SIMIODE

This modeling scenario guides a student familiar with single ordinary differential equation (ODE) models towards the development of a more complex system of two ODEs for describing the evolution of tumor growth over time. Students should have prior experience with solving ODEs using the separable method, and may have prior exposure to the logistic growth model (though this is not required). By the end of the activity. students will have been exposed to using compartment diagrams to build systems of ODEs, and will be able to discuss how including an additional layer of biological complexity may better enable the modeler to fit the model to experimental data. This activity is designed to take place over 1-2 class periods and requires no supplies beyond a simple worksheet and accessibility to software for visually fitting a model to data (i.e. Desmos or similar).

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Allison Leigh Lewis (2021), "6-029-S-TumorGrowth," https://simiode.org/resources/8496.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. compartment
2. differential
3. fitting
4. logistic
5. model
6. ordinary
7. parameter
8. separable
9. sum of squares error
10. synthetic data
11. system
12. tumor