User talk:Taylor Makela

Week 2 Feedback

• Thank you for submitting your assignment on time. Here is some feedback on your individual journal page.
• You wrote something in the summary field for 28 out of 42 saves (67%) since Week 1. This is just over half, rememeber we are aiming for 100%. Don't forget to write a summary when you upload images.
• The purpose that you wrote was pretty good. I would modify it slightly to make it clearly a scientific purpose.
  • You wrote: The purpose of this assignment was to gain experience analyzing SIR models as well as looking at how this model can be altered to better fit the COVID-19 pandemic. Various changes to the parameters of the SIR model were made in order to observe how changing individual properties affects the rate at which the number of susceptible, infected, and recovered people changes.
  • I would revise it to be: The purpose of this assignment was to explore how the SIR model can be altered to better fit the COVID-19 pandemic. Various changes to the parameters of the SIR model will be made in order to observe how changing individual properties affects the rate at which the number of susceptible, infected, and recovered people changes.
• Please combine your Methods and Results into one section called "Methods & Results" without making subsections for each. In doing this, you will describe what you did (methods) and then show the results as a chronological narrative of what you did instead of separating it out into two subsections. You should also then answer the questions posed in the protocol at the place they appear in chronological order. Please let me know if you have questions about this.
• Your questions about the video were good ones. The effect of compliance with the stay-at-home orders will mean that the susceptible will not come in contact with the infected and the disease will not spread. The R₀ for COVID-19 is under investigation by many modelers.
• Your interpretations of the model graphs after you manipulated the parameters were good.
• Your explanation of the Giordano et al. (2020) article was good.
• With regards to the XKCD comic, not only does it poke fun at STEM majors and their perceived lack of a social life, the more important implication is that socializing at parties leads to more cases of COVID-19.
• Your conclusion needs to be more specific. Restate in more detail some of the main findings that you made from manipulating the model parameters.
• Don't forget to include the Academic Honesty statement and to put your wiki signature at the bottom of the Acknowledgments section instead of the bottom of the whole page.
• Your references section is missing some key citations: the Epidemix website and the Epstein article (which you discussed in the shared journal). If you had completed the whole assignment, you would have also referenced the SIR model website and the video webinar we watched.
• To answer your questions that you posted in the class journal:
  • What specifically about SARS-CoV-2 makes the virus so contagious?
    • I just saw a paper about this that talked about alterations to the spike protein that allow the virus to enter the cells better than other coronaviruses.
  • What makes COVID-19 unique as far as why it is so difficult to make a vaccine?
    • I don't know that it is so difficult to make a vaccine, the vaccine development is proceeding at a record pace. Instead, it's just that the pandemic spread so quickly, making it very urgent that a vaccine be developed.
  • What are scientists doing to "rush" the process of making a vaccine?
    • The normal process is being followed, it's just that lots of resources are being thrown at this right now because of its urgency.

— Kam D. Dahlquist (talk) 22:26, 30 September 2020 (PDT)

Week 1 Feedback

I will be posting the feedback on your weekly assignments on your talk page. You will be able to earn back the points you lost on the Week 1 assignment by making the changes listed below by the Week 3 deadline on 12:01 am, Thursday, September 24. Here is the feedback for Week 1.

• Thank you for submitting your assignment on time.
• You completed all of the tasks except for the following:
  • You wrote something in the summary field 65 out of 69 saves (94%). That is excellent! Keep up the good work!
  • Please add your full name at the top of the page (the automatically generated header has User: as part of it).
  • Your link to e-mail you through OpenWetWare is not working properly. Check your user preferences (link is at the top right of the page when you login) to see that you have it set up to e-mail you.
  • For your snail mail address, use "Department of Biology" instead of LSB 101 (building and room numbers aren't used on the official postal mail addresses.
  • Note that it is not usual practice to make a header an actual hyperlink. Go back and use the "====" level of header in a different way.
  • For your list of assignments and class journals on your template, go back and add labels to the links. For example, instead of [[BIOL368/F20:Week 1]], use [[BIOL368/F20:Week 1 | Week 1 Assignment]].
  • Note that there is no Week 13 assignment, so you can remove that link from your list of assignments, individual journal, and class journal links. There was also no Week 1 individual journal (the user page was how you fulfilled that assignment).
  • Please cite the Denning and Janovy readings in your References section.
• I'm glad the Janovy reading helped you see yourself as a biologist! Hopefully this class will cement this feeling even more!

— Kam D. Dahlquist (talk) 09:35, 17 September 2020 (PDT)