Our class is moving forward by looking at the different ways that diseases spread, and how we can track down who "patient zero" is, or the person that starts the spread of a communicable disease.  There have been many questions as to why we are looking at this subject!  It is very reasonable to ask, and I have an answer!   

To further build on the way we think about a problem, we have been exploring the spread of a disease through simulations and experiments that we have actually done.  Last week and early this week, we finished our small group experiment to see which soap works best for removing fake glitter "germ lotion" from our hands.  We worked through the Scientific Inquiry Process, and wrote conclusions based on the data we collected with our experiment. So what does this have to do with technology and Digital Literacy you might ask?  Sometimes in our learning, the context for what we are about to do doesn't seem clear until we get a little further along.  With this unit, that just very well might be true.  This week, we started a new unit "Infections/Detections Modeling and Simulations".  This unit is looking at computer simulations, one of which is the spread of disease.  Without all of our earlier exploration on the subject, we wouldn't know what we were really looking at when we started to see these computer simulations!  

One of the apps that we will be using this week is called SpeedSIM.  If you have a tablet or phone at home that you would be willing to download the app on, it would be a great app to check out with your student.  I have included the link to the Android version of the app.   You can change the parameters (another great vocab word we have been working on...) to see how the outcome in the simulation changes.   It is a great way to explore technology and science with your student!

Scientific Inquiry Process