This project oriented approach is extremely effective in teaching math and science concepts. It typically involves defining a problem, refining that problem into something that can be completed within the time available, developing a computational model using a spreadsheet or other modeling software or a programming language, coding and testing the model, running the model to obtain data, analyzing the data and drawing conclusions, visualizing the data, and writing a paper expressing the results of the simulation. While this seems like a complex process, each step follows naturally and is important in getting a good result. This chapter should make this process clear. In Science Projects may be done in any area of science or mathematics.
Many students choose the field of physics because of the availability of mentors.
However, you may choose any field in which you have an interest. Efforts will be made to find a mentor to assist you with your problem. A students' background in science and mathematics will affect their understanding of the science and mathematics involved in the modeling process of the problem. With a limited background in an area, it may take longer to understand the process, but should not prevent the student from doing a project in that particular field. Completion of the lab in the following exercises will give the students some experience in following a procedure to write a report for the modeling experiment.