Jackson Creek Middle School Fitness and the Olympics: Science

In all of the Science classes, students held a mini metric olympics. They performed several events, including left-handed sponge squeeze, paper plate discus, paper straw javelin throw, cotton ball shot put, and more. These events had the students using the metric system to measure how well they did in each event.

In Mrs. Martin's Science Class, students took the mini olympics one step further and researched the science of sports. After researching various olympic sports, they explained how physics was involved in the sport. Students created posters about the physics of soccer and basketball.

In "Soccer Physics," the student gave examples of how Newton's Laws of Motion applied to soccer. Newton's Second Law is "the greater the force, the greater the acceleration." The student gave the examples that if the soccer ball was larger, its acceleration would decrease and that a soccer player needs a large amount of acceleration to make the ball move forward.

The student stated Newton's Third Law of Motion as "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." The student said that a ball sitting on the ground is applying force to the earth. For more information, see the Physics of Soccer.

In the "Physics of Basketball" by Tyler S. and Jeremiah K., dribbling, backspinning, passing, and jumping are discussed in relation to various physical laws. For example, the air pressure in a basketball will effect how it bends when dribbled. For more information, see Physics of Basketball.

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Last Updated: 01/15/05
Kristina McGlaun, Librarian
Jackson Creek Middle School