Having kids look at Alison Lynn Hill’s amazing Corona virus simulation program

I saw an amazing resource for looking at the spread of the Corona virus today – Alison Lynn Hill is a researcher specializing in mathematical biology at Harvard:

I’m sharing a simulation tool I put together for studying COVID19 dynamics and generating visualizations without having to do a bunch of coding yourself. Hoping it can help with your coronavirus-related research and teaching. https://t.co/GV5ErDkfE9 (1/7)

— Alison Lynn Hill (@alison_l_hill) March 15, 2020

I thought that Hill’s program would be a terrific one for kids to use to see how a researcher studies the spread of a virus. We loaded the program on they boy’s computers and they played around with it for about 15 min.

Here’s what my younger son (in 8th grade) had to say – he was particularly surprised by how many variables there were:

Here’s what my older son (in 10th grade) had to say – he was interested in how the curves changed when he played with the transmission rates.

I’m grateful to Hill for sharing her incredible program, and really think it could help kids see (and understand a little) the modeling the modeling involved in studying pandemics.