Marcel Recursion A Sprained Ankle

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Objective (1) Students will be introduced to applying recursion to solve a real world problem. Overview The purpose of this activity is that students will be able to apply recursion to solve a real world biology problem. The Problem Begin by asking the class if anyone has ever sprained their ankle. Continue with then asking the class how many of them have been in pain. Ask them if anyone has ever taken medicine to reduce the pain in their body. Ask if they know what happens to the effects of the medication as time goes on. Suppose that you are an anesthesiologist and your patient is about to go into surgery, but you need to know how much medication is still in their system. This is the problem we are going to solve with recursion.

Suggested Instructor Steps (1) Begin the lesson by discussing the problem. If needed please view the videos under online connections + instructor background to understand the fundamentals behind this lesson. (2) Distribute the A Sprained Ankle activity and have each student read it individually. Ask the students if they have any questions about the activity. (3) Complete the first problem as a class. The instructor should lead the way through this first problem. (4) Allow students to complete the remaining problems with a partner. (5) Ask for one student from each pair to read one of their sentences from number 4.

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Materials A Sprained Ankle" activity sheet Time Introduction of problem (10 minutes), partner work (20 minutes), and discussion (10 minutes). Online Connections + Instructor Background Introduction to Recursion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA_qrRZ1cpI

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Marcel

Name______________________________ Date______________

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A Sprained Ankle
You have a sprained ankle and decide to take a 150 mg over the counter pain reliever. The ibuprofen in the pill is absorbed into your body and remains there until it is metabolized and filtered out by the liver and kidneys. Every 4 hours your body removes 67% of the ibuprofen that was in your body.

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1. Write a recursive equation that represents the amount of ibuprofen in your body at any given time. How much of the ibuprofen will have remained in your system 24 hours after taking the 150 mg tablet?

2. Suppose that the tablet contained 300 mg instead of 150. How much would remain in your system after 24 hours?

Fun Fact The brains of people with chronic backaches are as much as 11 percent smaller than those of non-sufferers, scientists reported in 2004. Scientists aren't sure why. "It is possible it's just the stress of having to live with the condition," said study leader A. Vania Apkarian of Northwestern University. "The neurons become overactive or tired of the activity."

Marcel

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3. Lets say your kidneys filter only 40% of the ibuprofen in 4 hours. Suppose you take a 150 mg tablet, how much is still in your body after 24 hours?

4. Please write the answers to the follow questions in complete sentences. Determine how much ibuprofen remains after 24 hours. The domain of Dn is n = 1,2,3,

a. D0 = 280, Dn = Dn-1 - 0.7Dn-1

b. D0 = 160, Dn = Dn-1 - 0.3Dn-1

c. D0 = 1000, Dn = 0.3Dn-1

Fun Fact Women have more nerve receptors than men. As an example, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin, whereas men average just 17. And in a 2005 study, women were found to report more pain throughout their lifetimes and, compared with men, they feel pain in more areas of the body and for longer durations.