April 13, 2010
Chris Bergevin began his presentation with some data about the perceptions of mathematicians and the general public about the background needs and work tasks of life scientists. Conversely, he discussed the perceptions of life scientists and the general public about the background needs and work tasks of mathematicians. He expressed that the education needs to prepare 21st century mathematicians and life scientists are not being met with the current school and university coursework. Critical thinking needs to be a bigger focus.
Chris offered few examples of how biological-related problems can be used to motivate mathematics at various levels of education (e.g., sound perception → sinusoids, differential equations, complex #s, Fourier analysis; diffusion → random #s, statistics, PDEs).
"Act 2" of the presentation focused on some of Chris's research in hearing, ultimately conveying how mathematics factors into approaching a problem in the life sciences.
This evening's mathematical adventures were well beyond the standard high school curriculum. Yet numerous performance and process standards were utilized in the presentation.
Some of these include:
HSM1-SC1-01 Solve problems and equations that require the number system to be extended from real to complex numbers.
HSM1-SC1-03 Describe the relationship between real and complex numbers including plotting complex numbers as points in a plane.
HSM1-SC1-04 Define polar coordinates; relate polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates.
HSM1-SC1-05 Convert complex numbers to trigonometric form.
HSM2-SC1-01 Solve problems by estimating and computing with one-variable and two-variable data.
HSM2-SC1-02 Organize collected data into an appropriate graphical representation with or without technology.
HSM2-SC1-03 Display data, including paired data, as lists, tables, matrices, and plots with or without technology; make predictions and observations about patterns or departures from patterns.
HSM5-SC2-01 Analyze a problem situation, determine the question(s) to be answered, organize given information, determine how to represent the problem, and identify implicit and explicit assumptions that have been made.
HSM5-SC2-03 Evaluate a solution for reasonableness and interpret the meaning of the solution in the context of the original problem.
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| Chris illustrates the power of using mathematics to model biological phenomena. | Chris presents his notion of the triad nature of mathematics- qualitative, quantitative, and analytic. |
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| Participants completed an attitude survey to lay a foundation of perspective differences. | Chris shared some of his current research on hearing. |
