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How to Use Sports to Enhance Your Child's Understanding of Science

by SuperFunScience

Kids are all reeling from the excitement of the Olympic Games
these last few weeks, but can they relate any of that to science?
Absolutely!
Aspiring athletes, or students struggling with a scientific
concept, may find that the perfect demonstration is sports. Many
kids love sports, and sports are science. Every skill, movement,
victory, and loss kids experience is a science lesson waiting to
be learned.

Everything from the exchange of O2 and CO2 as Michael Phelps
breathes between swimming strokes, to the flight path of each
ball, arrow, and body, can be explained to kids by science.
Seeing science in action in a sporting event can go a long way to
turning the words and diagrams in your kids' science book into
real understanding. The trick is helping them make that
connection.

Try to stick to the basics. Kids aren't usually going to carry
their science book with them, but targeting general concepts can
spark enough curiosity to get them to look it up later. Kids can
easily relate biology to sports because they can see the science
happening. Physiology, the function of the systems of the body
and how they work together, can be easily demonstrated to kids
with sports.

The nervous system tells Michael Phelps' musculoskeletal system
to contract and extend in the swim stroke he needs. His muscles
are given oxygen and energy through chemical reactions of the
digestive, circulatory, and respiratory systems. Show your kids
science by having them flex a muscle. The nervous system doesn't
need them to talk to ask that muscle to move, and some muscles,
like the heart, don't even need a conscious thought to work.

Physics is also a fairly easy science for kids to see. Newton's
Laws of Motion can be observed in baseball. The first law is
inertia - an object's motion will not change until a force acts
upon it. When Justin Verlander pitches a baseball, gravity, wind,
and ultimately the hitter's bat or the catcher's mitt all force
the ball to change speed and direction. He can keep a fast ball
high in the air by giving it a lot of backspin, or pitch a curve
low and left by giving the ball a side spin. The way the ball
spins in the air changes how the air puts force on the ball. Ask
your kid to identify the science behind the pitch. What forces
acted on the ball? How did they affect the ball's flight?

Chemistry is often a difficult concept for younger students, but
you can still introduce your kids to chemical science. Try not to
be discouraged by the complexity of the chemical reactions
themselves.
Explain that Usain Bolt was breathing hard after his 200 meter
sprint because of chemical reactions in his body. All the muscles
in his body burn energy and use oxygen when he runs. The oxygen
is brought to his muscles from the air around us by several
chemical reactions. When you breathe in, the oxygen is taken from
the air in your lungs and passed into your blood by a chemical
reaction. The blood moves the oxygen to your muscles, where it is
used in another chemical reaction.

Ask your kid if they can talk about the science behind food
getting to muscles as energy. Usain's body uses chemical
reactions in digestion and in the blood to bring nutrients from
food to his muscles, and his muscles use chemical reactions to
store and use them to make energy. Kids will still grasp the
basic concepts of chemical science without complex equations.
Kids will also be better prepared to learn the specifics of
science in school if they have been relating the concepts to the
world around them.

You can use sports to help your kids learn and love science.
Science can be applied to so many aspects and moments in every
sport, it shouldn't be hard for you to identify connections of
your own. Take a look in your child's science book this year, and
next time you're watching sports, bring up a few concepts. Before
you know it, you kid will be talking about how Peyton Manning
could improve his throw by considering Newton's 3rd law more
closely!

Sara Jones was a fine student but science was a source of
frustration she didn't want her kids to suffer. She met <a
href="mailto:sfslinks@gmail.com">Rick and Amanda Birmingham</a>
and realized their grasp of everyday science was the secret to
making science fun. To learn more about the solution to science
stress visit <a href="http://www.SuperFunScience.com"
target="_blank">www.SuperFunScience.com</a>

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