Glenbrook South Year-End Projects
The Physics of
Sports
Collaboration
Ideas:
One of the objectives of the year-end project is to demonstrate
the ability to cooperate/collaborate with others in order to sustain
a challenging project which is sustained over a lengthy period of
time. There are a number of means by which you and your group can
demonstrate this ability to collaborate. The following are offered as
suggestions.
- Each Physics 163 project group will be required to
periodically mage log entries into a central database used by all
students who are conducting the same project. Other project groups
who are engaged in the same study - the study of the Physics of
Sports - will be able to view your group's ideas, focus of study,
and experimental design. Likewise, you will be able to view other
groups ideas and learn from their efforts. You will be asked to
make database entries on at least three occasions:
- You will make your first database entry after the
initial stages of the literature search. This submission should
involve one paragraph in which you indicate the following:
- Describe any useful resources which you have
found (Web sites, electronic sources, journals, books, etc.)
- Discuss the direction which your group seems to be
heading with the project; if you are beginning to narrow
your focus (e.g., from the Physics of Sports to the Physics
of Baseball, to the Physics of Golf or to Aerodynamics in
Sports), then discuss this process.
- Mention any problems which you are having or any
questions which you have; perhaps other students could
provide some assistance for you.
- You will make your second database entry after the
submission of the rough draft of your literature search. This
submission should involve one paragraph in which you indicate
the following:
- Discuss any ideas which you currently have for
conducting an experiment; in your discussion, comment on any
uncertainties which you have or any other questions which
others might be able to respond to.
- Mention any problems which you are having or any
questions which you have; perhaps other students could
provide some assistance for you.
- You will make your third database entry after the
submission of your project proposal. This submission should
involve a couple of paragraphs in which you indicate the
following
- Describe your purpose (to study the effect of
____ on _____ ...).
- Discuss the equipment which you will use and how you
will collect your data.
- Discuss your hypothesis.
- Mention any problems which you are having or any
questions which you have; perhaps other students could
provide some assistance for you.
- Each Physics 163 project group will use their home e-mail
account (or if not available, one provided by their own teacher)
for the duration of the project. Your e-mail account can be used
to send and receive communications from scientists whose addresses
you locate on the World Wide Web. Such correspondence should be
intelligent, cordial, and respectful. When asking a question of a
scientist, you should:
- introduce yourself (e.g., write "My name is Jane
Doe and I am a physics student at a suburban Chicago high
school.") and tell what you are doing (e.g., "I am conducting a
lengthy year-end project on the Physics of ...").
- be as specific as possible so that the scientist is able to
respond succinctly and still answer your question. As a
non-example, do not merely write something like "I am studying
the physics of ...; do you have any information which will help
me." Instead, write "I am focusing a part of my study on the
physics of baseball. I am searching for information on the
coefficients of restitution for ball-bat collisions for various
bat types. Do you know of any useful resources where such
information can be found?"
- be respectful of the scientist's time, allowing her/him an
opportunity to decline the return correspondence (e.g., write
"If your time does not allow you to respond to my question,
then I would totally understand...").
- avoid asking questions which you could answer yourself by
doing simple literature research.
(NOTE: If you do not have
access to a home e-mail account, then your teacher may be able
to grant you access through the school.)
- Your e-mail account can be used to join various computer
listserves whose focus is the science of sports. By subscribing to
this listserve, your group's e-mail address will be added to
amailing list. You become a subscriber (or member) of an extensive
network of scientists (or students or merely enthusiasts) who have
an interest in bioacoustic topics. Consider such listserves as:
Biomch-L
and the
Sportscience
Forum. The Biomch-L listserve is for discussion of "the
science of biomechanics and human/animal movement." The
Sportscience Forum is devoted to sports or exercise science.
Subscribers of a listserve send e-mail to a central address and
all members on the mailling list receive that e-mail. Subscribers
can read the e-mail and subsequently respond. Typically, if a
question is sent to listserve subscribers by e-mail, as many as
five or ten other members might respond with an answer to the
question. This is an excellent opportunity to correspond with
scientists, researchers and professors whose expertise or interest
is in the field of the biomechanics of sports. You may join the
Biomch-L listserve by following the directions at the following
URL:
http://www.kin.ucalgary.ca/isb/biomch-l.html.
You may join the Sportscience Forum listserve by following the
directions at the following URL:
http://sportsci.org/forum/forumtop.html.
- There are several pages on the World Wide Web that invite
students to ask a scientist. By e-mailing an intelligent
question, you are likely to receive an intelligent answer. A few
such addresses include:
- You may collaborate with a
cooperating scientist through the
Electronic
Emissary Project at the University of Texas-Austin. Your first
step should be to visit the site and become informed about the
project (see "Electronic Emissary Project Overview"). Then view
the database of experts in hopes of finding an expert in your
field of study (see "Search Database of Experts/Submit Match
Request"). If you find an expert in your field of study and are
interested in becoming involved, then fill out and submit the form
at the site. You will be contacted and arrangements will be made
to link you up with the expert. Notify your teacher of your
actions so that he/she is aware of what is happening. Once
connected with the expert, you can subsequently ask questions and
receive prompt answers. The Emissary Project does require that you
send and receive at least three mail messages a week. This
involves a strong commitment! Yet once you identify an area of
interest, you will likely benefit greatly from such a commitment.
- Our school has already registered our project with the
Global School
Network's Internet Project Registry. By registering with GSN,
we have become listed as a school conducting research on the
physics of such topics as sports, baseball, golf, volleyball,
football, basketball, sports equipment, collisions, spin,
aerodynamics, etc. Your group can search on-line to see if there
are any other high school students conducting similar projects. If
you are fortunate enough to find such a group of students, you are
welcome to collaborate with them on your project. You may find
that you can offer each other much assistance in finding
information, sharing experimental data, and sharing successes and
failures. It is definitely worth a try.
- Another means of identifying scientists and experts with whom
you can collaborate is through the
Sportdoc web site. Sportdoc
is "your quick and easy online source for information in skills
and performance enhancement area of sport psychology, physical
training, and rehabilitiation." You can ask your own question and
possibly receive a suitable answer. Read the directions first and
note that not all questions are appropriate for the experts which
run this site (e.g., they may be experts in baseball related
injuries, but not experts in the physics of baseball bats).
Return to:
The Physics of Sports
Project
Other GBS Resources
The GBS Physics staff invite
you to send electronic mail:
Questions and comments can be sent to
Tom
Henderson.
This page last updated on 4/16/98.