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Synopsis Pursuing cutting edge questions in organismal biology in the future will require novel approaches for training the next generation of organismal biologists, including knowledge and use of systems-type modeling combined with integrative organismal biology. We link agendas recommending changes in science education and practice across three levels: Broadening the concept of organismal biology to promote modeling organisms as systems interacting with higher and lower organizational levels; enhancing undergraduate science education to improve applications of quantitative reasoning and modeling in the scientific process; and K-12 curricula based on Next Generation Science Standards emphasizing development and use of models in the context of explanatory science, solution design, and evaluating and communicating information. Out of each of these initiatives emerges an emphasis on routine use of models as tools for hypothesis testing and prediction. The question remains, however, what is the best approach for training the next generation of organismal biology students to facilitate their understanding and use of models? We address this question by proposing new ways of teaching and learning, including the development of interactive web-based modeling modules that lower barriers for scientists approaching this new way of imagining and conducting integrative organismal biology.
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Modeling Organismal Responses to Changing Environments
Synopsis Throughout their lives, organisms must integrate and maintain stability across complex developmental, morphological, and physiological systems, all while responding to changing internal and external environments. Determining the mechanisms underlying organismal responses to environmental change and development is a major challenge for biology. This is particularly important in the face of the rapidly changing global climate, increasing human populations, and habitat destruction. In January 2024, we organized a symposium to highlight some current efforts to use modeling to understand organismal responses to short- and long-term changes in their internal and external environments. Our goal was to facilitate collaboration and communication between modelers and organismal biologists, which is one of the major aims of the Organismal Systems-type Modeling Research Coordination Network, OSyM. Accompanying this introduction are a series of papers that are aimed to enhance research and education in linking organismal biology and modeling and contribute to building a new community of scientists to tackle important questions using this approach.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1754949
- PAR ID:
- 10544491
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Integrative And Comparative Biology
- Volume:
- 64
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1540-7063
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 900-904
- Size(s):
- p. 900-904
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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