Final Project Proposal Due Fri April 21 at 5pm

Do research in the library (journals or other de textbooks), on the web (for altavista, use "+" in front of words, and quotes around phrases - for example
+"cat food" +habits +eating
might be a good search , and/or by talking to me or other professors about your final project (I am giving you Friday April 14th's class for this purpose). For your proposal, include references of journals, web sites and people that you talked to. (See below for a sample format.)

Final Project Presentations Wed, May 10 3-5pm

ick a real life application/experiment relating to D.E.s. With another partner, research your topic via journals, the web or other texts. Prepare a 10 minute presentation that summarizes your project. Prepare a maple worksheet which details your conclusions and is suitable for someone who has taken the class but is not present at your presentation. In other words, anything which is said at your presentation should be in the Maple worksheet. Be sure to include a list of references! Some possibilities for topics: Compare real life data of population growth, the motion of a spring or something else to expected Maple models. Research the environmental polution of a real lake, obtain data about AIDS and compare to a DE model with a numerical method solution, or find some other real life situation with a complicated DE maple won't solve and use a numerical method on it.

Sample Final Project Proposal Format

Dr. Sarah & Max Cat

April 14, 1999

(I encourage you to add categories relevant to your project — the proposal does not have to be in the following format! Your proposal should be clear, concise and well written (unlike the following and of course a bit more serious than the following).)

Abstract: We propose to study whether Sidney Cat’s eating habits can be modeled with a differential equation.

(This section should be a brief summary of your proposal)

Materials: Cat food, watch for Max Cat.

(This section should contain any materials you will use. If you will not be doing a real life

experiment, then eliminate this section.)

Background: While speaking to Dr. Bill Bauldry about Sidney Cat’s eating habits, the question arose as to whether these habits could be modeled by a differential equation. This question is interesting since cat food at Dr. Sarah’s house is left out 24 hours a day and

Sidney Cat weighs 15 pounds and seems to be eating much of the time.

(A section like this could contain information on why the project is interesting, how the project arose…)

Project Proposal: Max Cat will use his watch to note the time Sidney Cat begins eating and the time Sidney Cat finishes all day, every day, for one week.

(This section should be much longer than the abstract.)

Possible Biases: Max Cat might miss some of Sidney Cat’s feeding cycles since Max Cat cannot possibly just stand in front of the food bowl for a whole week. In addition, Sidney Cat’s eating habits may vary week to week, depending on the indoor temperature, possible distractions such as birds feeding at the bird feeder, or other unknown biases.

(This section should contain possible biases.)

Expected Results: We expect that Sidney Cat’s eating habits will show the phenomena of chaos, because Margaret A. Federhart, D.V.M. 2 points out that cats often…

(This section should contain a prediction of the outcome of the project, and your reasons

for making this prediction).

References:

1 Dr. Bill Bauldry, Math Dept, 262-????

2 Margaret A. Federhart, D.V.M., Whispering Waters Animal Clinic, 295-0295

3http://www.madeupcatwebaddress.com, Dr. Tom's web page on cat feeding behavior

(This section should contain web page addresses, books, articles from journals, and/or the name of any faculty you spoke to. ).