Implementation and Assessment of Quantitative Cell Biology Modules As Part of A Multi-Institutional Collaboration

Calls for transforming biological curricula have emphasized a need for interdisciplinary STEM education. To address this, we designed six modules to develop quantitative reasoning competencies for a sophomore-level Cell Biology course. After a comprehensive curriculum alignment procedure between a four-year institution and its primary community college sending institutions, we determined topics, then developed and implemented the modules. We analyzed validated, pre-post measurements of specific quantitative competencies to determine the effects of the modules on student proficiencies. Students showed significant total growth in quantitative goals for all modules and had significant positive correlations between final course grades, post-assessment performance, and overall gain across the module. All students showed a significant positive correlation between final course grades and their average post-assessment performance, while only direct entry students showed a significant positive correlation between their grade and pre-assessment performance. Only transfer students had a significant positive correlation between final course grade and gains on all individual quantitative goals. Transfer students exposed to more modules had a higher score on a global assessment of quantitative and biological concepts. Attitude assessments showed that students had an overall positive experience with the modules. Our data suggest that adding quantitative modules to core biology courses can promote student understanding of quantitative concepts and promote transfer student success. Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) National Science Foundation (NSF) grant awarded to (among others) HCC (DUE-1820903) and UMBC (DUE-1821274). This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.