A spiraling
football, a skateboard kickflip, a golf swing, and a hockey slapshot. These
were some of the sports moves that introduced our fourth graders to the physics
of sports.
Fourth grade
had the wonderful opportunity to host a fascinating presentation on the Physics
of Sports on Wednesday, November 18. Ms. Linda Valerio, an engineer for the
Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in
Batavia, guided a discussion and exploration of the impact physics has on a
variety of sports.
Ms. Valerio first quizzed our students about
Newton’s Laws of Motion. She then put on an engaging interactive physics
presentation using hockey sticks, baseball bats, soccer balls, skateboards, and
footballs, to name a few. She demonstrated how the laws of physics applied to
all these sports and detailed how athletes can use this knowledge to excel in
their chosen sport.
She had
fourth grade students come up and demonstrate techniques for throwing a
football and basketball. Ms. Valerio explained how better, more aerodynamic
equipment has changed how sports are played and showed students how baseball
swings are analyzed.
The
presentation allowed our students to look at physics (and sports) in a whole
new way. We saw that women, like men, are great at engineering and science and that math plays an important part in excelling at sports.
The next time we see a hockey
slapshot result in a goal or homerun swing, we will remember all of the physics
that go into that winning moment!
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