Engineered Sports

Build Materials (For each team)

Required Materials

• At least four types of balls (golf ball, practice/hollow golf ball, tennis ball, baseball, soccer ball, basketball, rubber ball)
• Measuring tape

Design Challenge

• Challenge #1 – You are a team of engineers who have been given the challenge determining if adding dimples to airplane wings would improve fuel efficiency for jetliners. You’ll need to answer a few questions as a group, and share your analysis with other teams in your classroom.
• Challenge #2 – You are a team of engineers who have been given the challenge of evaluating and explaining the physics of different types of bouncing balls.

1. Break class into teams of 2-3.
2. Hand out the Engineered Sports worksheet, as well as some sheets of paper for sketching designs.
3. Discuss the topics in the Background Concepts Section. Consider asking students to think about how a golf ball reacts upon being hit by a club. What factors make the ball go further?
4. Review the Engineering Design Process, Design Challenge and Materials.
5. Provide each team with their materials.
6. Explain that students must complete two challenges:
   1. Work as a team to determine if adding dimples to airplane wings would improve fuel efficiency for jetliners. They will need to answer a few questions as a group, and share their analysis with other teams in the classroom.
   2. Work as a team to predict and explain how a range of balls will bounce when dropped from the same height. Teams will consider two types of energy (kinetic and potential) and discuss the elasticity and bounce of each ball. They will also conduct a bounce test and document their findings.
7. Announce the amount of time they have to answer questions, conduct their testing and documentation (1 hour recommended).
8. Use a timer or an on-line stopwatch (count down feature) to ensure you keep on time. (www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch). Give students regular “time checks” so they stay on task. If they are struggling, ask questions that will lead them to a solution quicker.
9. Students meet to complete challenge #1, answering the following questions and then present to the class:
   ● Do you think a smooth ball or a dimpled ball would experience less air friction when flying through the air? Why?
   ○ For teacher: Tests show that a smooth golf ball will only fly about half as far as one with dimples. Tests of golf balls in wind tunnels have shown that in fact, the balls with dimples substantially reduce the drag by creating a turbulent boundary layer which reduces the wake. Dimples on golf balls actually reduce the aerodynamic drag that normally be acting on the ball if it were smooth. When completely smooth balls fly through air, a large pocket of low-pressure air is created in its wake. That creates drag, which slows it down. By reducing the wake, the pressure differential goes down, resulting in a reduced drag force. The dimples create turbulence in the air around the ball. In fact, it makes the air embrace the ball very closely. This means that instead of air quickly rushing past a ball, it more closely follows the curve of the ball from the front to the back. This results in a smaller wake and less drag. Dimpled balls create about 1/2 as much drag as do smooth balls.
   ● Understanding the impact of dimples on a golf ball, should our engineering team recommend adding dimples to the wings of airplanes? Write an argument for or against this idea which you will present to your class.
   ○ For teacher: One of the reasons that adding dimples to golf balls helps reduce drag is that a golf ball is round. The round shape works against the golf ball as it moves through air. Balls or spheres are not the best shapes for efficient flight. Airplanes avoid drag by having a tapered shape that allows air current to come together gradually so the air behind the plane is less turbulent and results in less drag. Footballs are shaped in a more aerodynamic way than are golf balls. Also, streamlined shapes such as airplane wings have to deal with a different kind of drag called skin friction drag. In a way the tabs that stick up from airplane wings (vortex generators) have a similar function to the dimples in that it breaks up the air. And, on footballs, the threads also serve a similar function. Another reason why adding dimples to planes does not appreciably impact drag is that a plane, unlike a golf ball, is moving due to engine power. Golf balls are immediately slowing down after they are hit, so the dimples help keep the ball in the air longer; airplanes can stay up as long as the engine is running.
   ● Give two examples of how engineering has impacted the design of other sport equipment. Include specific examples of how two pieces of sport equipment have physically changed in the past ten years as a result of engineering.
   ○ For teacher: Examples include footballs, soccer balls, swimming goggles, swimming suits, tennis racquets, skis, safety helmets.
10. Students meet to complete challenge #2.
11. As a class, discuss the student reflection questions for challenge #2.
12. For more content on the topic, see the “Digging Deeper” section.

Student Reflection (engineering notebook)

1. How did your predictions for bounce compare with the actual bounce results? What surprised you about your findings?
2. Explain the concepts of kinetic and potential energy as they relate to this bounce test.
3. If there was a loss of energy, what would account for it?
4. What do you think accounted for the difference in the bounce of the different balls? Was it more the size?  More the materials?  More the engineering?  A combination?
5. Consider how sports would change if balls had different levels of bounciness. Pick a sport, and describe how three different levels of bounciness would impact the sport, its players, other equipment, and even the environment in which the sport is played.
6. What did learn about design tradeoffs (common in engineering) by answering question 5 above?

