Sportscience and Engineering in Education

This interactive resource explores the roles played by engineering, science and technology in today’s sports. The four modules are: Forces and motion (for students aged 9 to 11 and above); Sports shoe design (for students aged 11 to 14); How high will it fly? (for students aged 11-14); and Making waves (for students aged 14 to 16).

• Forces and motion looks at the forces acting on a Formula I car, and the factors which affect the car’s performance. The student pages contain two interactive lessons: one asks questions about forces, some of which are more appropriate for Key Stage Three; the next lesson includes two literacy tasks and some questions relating to road conditions.
• Training shoes is designed for students to use scientific enquiry to investigate whether footwear for different sports incorporates design features relating to friction, shoe weight, and pressure. Students are required to read background pages and some information about shoe requirements for different sports. They answer some quick questions and are presented experiments on: shoe grip; shoe weight and foot pressure.
• How high will it fly? uses a software simulator to model the motion of sports balls moving through air. Students are required to use the simulator to plot the course of a ball for different conditions and answer some evaluation questions.
• Making waves requires students to work in teams to design and build a model of an Olympic swimming pool. Students' designs are judged on having correct dimensions and having walls and lane ropes with the smallest wave reflections. The team must make a presentation on their design.

There are student pages and teacher pages, explaining the objectives and learning outcomes. The resource was developed by Cooke Associates, a team of professional sports engineers and technical writers with support from the Science Enhancement Programme.

• Sportscience and Engineering in Education Interactive Resource