Learn in Place with a new summer course at UNL:
Math 896: Going Viral: Population Dynamics of Infectious Disease
As UNL transitions to online learning for all summer courses, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes program is making a renewed commitment to teacher learning. Just as much of the nation is expected to shelter in place, we encourage teachers to “learn in place.”
A new course for secondary math teachers, Math 896: Going Viral: Population Dynamics of Infectious Disease (in MyRED: Class # 3840, Section 601) is being offered online in a five-week-long format from July 13-August 13. The course will meet on Zoom from 2:30-5:30pm on Mondays and Thursdays. The course format will include video lectures, Zoom meetings to address questions, regular homework assignments, two mid-term exams, and one or more projects. There will not be a final exam.
As we all cope with a global pandemic, modeling the population dynamics of diseases like Covid-19 has become a matter of national importance. This course is an introduction to the construction, analysis, and interpretation of differential equation models for the population dynamics of infectious disease, including standard generic models and a model designed specifically for Covid-19.
Prerequisites:
1. Be very comfortable with high school algebra and working with inequalities. Be excited about word problems and able to read various types of graphs.
2. Be minimally competent at scientific computing (though no actual experience is required) and comfortable with basic concepts of calculus.
If you have any questions about whether this course would be appropriate for you, contact Professor Glenn Ledder at gledder@unl.edu.
An online course that would have cost $1,176 for a Nebraska resident is now $868.55 with the 20% tuition discount from the NMSSI program. NMSSI Fellowships, typically $300 per course, can further reduce the cost of one course to $568.55. Current Nebraska classroom teachers should apply for NMSSI Fellowships by emailing nebraskamath@unl.edu.
The Benefits of the NMSSI:
• Each course is worth 3 graduate credit hours
• Courses will be offered utilizing several instructional models to allow for flexibility in scheduling
• Enroll in one simple application as a post-bac student at https://go.unl.edu/gradapp
• Teachers can apply for a tuition fellowship for Math 896 by emailing nebraskamath@unl.edu and making the request
Contact us at nebraskamath@unl.edu with questions.
If you want to learn more about Covid-19 population dynamics, there is an educational module on this that does not require the user to know anything about disease modeling, or even about differential equations. You can find it at http://www.math.unl.edu/covid-module.
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Be a lifelong learner.
Center for Science, Mathematics & Computer Education
http://scimath.unl.edu/nmssi