Students watch a video that explains the crash that the Jamaican Bobsled team endured during the 1988 Olympics that inspired the movie Cool Runnings.
Students discuss how momentum and collisions affects the safety of athletes and what precautions can be made to enhance safety.
Students define constraints and criteria for a Car Collision design challenge and collect baseline data for a Car Collision.
Students use the engineering design cycle to create and test a design to reduce the amount of force/energy transferred during a collision.
Students reflect on the effectiveness of their design and determine a redesign solution. Students consider what variables influence the transfer of energy in their design.
Students complete Portfolio Task 6 explaining how to improve a collision for safety or performance in their sport.
Students use a simulation to mathematically support the idea that collisions do not perfectly conserve kinetic energy.
In the previous cycle, students learned about collisions and the variables that affect collisions.
In this cycle, students will conduct research and develop a prototype to answer the question, “How do we reduce the amount of force and energy transferred during a collision?” Students will begin this cycle by exploring collisions in different sports and thinking about the safety precautions that need to take place to protect athletes. Using the engineering design cycle, students will then design a device to reduce the amount of force and energy transferred during a collision. They will then apply this idea to their portfolio to discuss safety precautions that can improve the sport they are researching.
Students will use their completed portfolio during the Performance Task to propose a change to a sport or event to improve an athlete’s efficiency.