Introduction and Overview

Introductory information about context, rationale, and purpose for this activity. Context would include the type(s) of courses for which this activity would be appropriate.

By the end of the fall 2010 quarter, students in the integrated (soft-linked) statistics and biology classes will have had experience with developing and using models to make decisions about issues that affect the Puget Sound bioregion. We expect that they will better understand that ecosystems are dynamic entities and that the physical factors of ecosystems impact living organisms and may dictate which organisms can survive in the ecosystem. We expect that after an experience linking a math and science class, students’ attitude toward both math and science will improve.

Timeframe: how much class-time, and/or how much of the course this activity will require to carry out. Also, where you use this activity: in what courses or programs, and whether this activity will occur early, middle, or late in the term.

The activities that we are planning will take place over the course of the entire quarter. One of the first major activities will be a field trip with ORCA students (led by Ardi Kveven, Executive Director, Ocean Research College Academy). Students in both the Biology and Statistics classes will experience data collection first hand. This field trip will take place in the third week of the Fall Quarter 2010. Prior to that, students in both classes will have met to discuss issues with sampling plans, data collection, and computer modeling. After our major data collection activity, students will meet periodically throughout the quarter to develop graphs, discuss case studies, and plan posters for their presentations.

The assignment: a brief description of the integrative assignment that includes the “big idea(s)” in your disciplines and sustainability “big idea” as well as the QL skills you hope the activity will foster.

We expect that after an experience linking a math and science class, students’ attitude toward both math and science will improve. Math students will gather data on the Bioregion (to experience the data production and organization process) which they will then present to the Biology students to create models using STELLA software to both quantify and model the experimental results. All students will examine the quantitative relationships and draw conclusions by representing the relationships in the form of tables, and describe the salient features of the physical relationships in the form of a graph (both 2-D and 3-D), justifying their conclusions about the physical situations. Students will then organize the information into a case study that will then be used in both classes in discussions where the complex issues of environmental quality and sustainability are the key topics. The students themselves will write the case studies, meeting our goals of reflective writing across the curriculum. In preparation for these classes we will collect as many articles on the specific topics we choose (climate issues, water, and population are the three we have identified).

Throughout the term our classes (deliberately scheduled at the same hour of the day) will meet to perform “lab” experiments. Students will be given sample data and will discuss presentation (graphs) from both a math perspective and a science perspective. Later we will meet as a class to discuss modeling data, and still later we will meet again to discuss case studies and presentations.