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Using techniques developed in first-semester calculus, students have an opportunity to model the concentration of pain medication in a patient's bloodstream, in order to determine a dosage regimen that maintains levels between the minimum effective concentration and the maximum tolerance concentration.  The project calls on students to establish modeling assumptions, develop a basic model, implement the model in the context of various dosage patterns, interpret the results, and formulate a preliminary recommendation.  The project then calls on students to check the validity of the model and subsequently refine the model (and their recommendations) under revised assumptions.  This project has been tested in the classroom, and is suitable for high school or undergraduate students who have studied a semester of calculus.

• PainMedication_Cortez_QUBES.pdf(PDF | 369 KB)
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Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Cortez, R. (2018). Pain Medication Treatment Modeling Project. Math Modeling Hub, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/Q4WH77

  BibTex | EndNote

1. absorption
2. Build
3. calculus
4. Compare
5. elimination
6. Evaluate
7. exponential decay
8. Introduction to Modeling
9. Lower Division
10. Mathematical Biology
11. Modeling Project
12. Possible Tasks
13. Post-secondary
14. recursion
15. Secondary