Kicking goals for science education
by Geraldine Hinter
UniSA researchers have found a way to use sport to turn kids on to science, including some of the tough topics like physics,
statistics and probabilities.
With surveys showing that most children have an interest in sport in some form or another, Professor of Exercise Science, Kevin Norton has developed a series of interactive, computer-based learning tools using sport to reinforce key elements of the general science curriculum.
Designed for middle and senior high school students, the Science through Sport learning packages include modules that explore Newton’s law involving force, mass and acceleration in sport; human energy systems; the biology of exercise and speed; mathematics and statistical patterns; body size, proportion and growth patterns.
Every module includes a textbook, a user-guide, worksheets and answers plus a teacher’s guide, which explains how it dovetails into the curriculum.
Professor Norton says the modules capture the excitement of sports, the interactivity of computer game technologies and deliver science in challenging but interesting ways.
"Interactive computer games and ‘what if’ scenarios help children to see and understand facts and theories more readily," Prof Norton said.
"In the module on Newton’s law when kids enter data in response to questions such as - ‘what if I hit a golf ball with a club at a certain speed - how far will the ball go?’ or ‘what if I change my mass, how will that affect my acceleration?’ - they can see how manipulating the data on the computer will affect outcomes," Prof Norton said.
"Understanding human energy systems and how they operate during exercise has been made simpler using interactive computer simulations that help students ‘see’ these energy systems in action.
"Students can use their own data to compare their energy levels with sporting champions and with their peers. They can also manipulate fitness levels and exercise intensity and duration to explore the way in which energy is transferred within the cells."
When students take on the biology module Norton says kids can create their very own virtual student to do virtual exercises and then they can observe and measure the physiological changes in heart rate amount of water lost through sweat and blood pressure changes.
"In the biology of speed module students learn how muscles are designed, move and are recruited during increasing levels of exercise intensity," he said.
"Using a computer simulation, students can choose a key virtual runner to race against the other runners in the starting blocks. The simulation shows why there are delays in reaction time - processing in the brain and transmitting messages to muscles - before they react and start running."
The game analysis module allows students to track player movement patterns during games on TV or even live during their school competitions. The program covers about 10 different sports such as soccer, football and netball, and students can examine player moves through game analysis.
"This module reinforces concepts such as how humans move, their speed breakdown and typical patterns of attacking and how specific actions are useful predictors of game success," Prof Norton said.
"In Sport Search, students can do a battery of tests – broad jump, strength tests, sprint tests, aerobic tests, as well as measurements of body size and proportions – and enter their results into the computer, which then finds and ranks three sports that each student is most suited to, and three they are least suited to from a list of more than 100 different sports in the database. "Students can also do another search, which reflects where they think they might be when they reach adulthood, with increases in areas such as height, speed and strength."
Prof Norton has been seconded to the Commonwealth government funded International Centre of Excellence in Sports Science and Management. Working in the centre Sport Knowledge Australia, where he has assembled a team of experienced teachers and computer programmers to develop teaching and learning resources for the Science Through Sport series.
The modules can be ordered online or by phone on (03) 9558 4433.