The original version of this article contained multiple errors and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
UCLA students with majors in the life sciences will have the option to take an alternative to traditional math requirements starting next quarter.
The life sciences division in the College of Letters and Science will offer a pilot course, Life Sciences 30A: “Mathematics for Life Scientists,” as a replacement for Math 3A: “Calculus for Life Sciences Students.” The new course is part of an effort to make the mathematics requirements in the life science curriculum more relevant to biological fields, said Blaire Van Valkenburgh, associate dean for academic programs of life sciences.
The course will use specific biological examples to teach mathematical concepts, said Alan Garfinkel, a medicine and physiological science professor who will teach the new course in the spring.
“People who did not traditionally think of themselves as math people can say, ‘Hey, you know I can actually see how you could use this,’” he said.
Van Valkenburgh said students do not typically get to see the relevance of mathematics to life sciences since biological and scientific examples are not currently used in the math series.
“Every week … (there will be) biological examples so there will be no way of not seeing the relevance,” she said.
Many life science students said they think the new course being offered next quarter, Life Sciences 30A, will be a beneficial replacement.
Lynne Liu, a first-year neuroscience student who finished the math series last quarter, said she thinks the course will be more relevant and useful since it will use examples applicable to the type of work the students want to do in the future.
Liu said she is currently taking Statistics 13: “Introduction to Statistical Methods for Life and Health Sciences,” and likes that the examples the course uses directly apply to her field of study.
“If it’s an applicable class like Stats 13, then I would have taken it,” she said.
Gurvinder Singh, a first-year biology student who is currently enrolled in Math 3A, said he prefers to take the Math 3 series since he thinks it will be more straightforward math than the new math course geared toward students in the life sciences.
For the past couple of years, faculty and administrators in the life sciences division have discussed how the type of math that students in biological fields need has changed, Van Valkenburgh said. Calculus is not enough anymore because the field of biology is ever-changing, she added.
Robert Brown, professor and vice chair of the mathematics department, said the life sciences and mathematics departments both formed committees that are working together to revise their respective math curricula to be more relevant.
Dimitri Shlyakhtenko, professor and mathematics department chair, said Life Sciences 30A is an experiment to determine how to teach the material and what aspects to put in a textbook.
Van Valkenburgh said she hopes the new series will help students see how important math really is to biology.
“We hope to make the program more fun and interactive,” she said.
The course will be evaluated after the fall quarter through student feedback on evaluations, student test performance and assessments by educators from the Office of Instructional Development to see how the department can develop it further.
“If the students like the material and we feel they have learned something useful, we will call it a success,” Garfinkel said.
The ultimate aim the life sciences division and the math department are working toward is to develop a series of math courses for life scientists that is a parallel track to the Math 3 series, said Joseph Rudnick, dean of the physical sciences division.
Life sciences students would be able to use the new courses, including Life Sciences 30A, instead of the classes in the Math 3 series to fulfill the requisites for chemistry and physics courses that life sciences students must take, Rudnick said.
In future years, the new track currently being developed could serve as an alternative to the Math 3 series or replace it, said Victoria Sork, dean of the life sciences division.
“The end goal is to create the best possible courses for life sciences majors,” Sork said.
Correction: Robert Brown, professor and vice chair of the mathematics department, was misquoted. Also, the life sciences division and the math department are working toward developing a series of math courses for life scientists that is a parallel track to the Math 3 series. In future years, the new track currently being developed could serve as an alternative to the Math 3 series or replace it.