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This is the last of four parts, designed to be used in a sequence of lessons - here is a lesson by lesson breakdown.
Get Moving! follows on from Build Your First Model, Lucky Dip, and Everybody is Different, and introduces the need for more realistic models, which take into account how people are connected to each other, both in static environments, and when they move around. Students are encouraged to use the interactivity to explore the similarities and differences that occur when running several simulations of the updated disease models.
This lesson, and the previous one, meet the curriculum aims of developing students' Fluency (moving freely between different representations), Reasoning (making connections between number relationships and graphical representations), and Problem Solving skills (begin to model situations mathematically).
The teaching materials include video clips in which Professor Julia Gog points out that models need to take into account how diseases spread across different communities when people are spaced differently, and when people move in different settings.
Get Moving! is intended as a follow-up activity for students who have explored Build your first model, Lucky Dip and Everybody is different.
Start by watching this video clip in which Julia Gog highlights the need for models to take into account where we are spending our time - in homes, classrooms, workplaces, neighbourhoods... Different spatial arrangements can be represented in the models we use, to gain a more realistic understanding of how diseases spread in different contexts.
Revisiting the interactivity from Everybody is Different will offer students the opportunity to explore how the spread of a disease differs when people are spaced differently.
The R slider can be used to change the value of R, and the layout can be changed by clicking the purple cog, selecting a layout, and then clicking one of the two buttons at the bottom of the settings.
Hexagonal - most nodes have 6 neighbours, closely packed. This gives a lot of scope for infections.
Grid - most nodes have 4 neighbours, there is less scope for infections to spread.
Theatre - this is a somewhat realistic layout, to help imagine how disease might spread in a large venue.
Satellites - an abstract layout, where radial lines of nodes connect large clusters.
Suburbs - a somewhat realistic layout, to help imagine how infection might spread through cities and villages.
How does the layout affect the spread of the disease?
Introduce the Get Moving! interactivity
Do diseases spread differently when people are moving?
What else could we consider exploring with our model?
Students could take screenshots to help them compare the outcomes of the spread of the disease each time they run the model.
Please continue to Wrap up and Meet the Researchers for a short concluding video and also clips from individual researchers to explore.
Students may be interested in Disease modelling for beginners, a collection of articles which explain how mathematics helps us understand how infectious diseases spread.
Students could research the story of the village of Eyam, which cut itself off from other communities to protect itself from the 1665-1666 plague.
Students might also be interested in this article by Professor Chris Budd OBE, which explores the differences between models and simulations.
These Contagious Maths resources were developed and written by Julia Gog and the MMP team, including both NRICH and Plus, and funded by the Royal Society’s Rosalind Franklin Award 2020. We have tailored these resources for ages 11-14 on NRICH, and for older students and wider audiences on Plus.