Basic overview of viral infections, symptoms, mutations, and viral life cycles, and how politics, history, and culture can affect the spread of viral epidemics. Second block will provide a meaningful research experience using techniques from differential calculus to model viral epidemics and provide a deeper understanding of how calculus-based ideas fit into a biological context. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation of the Natural World requirement. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Quantitative Reasoning requirement. (Not offered 2023-24).

Prerequisite: High School Calculus, Mathematics 125, Mathematics 126, or consent of instructor.

Degree requirement — Critical Perspectives: I, Critical Perspectives: Q

2 units