June 26, 2000

Medicine and the Biosciences started today with a bang! The class did introductions and Bob2 introduced Computational Science, they then dove right into their first activity. Christina discussed diabetes with the class, and then introduced them to the AIDA website which allowed them to model the treatment of a diabetes treatment. After using the program, the class discussed the limitations of models, and talked about what the benefits and drawbacks were to using the AIDA simulation.

After lunch, the class discussed epidemiology, the study of epidemics. They learned about STELLA, a modeling program, and built a simple model of a flu epidemic at a boarding school. They discussed how models could help scientists understand and cope with the spread of disease, as well as why models are a good way to help in disease control. The students then worked on their own to build a model of malaria, and discussed the role of "vectors" in the spread of disease.