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1-142-S-WaterBottles
22 Aug 2021 | | Contributor(s):: Brody Dylan Johnson, Elodie Pozzi
This project involves the application of Newton's law of cooling to the study of insulated water bottles. Students have the option to conduct experiments with their own bottles outside of class or use data included in the student version. The modeling scenario leads the students through an...
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1-100-S-EngineeringDemographics
20 Aug 2021 | | Contributor(s):: Brody Dylan Johnson, Elodie Pozzi
The goal of this activity is to show students how population models can be used to examine social issues. The students will examine three different population models and will use numerical methods to apply each model to demographic data for the percentage of engineering degrees awarded to women...
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1-134-S-LanguageDynamics
08 Aug 2021 | | Contributor(s):: Jennifer Crodelle
Students will be introduced to a mathematical model for language dynamics. Specifically, the model describes the change in the fraction of a population speaking one language over another. By answering a list of questions, students will explore how changing the status of a language will alter the...
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1-139-S-PlantsVsHerbivores
08 Mar 2021 | | Contributor(s):: Mary Vanderschoot
In a recent study of plants and herbivores on an island in the North Sea, ecologists made a surprising observation: Instead of more vegetation resulting in more grazers, more vegetation resulted in fewer grazers. Consequently, the ecologists hypothesized that, as the vegetation grew more dense,...
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1-137-S-SheepGraze
03 Mar 2021 | | Contributor(s):: Mary Vanderschoot
One of the most well-known mathematical models in ecology is the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey system of differential equations. Initially, this model was used to analyze interactions between two animal populations. But ecologists discovered that it could also be applied to plant (`prey') and...
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1-114-S-EarthClimate
09 Dec 2019 | | Contributor(s):: Terrance Pendleton
In this modeling scenario, we investigate the Earth's climate using a zero-dimensional energy balance model. Energy balance models are climate models that try to predict the average surface temperature of the Earth from solar radiation, emission of radiation to outer space, and Earth's...
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5-002-S-PhasePortraitForRelationshipDynamics
15 Aug 2019 | | Contributor(s):: Lawrence C Udeigwe
The different possible dynamics of a two-person romantic relationship are modeled -- as a linear two dimensional system of equations -- and analyzed. Students are guided to explore how the mathematical model of one relationship type can be obtained by modifying the mathematical model of another....
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7-020-S-ThermometerInVaryingTempStream
22 Aug 2018 | | Contributor(s):: Norman Loney
We present a differential equation model for the temperature of a mercury thermometer which is sitting in a stream of water whose temperature oscillates. We suggest a solving strategy which uses Laplace Transforms.
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3-004-S-VanderPol
21 Mar 2017 | | Contributor(s):: Mark A. Lau Kwan
This paper presents an electronic spreadsheet model of the Van der Pol oscillator, a well-known nonlinear second-order ordinary differential equation. The spreadsheet features a number of dynamic controls that permit the user to alter the parameters of the Van der Pol equation and explore the...