memorize in undergraduate biology courses. This approach is cognitively demanding for students and fails to convey how central life cycle diversity is in shaping ecological and evolutionary processes. Understanding the causes and consequences of life cycles is especially important when studying parasites with multiple life cycle stages for passing through diverse hosts. We designed a two-part lab activity to help our students gain a better understanding of the ecological interactions driven by parasite life cycles. Part I is a structured guide to reading a peer-reviewed journal article. Part II is a guided exercise in summarizing and interpreting mock experimental data involving a trematode parasite life cycle. These assignments helped students (1) understand how parasite life cycles shape ecological interactions with their hosts, (2) practice making predictions about species interactions using core ecological principles, and (3) practice quantitative reasoning and graph literacy skills by visualizing and interpreting data. We first used this activity as a self-guided lab exercise for an upper-division undergraduate parasitology class that switched from in-person to asynchronous-remote mid-semester. The stepwise structure of the activity allowed us to pinpoint the links in the chain of biological reasoning where students struggled most to guide target topic reviews in subsequent lectures. Here, we provide a summary of the activity, our experience with the activity, and suggestions for adapting the activity for a synchronous-remote or in-person class.

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Teaching quantitative ecology online: An evidence‐based prescription of best practices

Cited by 12 publications

References 71 publications

How the ecology and evolution of the COVID‐19 pandemic changed learning

How the ecology and evolution of the COVID‐19 pandemic changed learning

Improving Interdisciplinary Teaching through a Complexity Lens

Integrating Community Ecology Into the Study of Parasites: Exploring the Effect of Host Behavior on Parasite Transmission Rates

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