The Physics of Sports: An 8th Grade Physical Science Project

You will be creating an I-Movie presentation on a sporting event or physical activity of your choice. You must choose any activity that involves motion. You will apply the concepts of potential/kinetic energy, friction, inertia, momentum, and action/reaction forces to your sport. Your presentation will show how each of these concepts applies to your sport or activity. In scripting your movie, make note of how an understanding of physics concepts can improve your performance/game.

You will be given a set of five questions that will apply to your chosen sport or activity. Initially you will need to spend time thinking about how to answer each of these questions. You will be required to complete a guided pre-write and storyboard rough draft for each of the five questions. You will be required to edit your storyboard rough drafts following consultation time.

Once you have edited your storyboard rough drafts, you are ready to prepare your presentation. You may be as creative as you wish, however, be sure to make the content of your presentation the top priority. Adding all of the special effects needs to be secondary.

The requirements for your presentation include the following:
•Title and Author
•Scenes (at least one for each question) to visually represent how the concepts relate to your sport (be sure to use narration and/or titles for explanation purposes)
•Minimum of 2 video/movie clip
•Minimum of 1 transition
•Minimum of 2 effects (examples: own voice, music, slow motion, and/or sound effects)

The five questions that you will answer are:
1) How do potential and kinetic energy apply to _____?
2) How do static, rolling, sliding and/or fluid frictions influence the movements in _____?
3) How does inertia (Newton’s 1st Law) apply to _____?
4) How does the relationship of force, mass, and acceleration (Newton’s 2nd Law) apply to _____?
5) How do action-reaction forces (Newton’s 3rd Law) apply to _____?

Your I-Movie presentation will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
•Accuracy of the application of motion concepts
•Supporting detail demonstrating an understanding of the motion concepts.

The Physics of Sports – Class Schedule
Day 1 - Project Introduction
•Schedule and Project Overview
•Index Cards for Sport and Teaming
•Sample Projects
Day 2 – Script Pre-write and Group Teams
•Complete Pre-Write for Homework
Day 3 - iMovie Introduction
•Film editing capabilities presentation
•Scripting (go over scripting process; discuss storyboarding)
•Brainstorm script
•Start storyboard
Day 4 – Scripting and storyboarding
•Complete storyboard/script in Class
Day 5 – iMovie Training
•Titles
Video cameras, filming and video importing
•Script taping
•Importing
Day 6 – Video Taping: filming action shots
Day 7 – iMovie Training and Editing
•Video Editing
•Video Effects
•Transitions
•VoiceOvers
Video Taping: filming action shots
Day 8 and 9 - iMovie Editing
Day 10 - iMovie Editing and Presentations
Day 11 - Presentations