Physics teachers have a chance to get physical—and biological—on Thursday at the NSTA Conference in Fort Lauderdale with a session called Muscular Physics. The hands-on workshop by Umadevi I. Garimella, director of the Arkansas Center for Mathematics & Science Education at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway, Arkansas, and William Slaton, an assistant physics and astronomy professor at UCA, will explore the physics of body movement.
“The skeletal-muscular system of the body can be modeled using the concept of torques and mechanical equilibrium. Participants will explore the three classes of lever systems and note the biologically equivalent systems in the body,” explains Slaton. “Of interest will be the mechanical advantage of each lever system and why the body has evolved to favor some lever systems as opposed to others. Participants will also get hands on experience taking data for all three lever systems.”
Garimella and Slaton provide worksheets and workbooks of the informational slides for attendees to keep.
And now I’ve got bad 80s aerobic work-out music stuck in my head. Great. Hope I haven’t infected anyone else!