Day 4

Shodor Main Image Text that says the Shodor Foundation

To begin, the students reviewed what happened yesterday. The students then split into groups and went outside. Alton asked the students to make observations on a carton of eggs, then the eggs themselves. They had to determine which were raw and which were hard boiled. The students had a great time collaborating in their groups. The trick was, some eggs were empty, some had water in them, and some had liquid soap in them. This taught them not to trust what they think or assume. After this, Bob2 did a rope trick, asking the students to observe. The students then figured out if the rope he was waving was going in a circle or flapping like a bird. This taught the students that things are not always what they appear to be.

Bob2 then came in and described models with manipulatives. After discussing different types of science, and some careers in all of them, he descibed the tools that would be used to do computational sciences. These tools ranged from desktop computers to Cray supercomputers.

Anne then took over, leading an activity to create a step by step instructions on making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was difficult because students would forget seemingly obvious instructions like removing the top from the peanut butter jar. The students quickly recognized these problems and fixed them.

After the break, Jonathan started explaining the epidemic model. He divided people into groups: susceptible, infected, and recovered. The class used a model of the Ebola virus, or RNA negative filovirus. To run the model, they searched the internet for the proper information to put in for the variables. Once they had found some, the whole group got all their data together and ran the model. The students thoroughly enjoyed this activity from start to finish. Doing this model also gave the students a feel for how deadly the Ebola virus is.