On day 8 of SSP, students considered different topics and areas of exploration that they would like to pursue through their projects. Dr. Panoff discussed a basic yet important scientific phenomenon "Two things come together and something happens"- as it relates to the students models and examples from real life. Dr. Panoff talked about "fact patterns" and asked students for possible explanations for a set of interactions in a fictional scenario. He described how these interactions could be modeled; highlighting how each example could have similarities or differences to others in their model. The instructor noted that considering how to create a model based on fact patterns and their interactions involves computational thinking, analogy, and/or data-based thinking.
In addition to deciding what topics they would like to model, students were asked to question, "Which model environments are appropriate?" and
"What does the Answer or Solution look like?" He asked students to find out what skills each person has within their group, and delegate work accordingly. The students were also given a handout to help them create a draft of their project discussions. As the students gathered in groups to begin working, Levi stayed to offer help and guidance. Towards the end of the morning session, Dr. Panoff asked groups to share their topics, the model environments they plan on using, and the tools they will implement to express the model's answers or solutions. Finally, Dr. Panoff gave advice to students to help them present their models in a way that covers key features of the model while describing the general patterns and trends. The rest of the afternoon session was spent project planning.