About the Unit

Sports are an essential and important aspect of society. They are indispensable when it comes to their impact on a plethora of sports venues, including economics and the mass media. Sports also coincide with community values, attempting at times to define the moral and ethics to not only athletes, but the society as a whole. Fans of sports find entertainment by watching and viewing the sports, and sports also provide a way to enhance our mental and physical well-being.

Sports are an integral part of society, but oftentimes when you think "sports" the words that come to mind are more likely fitness, exercise, competition, endurance, and fun, but if you have ever wondered why does a football spiral? How do some athletes jump so high? The answer is science! Science plays such a big part in sports, it's often hard to separate one from the other. Sports are a powerful demonstration of pushing the human body to its limits, and an equally powerful demonstration of other aspects of science from engineering of the equipment and uniforms, to the physics behind performing every motion.

In this unit, 7th Graders started off by analyzing a common sport that has been played by most everyone: minigolf. This was the entrance point to analyze how science and sports are related. Students then moved from that to learning about the human body systems in relation to a sport of their choosing, learning how all the body systems work together to help them become the best athlete for their sport. Finally, students analyzed this same sport to look at the physics involved. Newton's Three Laws of Motion helped center 7th Graders in their analysis as they looked at the forces, inertia, motion, friction, acceleration, etc. They realized that understanding the science behind sports allowed them to be able to explain how far you can hit or throw a ball, or how fast a swimmer can cut through the water, how a diver can somersault, or even why long jumpers have to move their arms in such a drastic way as they fly through the air.

Sport Case Studies

(Exploring human body systems and physics)

Wallyball

(Their sport invention)

For their culminating project, 7th graders designed a new sport that was non-gender specific and provided understanding on how the human body systems are at work through the sport as they developed a training plan for their athlete, as well as, the physics behind their design.

Wallyball Presentation

Images from Playing Wallyball