Intro/Basics/UPCE/KISS

• Pounding nails doesn't make you a carpenter.

  (most math classes focus on the tool; we want to focus more on the trade).

• When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
• Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me, and I'll understand.

  For this reason, this class is not going to be a "stand and deliver" lecture course. The students are the key to making a modeling class good!

In most math classes, as mentioned above, we study the tool, and then occasionally look at "applications" (e.g. story problems). In this class, we start with the story problem, and hit with anything we've got!

Diagram of Math modeling course

Unlike most math classes, math modeling thrives on the open-ended question: these is no "right" answer; no "right" approach:

• "All models are wrong; some models are useful." (attributed to George Box).

Neils Bohr and the barometer

We value creativity and imagination more in math modeling than in many other courses.

• Understand
• Plan
• Carry out
• Evaluate

• "Things should be as simple as possible, but not simpler." (attributed to Einstein).
• Keep It Simple Stupid
• Occam's Razor: "Things should not be multiplied without good reason"

• Discrete versus Continuous
• Deterministic versus Stochastic
• Dynamic versus Static
• Qualitative versus quantititive