Using Physical Simulations to Engage Students in an SIR Model of the Spread of an Infectious Disease
0Day 2 | 1:30 PM–2:00 PM
"Using Physical Simulations to Engage Students in an SIR Model of the Spread of an Infectious Disease"
Presented by:
Elizabeth Arnold, Montana State University, Bozeman MT USA
Owen Burroughs, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN USA
https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/simiode/expo/2025
Abstract: The SIR model is a differential-equations based model of the spread of an infectious disease that compartmentalizes individuals in a population into one of three states: those who are susceptible to a disease (S), those who are infected and can transmit the disease to others (I), and those who have recovered from the disease and are now immune (R). The simplicity of the SIR model masks some of the complex biological processes that underlie the spread of a disease. In this session, I describe two concrete physical simulations that instructors can do with in their classrooms to provide students with hands-on activities that illuminate some of the nuanced behavior of how an infectious disease spreads through a closed population. One simulation physically models disease spread by the exchange of fluids, using pH to simulate infection. A second simulation incorporates randomness using a probability game to keep track of the state of each individual at each time step. Both simulations get students up and moving in the classroom in a way that invites them to ask questions about what factors influence disease spread and the use of differential equations to model that spread.