RCN-UBE: Statistical Thinking in Undergraduate Biology (STUB) Network: A network for coordinating the teaching and assessment of statistical thinking in introductory biology

The practice of biology has transitioned over the last two decades to become increasingly reliant on quantitative approaches to drawing conclusions from data. Consequently, an introduction to both descriptive and inferential statistical thinking is now standard practice for the undergraduate biology course "Bio 101" - a course taken by over 1.2 million students in the U.S. annually.

Despite the large numbers of students in introductory biology courses, there is a dearth of active discussion about teaching and assessment when integrating statistical thinking into biology courses. Recently, the statistics education community has established guidelines for assessment and instructional best practices when teaching statistics. Furthermore, there is a prominent movement to use modern, computationally-intensive statistical methods (simulation, randomization tests, and bootstrapping) that utilize active learning pedagogical strategies and have preliminary evidence of improving student learning.

Despite these recent changes, there are limited venues to discuss and coordinate best practices for the teaching and assessment of statistical thinking for biology students - many of whom may never take an Introductory Statistics course or will take such a course at a very different time than their introductory biology course. To address these challenges, the Statistical Thinking in Undergraduate Biology (STUB) network will be formed, consisting of over 500 biology and statistics instructors.

The network will directly impact over 100,000 students during the five-year period of the award, with many thousands impacted in the following years. With particular focus on a diverse set of institutions, backgrounds, and learning environments (e.g., institutions serving large numbers of underrepresented and underserved students, including two-year colleges), the project has the potential for effecting a substantial change in the content and focus of the teaching of statistical thinking in undergraduate biology across the country.

As part of the network, participants will engage in workshops and an online learning community dedicated to the discussion and sharing of ideas, resources, and techniques. A key tangible outcome of the workshops and online learning community will be freely available, class-tested, and edited modules co-developed by biologists and statisticians for use in teaching statistical ideas.

The STUB network will also serve to assist in coordinating the assessment of statistical thinking and student attitudes in introductory biology courses. The network will share best practices on assessment, vet potential assessment items, and share assessment results, as well as evaluate the efficacy of the workshops and the online learning community in improving instructor and student outcomes.

The STUB network will provide a forum for serious and impactful discussions about teaching statistics in introductory biology courses, resulting in (a) the development and wide dissemination of numerous freely available modules and assessment items for teaching, (b) published peer-reviewed articles on teaching best practices and assessment results related to statistical thinking in undergraduate biology courses, (c) a long-lasting improvement in the teaching of statistical thinking in the undergraduate biology curriculum, and (d) introductory statistics courses reflecting the needs and perspective of biology (and other quantitative science) students.

This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/). This project is also co-funded by the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) in the BIO directorate and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) in the Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS).