An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses for Biology Students Ramon Gomez Senior Instructor Dept. of Math & Statistics Florida International University eCOTS

University’s Main Campus

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Program: General information Special undergraduate program for selected biology majors, inaugurated in the fall of 2007 Rigorous and interdisciplinary block type curriculum that emphasizes the use of statistics for analyses of biological/biomedical data Small classes: scholars per year Statistics I & II courses: sophomore year

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Statistics I Topics 1.Descriptive statistics 2.Basic probability 3.Probability distributions 4.Sampling distributions 5.Estimation with confidence intervals 6.Tests of hypotheses based on a single sample Text book: “Biostatistics” by W. Daniel & C. Cross, chapters 1-7

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Statistics II Topics 1.Tests of hypotheses based on two samples 2.Power and sample size 3.Experimental designs and ANOVA models 4.Regression models: simple linear, multiple, dummy variables, and logistic 5.Categorical data analysis 6.Non-parametric statistics Text book: “Biostatistics” by W. Daniel & C. Cross, chapters 7-13

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Statistics: Technology resources Website: course materials and online calculators for probability distributions, clinical predictive values, and sample size determination PowerPoint: PP presentations developed by the instructor are used for lectures. Course packs with PP slides are available to the students Statistical Software: SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) is used for in class data computations and analysis as well as take home assignments

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Statistics: Organization Fourteen-Fifteen week terms Two meetings per week, 75 minutes each; or three meetings, 50 minutes each Classroom: Fully equipped computer lab with seats and LCD projection system Data from biological/biomedical studies is loaded into the students’ memory flash drives at the beginning of the courses

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Statistics: Typical Classroom

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses QBIC Statistics: Evaluation System Two-Three partial tests Three take-home SPSS assignments Cumulative final exam Note: Partial tests and the final exam include the use of statistical software

Students’ Performance and Motivation Overall Assessment of Instruction: Excellent/Very Good Opinions Statistics I: 80% Statistics II: 83% CoursesEnrolledDrop%RetentionPassed% Pass Statistics I ( ) %10298% Statistics II ( ) %5994% Students’ Satisfaction

An Interdisciplinary Approach in Statistics Courses for Biology Students Conclusions This Interdisciplinary Approach provides a very effective teaching- learning method in statistics courses for Biology students This Interdisciplinary Approach provides a very effective teaching- learning method in statistics courses for Biology students Use of technology resources and real data from biological/biomedical studies contribute to improve the quality of instruction and students’ understanding Use of technology resources and real data from biological/biomedical studies contribute to improve the quality of instruction and students’ understanding QBIC scholars learned Statistics effectively with this Interdisciplinary Approach as demonstrated by their performance in these courses QBIC scholars learned Statistics effectively with this Interdisciplinary Approach as demonstrated by their performance in these courses QBIC Students’ motivation and satisfaction have been very high QBIC Students’ motivation and satisfaction have been very high This interdisciplinary approach provides QBIC scholars with a very important tool for future Biostatistics courses and research activities This interdisciplinary approach provides QBIC scholars with a very important tool for future Biostatistics courses and research activities