The mathematics behind medicine

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 maths, statistics and biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professors Sumithra and Jay Mandrekar, biostatisticians at Mayo Clinic, USA. They are using biostatistics to design and analyse clinical trials, leading to improvements in healthcare and medical treatments.

• This resource also contains an interview with Sumithra and Jay and offers an insight into careers in biostatistics. If your students have questions for Sumithra and Jay, they can send them to them online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Sumithra and Jay will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Sumithra and Jay’s research and challenges them to design a clinical trial.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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