Aaron A. King, Ph.D.

Nelson G. Hairston Collegiate Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology,
Complex Systems, and Mathematics, University of Michigan
External Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Biology 202. Mathematics of Life, an Introduction to Quantitative Biology.

These questions, and many others in biology, are fundamentally quantitative. A sound grasp of logic and mathematics is needed not only to plan experiments and analyze biological data but to understand the fundamental ideas and principles of biology itself. This course is designed to put the essential concepts and tools of quantitative reasoning into the hands of biologists.

The course will be taught in lab format, with exercises to develop skills and opportunities for personalized guidance from the instructors. Instead of examinations or graded homework, students will track their progress via a graded notebook and perfect their ability to solve problems and communicate solutions through edited drafts of short papers solving challenging problems in biology. The course will cover the elements of statistics, data visualization, dynamics, probability, and scientific computing.

This course will be appropriate for all Program in Biology and Program in the Environment concentrators as well as those intending to pursue careers in medicine, allied health professions, bioengineering, and secondary education.

This course fulfills the Quantitative Analysis 2 requirement for the Biology, General Biology, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cellular & Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Plant Biology, and Neuroscience concentrations. For PitE students, it can be used satisfy either the Analytics requirement or the Natural and Earth Systems Science requirement. The course does not fulfill the prerequisites of Math 215 (Calculus III).

Prerequisites: Math 115 (or equivalent).

The current course syllabus can be found here.


© 2024 Aaron A. King
3038 Biological Sciences Building
1105 North University Avenue
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1085 USA