The lesson can be done in as little as 1 class period for older students. However, to help students from feeling rushed and to ensure student success (especially for younger students), split the lesson into two periods giving students more time to brainstorm, test ideas and finalize their design. Conduct the testing and debrief in the next class period.

• Aerodynamic: The qualities of an object that affect how easily it is able to move through the air.
• Aerospace Engineering: The designing, building, testing, and controlling of flying machines.
• Air Resistance: A frictional force that air pushes against a moving object.
• Bounce: A change of direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.
• Constraints: Limitations with material, time, size of team, etc.
• Criteria: Conditions that the design must satisfy like its overall size, etc.
• Drag: A force which tends to slow the movement of an object through a liquid or gas.
• Engineers: Inventors and problem-solvers of the world. Twenty-five major specialties are recognized in engineering (see infographic).
• Engineering Design Process: Process engineers use to solve problems. 
• Engineering Habits of Mind (EHM): Six unique ways that engineers think.
• Friction: The force that opposes the relative motion or tendency toward such motion of two surfaces in contact.
• Kinetic Energy: Extra energy which it possesses due to its motion.
• Iteration: Test & redesign is one iteration. Repeat (multiple iterations).
• Potential Energy: The energy possessed by an object because of its position (in a gravitational or electric field), or its condition (for example as a stretched or compressed spring or as a chemical reactant).
• Prototype: A working model of the solution to be tested.

Internet Connections

• Exploratorium: Science of Sport

Recommended Reading

• Newton on the Tee: A Good Walk Through the Science of Golf by John Zumerchik (ISBN: 0743212142)
• The Physics of Golf by Theodore P. Jorgensen (AIP) (ISBN: 038798691X)
• Engineering of Sport by by Eckehard Moritz (Editor), Steven Haake (Editor)

Writing Activity

Write an essay or a paragraph describing how engineering has impacted the design and development of your favorite piece of sports equipment. Give supporting details, history, and offer suggestions for how you think engineering might further improve the sport.

Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks

Note: Lesson plans in this series are aligned to one or more of the following sets of standards:  

• U.S. Science Education Standards (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=4962)
• U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (http://www.nextgenscience.org/) 
• International Technology Education Association’s Standards for Technological Literacy (http://www.iteea.org/TAA/PDFs/xstnd.pdf)
• U.S. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (http://www.nctm.org/standards/content.aspx?id=16909)
• U.S. Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (http://www.corestandards.org/Math)
• Computer Science Teachers Association K-12 Computer Science Standards (http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K12Standards.html)

National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8 (ages 10-14)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry 
• Understandings about scientific inquiry 

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science

As a result of their activities, all students should develop an understanding of

• Properties and changes of properties in matter 
• Motions and forces 
• Transfer of energy 

CONTENT STANDARD E: Science and Technology

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop

• Abilities of technological design 
• Understandings about science and technology 

CONTENT STANDARD F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science and technology in society 

CONTENT STANDARD G: History and Nature of Science

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• History of science 

National Science Education Standards Grades 9-12 (ages 14-18)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry 
• Understandings about scientific inquiry 

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science 

As a result of their activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Motions and forces 
• Conservation of energy and increase in disorder 
• Interactions of energy and matter 

CONTENT STANDARD E: Science and Technology

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Abilities of technological design 
• Understandings about science and technology 

National Science Education Standards Grades 9-12 (ages 14-18)

CONTENT STANDARD F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges 

CONTENT STANDARD G: History and Nature of Science

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science as a human endeavor 

Next Generation Science Standards Grades 2-5 (Ages 7-11)

Matter and its Interactions 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

• 2-PS1-2.  Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.

Engineering Design 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

• 3-5-ETS1-3.Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

Next Generation Science Standards Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-14)

Energy

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

• MS-PS3-5.  Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.

Standards for Technological Literacy – All Ages

The Nature of Technology

• Standard 1: Students will develop an understanding of the characteristics and scope of technology.
• Standard 3: Students will develop an understanding of the relationships among technologies and the connections between technology and other fields of study.

Technology and Society

• Standard 4: Students will develop an understanding of the cultural, social, economic, and political effects of technology.
• Standard 7: Students will develop an understanding of the influence of technology on history.

Standards for Technological Literacy – All Ages

Design

• Standard 8: Students will develop an understanding of the attributes of design.
• Standard 9: Students will develop an understanding of engineering design.
• Standard 10: Students will develop an understanding of the role of troubleshooting, research and development, invention and innovation, and experimentation in problem solving.

Abilities for a Technological World

• Standard 11: Students will develop abilities to apply the design process.
• Standard 13: Students will develop abilities to assess the impact of products and systems.

Lesson Plan Translation

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