Resources in Mathematics Education for Biology


Teaching Modules


Ledder (2021), Qualitative Analysis of a Resource Management Model and Its Application to the Past and Future of Endangered Whale Populations, CODEE 14, DOI: 10.5642/codee.202114.01.03.

This paper grew out of a talk I gave at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver.


C. Diaz-Eaton et al (2019), A "Rule-of-Five" Framework for Models and Modeling to Unify Mathematicians and Biologists and Improve Student Learning, PRIMUS 29, 799-829, DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2018.1489318.

This paper grew out of a NimBios workshop on mathematics education in biology. It provides a pedagogical framework for mathematical modeling.


G. Ledder and M. Homp (2021), Using a COVID-19 Model in Various Classroom Settings to Assess Effects of Interventions, PRIMUS, DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2020.1861143.

Michelle Homp and I present a primer on mathematical modeling and mathematical epidemiology and discuss the teaching modules listed above.


G. Ledder (2017), Empirical Modeling: Choosing Models and Fitting Them to Data, College Math. J. 47, 109-119, DOI: 10.4169/college.math.j.47.2.109.

In this paper, I discuss linear least squares, the semilinear least squares method I introduced in my 2013 book (see below), and the Akaike Information Criterion for model selection.


G.Ledder (2017), Scaling for Dynamical Systems in Biology, Bull Math Biol 79, 2747-2772.

Asymptotic methods are ubiquitous in models for physical science, but not often used in biological science. This is unfortunate, as many biological models have features that lend themselves to asymptotic methods. The first step in asymptotic analysis is scaling, which is not easy in biology. In this paper, I present some of the basic principles I use in scaling, using my onchocerciasis model as an example.


G.Ledder (2013), Mathematics for the Life Sciences: Calculus, Modeling, Probability, and Dynamical Systems, Springer.

Available from Springer. Second edition will be finished soon.


G.Ledder, J.Carpenter, T. Comar, ed., Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences: Models, Processes, & Directions

This book-length manuscript has been accepted for the MAA Notes series and will be published in the first half of 2013.

Preface, annotated Table of Contents, and editor's introduction.


G.Ledder (2008), An experimental approach to mathematical modeling in biology, PRIMUS 18, 119-138.

I had the good fortune to be able to serve as guest editor for the January 2008 issue of the undergraduate mathematics pedagogy journal PRIMUS. A number of excellent papers can be found in that issue, as well as this paper of mine, which was slipped in unobtrusively by the guest editor.