Guide Entry to 25.05.06
This three-week unit on simulating the spread of an infectious disease is designed for AP Computer Science Principles. It contains three phases: Exploration, Research, and Programming. In the Exploration phase, students will be introduced to NetLogo. NetLogo is a programmable modeling environment specializing in simulations, making it remarkably straightforward for anyone to create customized SIR models. In the Research phase, students will select an infectious respiratory disease from a curated list and gather data on variables such as transmission rate, incubation period, and infectious period. In the Programming phase, students will create a model of their disease in NetLogo. The expectations are that they implement the unique attributes of their disease from the research phase into this model. The result is a simulation that generates a time-lapse visualization of agents moving, becoming infected, recovering, dying or gaining immunity, accompanied by a graph plotting infection numbers over time. At the conclusion of the Programming phase, students present their findings to the class. Through collaborative coding, data visualization, and reflection, they will deepen scientific literacy, practice evidence-based reasoning, and articulate the public health implications of their simulations.
Keywords: disease, computer science, modeling, simulation
(Developed for Mathematics III, grades 10-12; recommended for AP Computer Science Principles, grades 10-12, and Introduction to Computer Science, grade 9)
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