July 17 Thursday

These are the Big ideas:
1. Math is the key to science. Much research is done through Mathematical simulations. Students must understand the relative size of things in the Universe and the effect of adding another zero as a beginning to explain what scientists are doing.

2. Functions are everywhere. Students will understand how graphs/distributions are created by functions. Not only what the graphs represent, but how we can utilize the information once it is compiled.

3. Students will understand the importance of proteins and the reasons researchers are studying them. They will understand how math is used in research and the things that we can do with the information it provides us.

The main thing I am taking from the research is how exciting the things that are being done at ASU are. What kinds of things we are researching, how the research is accomplished, and what will be done with it.

I had no idea about how math was being used to simulate what cannot be seen. Even though the math and physics is way beyond my capabilites, and certainly my students, I feel I have a good general understanding of what is trying to be accomplished, some of the things that have come from the research, and what they are hoping to find. Each day the explanations by the researchers were creating analogy after analogy in my head. These are what I will share with my students to help them understand what I have to share with them.

My students have difficulty seeing a longterm purpose for their math. With the information analogies I have to share, I hope my enthusiasm for what I have seen will be contageous.

The activities I am initially envisioning for the students will include Arizona Math Standards, Strands 1, 2, 3, and 5! I believe I can use the experiences from the summer in nearly every unit that we cover this year.

The 3 Main activities to address the 3 Main ideas are:

Powers of 10 - Two different short videos and a book to get their minds into motion. There are some existing activities to start with, then some modeling ideas for the students to create from their new experiences are still forming.

Boltzmann Game - Students will play an adapted version of the game to gather, graph, and analyze data. All three aspects will be assessed for understanding. Students will see how the knowledge is applied by playing the "Marble Game", which helps to explain how scientists perform the simulations in their research.

Movie Making - Students will create short videos from shapshots so they will better understand how increments of time effect what scientists can observe in their simulations, and also what they might miss, if the do not use the correct resolution.

Protein Folding Simulations in PyMol - students will observe and hopefully personally manipulate the images they see in PyMol of the proteins and their movements.

After our discussions today, I thought of something new to take to the students that might really spike their interest; this research into protein folding is being used in pharmaceutical research and the treatment and maybe prevention of diseases and conditions. This protein folding research might help to identify ways we can cure or prevent learning disabilities or at least understand them a little better. Many of my students feel there is something wrong with them, that they need or want their self perceived defect to go away.

This has given me some ideas for some research into what other research is currently being done in this area.