Reforming biology education for the quantitative era

Biology is entering a quantitative phase that requires a more nuanced understanding of the complex systems underpinning it. However, biology language and education has largely not kept pace. The biological concepts we teach are models - constructs to help us understand. Yet these constructs shape our thinking. However, the oversimplified models that are typical in early biology education are often not even acknowledged to be models. Only at much later stages of education are nuance and complexity added, and we are forced – often unsuccessfully – to integrate this new information with a foundation it often contradicts. Here, I present areas where the canonical depictions of biological systems oversimplify reality to the point of being misleading and provide ideas for how we can change biology language and teaching to better prepare the next generation of biologists for the complex reality that awaits them.