Teaching Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Lab with Kinetic Analysis of COVID-19 in the United States

A physical chemistry lab for undergraduate students described in this report is about applying kinetic models to analyze the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and obtain the reproduction numbers. The susceptible-infectious-recovery (SIR) model and the SIR-vaccinated (SIRV) model are explained to the students and are used to analyze the COVID-19 spread data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The basic reproduction number R0 and the real-time reproduction number Rt of COVID-19 are extracted by fitting the data with the models, which explains the spreading kinetics and provides a prediction of the spreading trend in a given state. The procedure outlined here shows the differences between the SIR model and the SIRV model. The SIRV model considers the effect of vaccination, which helps explain the later stages of the ongoing pandemic. The predictive power of the models is also shown giving the students some certainty in the predictions they made for the following months.

Automated summary

This report describes a physical chemistry lab for undergraduate students that involves applying kinetic models to analyze the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and obtain reproduction numbers. The lab explains the SIR and SIRV models and uses them to analyze COVID-19 spread data from the CDC. By fitting the data with the models, the lab extracts the basic reproduction number R0 and real-time reproduction number Rt of COVID-19, providing insights into spreading kinetics and predicting trends. The lab also demonstrates the differences between the SIR and SIRV models, with the latter considering vaccination effects and explaining the later stages of the pandemic.