Activities and Inquiry Questions

Activities
There are many activities that can be incorporated throughout this unit. The following examples are student-directed and will allow them to fully see the physics behind each sport through participation.

  • If the day was centered on basketball then each student will be able to play with their own ball. Students will be able to freely engage in the sport by dribbling the basketball. They will then brainstorm how each of the vocabulary words from the word wall are being used. The teacher can step in to help the students think deeper about what is actually happening when they bounce the ball. Ideas like velocity, force, speed and gravity are all aspects for the students to think about.
  • Another activity focuses on distance and force. Each student will be paired up. One partner will punt a soccer ball to the other. The partners will start out fairly close together and gradually move apart. As one partner gets further away the other partner will have to put more force behind their punt in order for the ball to make it. This activity will allow the students to see that the more force that is put into an object, the farther the object will travel.
  • The students will be allowed to participate in a sport of their choice. During this time students have the opportunity to explore certain parts they found interesting. For example, if a student was interested in the idea of gravity, this is the perfect time for them to experiment with different objects.

Inquiry Questions

  • How are distance and force related?
  • What makes a ball bounce?
  • What determines how high a ball bounces?
  • What are some similarities between the concepts of physics?
  • Can we control the physics behind sports?
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License