June 15, 2005

Epidemiology was the first subject for the students in the morning workshop. Students answered questions about viral diseases, such as the flu, to give the teacher an idea of what the kids know so he could fill in the details.

Using Stella, a modeling program, students helped to create a model of a virus infecting a school. The students followed along on their iBooks, building the model as Kent instructed. For the first activity, they split into two groups to create a sick employee policy for a company. After both groups got the correct model using Stella they stopped to take a snack break. When they returned from snack, they continued to experiment with the variables in their Stella models.

Now able to use Stella independently, the students developed a new model relating flu vaccinations and the productivity of employees. They ended the day by preapring a report to present during tomorrow's class.