Reaching for Olympic Glory

Every two years, competitors in the Olympic Games vie to determine who the world's best athletes are. 2010 marks the 21st Winter Olympiad of the modern age. Approximately 3,000 athletes will converge upon Vancouver, Canada, to take part in 86 events across 15 different disciplines. The competition is fierce, and teams will compete in everything from ice hockey to skeleton and from curling to skiing.

Without realizing it, athletes also will compete to see who can best make use of science. Science — be it the physics of a snowboarder's flips, the engineering of a luge slider's sled, or the biochemical makeup of a speed skater's pre-race meal — serves as a common strand tying the various competitors together. Science even comes into play with more negative aspects of the Games, such as the continual testing to prevent the use of illegal biochemical substances designed to boost athletes' performance.

Science NetLinks offers these Olympics- and sports-related resources with the hopes that they will allow your students to see the excitement, hard work, and dedication that takes place not only on the snow and in the rink during the Games, but also in the laboratories and on computer screens beforehand.

 

 

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Science NetLinks Resources

Lessons    Tools    Science Updates
Non-Science NetLinks Resources

Lessons

Healthy Eating

Grade Band: K-2
Description: This lesson is designed to reach young children with the message that being active and eating right are key to staying healthy throughout life.

Water 1: Water and Ice

Grade Band: K-2
Description: In this lesson, students explore what happens to water as it goes from solid to liquid and back again.

Reaction Time 1: How Fast Are You?

Grade Band: 3-5
Description: This lesson encourages students to identify ways in which experience and practice allow humans to learn new skills, using activities that test reaction time as examples.

Reaction Time 2: Zap!

Grade Band: 3-5
Description: In this lesson, students build upon what they have already learned by participating in another online reaction-time activity—this one testing their visual and auditory abilities (both separately and together).

Extending Human Ability through Technology

Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will explore various ways in which technology has enhanced human abilities.

Putting the Ice in Hockey

Grade Band: 6-8
Description: This lesson helps to demonstrate the application of the concept that different states of matter exhibit differences in its molecular motion.

Skin and Sports

Grade Band: 6-8
Description: This lesson allows students to explore the effects of physical activity on skin and to understand how to protect their skin when participating in sports.

Snow Goggles

Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will build snow goggles similar to those used by the Inuit peoples. The goggles are meant to block unwanted light, while increasing the viewer's ability to see in a bright region.

Sun and Skin

Grade Band: 9-12
Description: In this lesson, students will discuss what they already know about the impact sun exposure has on their skin and what they typically do to protect themselves, if anything.

 

Tools

Careers in Sports and Exercise Science
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This tool, created by Science's Science Careers, highlights a variety of careers related to exercise and sports science.

Reaching for Olympic Glory
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This student page offers resources relating to the Olympics and the impact science has on the Games directly to the student user.

Science of the Olympic Winter Games NEW!

Grade Band: 6-12
Description: These videos, created by NBC in partnership with the National Science Foundation, feature interviews with athletes and coaches who explain the physics, biology, chemistry, and materials engineering behind the Olympic Winter Games.

Science at the Olympics
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: This tool highlights an August 2008 article from Science magazine asking questions about the science behind various aspects of the Beijing Olympics.

 

Science Updates

Fastest Swimsuit

Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This Science Update lets students hear about the latest technology in swimwear and how it may have helped Olympians break more records in Beijing.

Sprinter Advantage

Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This Science Update explains how Olympic runners closest to the start gun may get a slight advantage.

Sprinter Feet NEW!

Grade Band: 6-12
Description: Elite sprinters may be helped by unusual foot anatomy. Learn why in this Science Update episode.

 

Other Resources

Canadian Olympic School Program
Grade Band: K-12
Description: This program offers free downloadable lesson plans, interactive components, contests at various levels, and stories about Olympians.

Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Education Resources
Grade Band: K-12
Description: Developed to help Canadian teachers, these lessons focus particularly on Aboriginal culture and athletes.

Olympics Quest
Grade Band: 3-8
Description: This website invites students to nominate a city to hold the next Olympics and encourages them to back up their suggestion by considering a number of factors, including geography and climate. (The link to the rubric on the page is broken; the correct link is here.)

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The official site for the 2010 Winter Games offers general news about the games, video, in-depth information about winter sports, and daily updates about the various competitions.

International Olympic Committee
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The official site for the International Olympic Committee, the governing body of the Olympic Games, shares highlights from past Olympics, includes photos and videos, and highlights online exhibits of the Olympic Museum.

Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The official site for the 2010 Paralympic Games includes video interviews with athletes, discusses the different competitions, and highlights inroads made into improving access for all disabled athletes around the world.

NBC Olympics

Grade Band: 6-12
Description: NBC Sports highlights the on-field and behind-the-scenes goings-on associated with the Olympic Games.

The Science of Sport
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: Two scientists with Ph.D.'s from the Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Research Unit at the University of Cape Town opine about the latest in sports-related science. This is a blog, so teachers should consider reading the entries ahead of time to make sure that the material is appropriate for students.