PROJECT: Explanation and Critique of a Model

Description: You will work alone or with a partner to research an application of differential equations. Together you will create a poster to be displayed in a poster session in the Science Hall atrium on Wed, Dec.3. You will also have to briefly explain your poster to everyone as we go past it (about 5 minutes). This project is worth 15% of your course grade.

Purpose: The point of this project is not so much to see how new equations are solved, but to understand how a model is constructed, and some of the issues involved in creating a model. You should focus on the questions listed on the grade sheet under Background and Conclusions.

Materials: Choose a project out of Martin Braun, Differential Equations and their Applications. There are, I believe, three copies on 2 hour reserve in the library. After you have browsed through the book and chosen an application, please photocopy the section containing your application so others may have access to these books. Each application in this book refers to one or more original source articles. Get copies of these either from Library archives, on-line library archives, or through interlibrary loan. You should do this before Fall Reading Period, so if you have to use interlibrary loan, the articles will arrive in time for you to work on your presentation.

Timeline:

By reading period: Choose a partner, choose an application, and obtain or request copies of the related articles.

By Friday, Nov. 21: Have a rough draft of your poster (it need not be in poster form, but you should have answers to most of the questions done). YOU MUST TURN IN THIS DRAFT.

By Wed, Dec. 3: Have final draft of poster ready for class poster session. Be ready to explain it in 5 minutes. YOU WILL NEED TO PRACTICE THIS!

Resources: I will be happy to talk to you about projects. Also, there are speaking tutors in the CTL, so if you want to run through your brief explanation, you can make an appointment with one of them.
PROJECT GRADE SHEET

You will be graded according to the outline below. Depending on the project you choose, you may not be able to find answers to all of the questions listed. Your poster should not just be a list of answers. Focus on those questions that are most relevant to the project you have chosen. You MUST have answers to at least a few of the questions from I. A. and I C.

I. CONTENT (80 points total, distribution varies depending on nature of project)

A. Background (about 40 points)

i. Why was this model created?

ii. What sort of information does the author hope to get from the model?

iii. What equation does the author arrive at?

iv. What does it mean?

v. What assumptions is it based on?

vi. How is it derived from them?

B. Equation and Solution (about 10 points)

i. What kind of equation is it?

ii. How is it solved (Explicitly? Implicitly? Numerically? )

iii. What is/are the solutions?

iv. Can you give an example? Draw a slope field diagram?

C. Conclusions (about 30 points)

i. Do the solutions answer the question the author(s) hoped it would?

ii. Are the solutions backed up by data?

iii. Does the model have predictive value?

iv. Are the assumptions reasonable given the information the author hopes to obtain?

v. How could the model be improved?

II. STYLE (20 points)

A. Poster (10 points)

i. Basic Mechanics

ii. Organization

iii. Clarity

iv. Style

v. Citations

B. Poster explanation (10 points)

i. Organization

ii. Clarity

iii. Interest