Alexander Kulacki

ark1031@wildcats.unh.edu

Biological Sciences: Integrative and Organismal Biological Sciences - MS

Research Topic: Undergraduate Biology Education

I studied both Biology and Linguistics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. I am deeply interested in exploring the connections between my biological, linguistic, and educational backgrounds and have come to UNH to investigate how these connections might affect undergraduate biology students.

Biology is becoming increasingly quantitative, with more tools and analyses being made available to up-and-coming biologists. There is an ever-mounting need for biology students to build robust quantitative skills. However, faced with these demands, an alarming number of students report "I'm not a math person," "I don't like math," or worse, "I can't do math." To me, this reveals a significant hurdle for educators to clear in building the competency of these students. My research aims to explore potential factors which affect the mastery of quantitative skills in undergraduate biology students, with a particular interest in the possible effects of the language students use on their ability to solve quantitative problems.