Admission requirements
None.
Description
Life on Earth changes and moves constantly. A living world with no change would be a rather dull place: there would be no births and deaths of individuals of any species, no breathing, no aging, no movement, and more. In many ways, a central theme of the life sciences is change. Therefore, it is helpful to define it and develop tools to analyze it. The objective of this course is to develop mathematical reasoning and calculus skills to analyze changes and equilibria in biological and environmental processes.
This course enhances student’s analytical thinking and problem-solving skills through illustrative examples in lectures, project work and coding in R. Examples and data are drawn from animal and plant biology, ecology, environmental and biomedical sciences, epidemiology and human health. They cover different organizational levels, ranging from temporal changes in individual cells (e.g., tumor cells) to movements of organisms throughout their environment. The course reviews mathematical foundations including exponential and logarithmic functions and derivatives, and serves as an introduction to differential calculus.
Course Objectives
After successful completion of this course, students are able to:
Knowledge
Appreciate mathematics for (the history of) liberal arts and sciences
Discuss the mathematical principles of calculus covered in the course
Interpret graphic representations of functions that model life science processes.
Skills
Apply mathematical reasoning and calculus to real world topics and data
Collect and collaboratively engage with data using learnt mathematical concepts
Confidently approach future calculus problems both outside of their studies, but also within more advanced courses such as in understanding economics, population dynamics, and quantitative research methods.
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2025-2026 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
The course involves interactive lectures to discuss mathematical concepts and definitions, and practice interpreting and analyzing real world problems and data. Students are expected to revise theoretical concepts before coming to class. In-class activities will focus on reinforcing this learning and stimulate mathematical reasoning skills. There will also be lab sessions to practice calculus analyses in the R software environment.
Assessment Method
Participation. 10%
Group project: 25%
Homework assignments: 25%
Final exam: 40%
Reading list
The required textbook is:
- Stewart & Day. 2016. Biocalculus: Calculus, Probability, and Statistics for the Life Sciences. Boston, MA : Cengage Learning
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Elisa van Cleemput, e.e.a.van.cleemput@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
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