ABSTRACT
It is a paradox that, while the subject becomes increasingly quantitative, many students still elect to study biology in the hope that they will avoid the numerical challenges they had previously associated with chemistry and physics at school. When biology students arrive at university, they may not like or even understand the need for mathematics, but by graduation it is essential that they have become numerate scientists.
This chapter describes the introduction of two very similar courses into two Scottish universities. Each course is designed to teach and reinforce the understanding and use of basic quantitative skills in a biological context.
The courses aim to give the students confidence while taking account of the diversity of their mathematical backgrounds. Teaching these skills early on emphasizes the importance of quantitative rigour and alleviates the need for later duplication or repetition of teaching effort.
By using specific examples from the biological sciences, the authors aim to make students aware of the importance of quantitative skills to solve biological problems. While it would be optimistic to conclude that all students are happy converts to quantitative biology, the shift away from a lecture-based course to a much more self-directed course has been popular with the students and shows evidence of leading to better qualified graduates in the future.
