All of my students are above average, and handsome, too
The students have survived their first genetics exam, everyone passed, hooray! Now I have to figure out went wrong in the problems they missed, and shore up their weaknesses in the next week.
First thing I notice is that they are rock solid on simple Mendelian genetics, but that’s not a surprise. Mendelian genetics is dead easy, which is why I have to roll my eyes when I see racists and eugenicists babbling out terms from high school genetics — it’s all the later, more sophisticated stuff that trips them up every time. Getting cocky about the basics is a sure way to fail when reality makes its ugly appearance.
What I really have to work on are probability and statistics. Some of the students are unclear on what a p value implies, and they’re getting tripped up by simple things, like the binomial theorem. I had no idea when I got my biology degree that I’d end up having to teach math!
(Really simple math, too. High school teachers, make sure your students are aware that biology is not a math-free discipline!)
No surprise there. Physicians mostly don’t know what a p value is and they don’t understand Bayes theorem. Actually, I would say that most people who do clinical research don’t understand the meaning of a p value, which by the way I would like to see a lot less of. Go with Bayes.
Isn’t grading one of the most dull, soul-crushing element of teaching ? (my sister teaches chemistry)
The upside must be learning about the progress of former students ( if they keep in touch).
Anyway, I found math to be one of the more fun activities of university. But it helped if you had friends you could consult when you inevitably got stuck.
I often describe myself has having been a biologist who spent his day in front of a computer when that was unusual.
The 80’s and 90’s utterly transformed the way approach biology. Speaking of an observation that is significant with a p-value of 0.05 is more accurate than saying “yes, it’s there”, but much harder for people to grasp.
It was realizing that I really had to do a unit on exponential notation in the midst of a college senior-level biomechanics class that… um… gave me pause. 1.23 x 10^6 really is bigger than 4.56 x 10^3. Who knew?