Candid Student Reports

The following (emails) were written by members of the Medicine and Biosciences during the first day of the program. Some elements may have been removed for various reasons, but the text that remains is in the student's own words.

Comments: Today in the Medicine and Bioscience 
workshop I learned about ODES.  That stands for 
Ordinary differential equations.  I also learned 
how to make very detailed models using the STALLA.
This program is more difficult than I expected, but 
I'm learning a lot and enjoy every minute of it.  
I can't wait for tomorrow.  Bye now


 Nwakaego
 

Today, we worked mainly with STELLA. We practiced 
creating diagrams using a couple different case 
studies. We also learned information on Ebola 
through making a STELLA diagram. The diagram helped 
us understand the spread of Ebola. We recieved a 
overview of what we would be involved in during the 
program. Overall, we had fun!!


 Ashmi
 

Today in the medicine and biosciences classes we 
learned a lot about medicine.  We modeled 
conseptual diagrams with a Stella program.  We also 
learned stupid rope tricks which we used 
observational skills.  We learned about epidemiology 
which is the study of diseases.  We created linear 
and exponential graphs.


 Paula
 

Today in the medicine and biosciences classes we 
learned several new and interesting things.  We 
were shown rope tricks that helped us understand 
modeling and using STELLA® (Systems Thinking with 
Experimental Learning with Animation).  After this 
we learned about ODE's.  Mr. Bob2, and the 
wonderful Ms. Bell shows us how to model these 
equations.  We did two models, the flu and Ebola 
models.  These models were wonderful to model.  I 
enjoyed today and I hope that tomorrow will be just 
as great!


 Monte
 

In our class today, we watched Bob2 do a rope trick. 
By observing the rope as it spun, we were reminded 
of the importance of observational science. We used 
Stella to model the way populations react to 
different enviornmental factors and epidemics. 	


 Aimee
 

 Today we talked about many simulating programs. We 
used one of them named STELLA. Useing this program 
we made simulating situations of the ebola virus.


 Alex
 

Even though I felt exhausted, I learned about 
systems OD's and "reviewed" how to use STELLA.  A 
while has passed since I used STELLA and I found 
flows and converters confusing.  However, I'm glad 
I joined this class because mathematics (not my 
forte) gives me major trouble and, at the School of 
Science and Math, the curicculum proves quite 
challenging.  Instead of eating lunch, I took a nap 
for the soujourn of lunch.  I'm somewhat worried 
about the imminent project which looms in the 
distance.  Hopefully, some muse will inspire me.  


 Margaux
 

Hey, we watched rope tricks to teach us that our 
observations are not what we think they are. It 
taught us to do experiments to test what we 
actually see. We built 2 STELLA models; flu and 
ebola. I really enjoy learning these interesting 
things. Thanks!


 Kismet