Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32058833›Full record

ArticleCBE life sciences education2020

Development of the BioCalculus Assessment (BCA).

Robin T Taylor, Pamela R Bishop, Suzanne Lenhart, Louis J Gross, Kelly Sturner

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in CBE life sciences education, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Robin T TaylorRTRES Consulting, Knoxville, TN 37934.
Pamela R BishopNational Institute for STEM Evaluation and Research (NISER), National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Suzanne LenhartNational Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Louis J GrossNational Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Kelly SturnerNational Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We describe the development and initial validity assessment of the 20-item BioCalculus Assessment (BCA), with the objective of comparing undergraduate life science students' understanding of calculus concepts in different courses with alternative emphases (with and without focus on biological applications). The development process of the BCA included obtaining input from a large network of scientists and educators as well as students in calculus and biocalculus courses to accumulate evidential support of the instrument's content validity and response processes of test takers. We used the Rasch model to examine the internal structure of scores from students who have experienced calculus instruction in the two methods. The analysis involved three populations (Calculus 1, Calculus 2, and Biocalculus) for which the Calc 1 and Calc 2 students were not exposed to calculus concepts in a life science setting, while the Biocalculus students were presented concepts explicitly with a life science emphasis. Overall, our findings indicate that the BCA has reasonable validity properties, providing a diagnostic tool to assess the relative learning success and calculus comprehension of undergraduate biology majors from alternative methods of instruction that do or do not emphasize life science examples.

Indexed as

LearningMathematicsComprehensionEducational MeasurementHumansStudentsUniversities

Identifiers

PMID32058833
PMCPMC8697647

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.