By Khalida Sarwari
Middle school students at Luther Burbank Elementary in San Jose Thursday were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at alpine skiing as part of a new collection of video series exploring the science behind Olympic events.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell joined Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s CEO Muhammed Chaudhry to introduce “Science of the Olympic Winter Games,” a lesson plan based on a 20-part video series that teaches students concepts like friction and angular momentum.
The videos make science and math relevant to students, by teaching them, for example, about velocity and how athletes at the Vancouver Winter Olympics apply it, Chaudhry said. In the process, students also learn new words and scientific and mathematical concepts.
“The reaction by the students (at Luther Burbank School) was tremendous,” Chaudhry said.
Some of the titles include “Aerial Physics: Aerial Skiing,” which explains how the twists and turns of Olympic freestyle aerials is the science of angular momentum and moment of inertia; “Slapshot Physics: Hockey,” a video about the fastest shot in ice hockey, as well as an illustration of elastic collisions and momentum exchange; and “Figuring Out Figure Skating,”
a look into how conservation of angular momentum and vertical velocity factor into the ability of figure skaters to do triple axels and quadruple toe loops.
The videos, created collaboratively by NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation, are available on the Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s online repository at www.lessonopoly.org/svef.
The Web site offers teachers lesson plans and suggested activities to incorporate into their curriculum for grades 6 to 9. Nearly 4,000 teachers have signed up for the program across the country, Chaudhry said.
“Science of the Olympic Winter Games” was primarily funded by Cisco and partly funded by the Chase Foundation.