Lindsey Vonn—probably the closest to a household name as any winter Olympian. Sadly, we won’t be able to see her defend her women’s downhill gold medal in Sochi due to her ACL injury. But you can find out a bit more of the back story in Injury & Recovery, one of ten videos in the latest installment of NBC Learn’s Emmy Award-winning “Science of Sports” series—Science & Engineering of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Partnering with NSF, the videos reveal how key engineering and science concepts, as well as cutting-edge technology, play an integral part in each athlete’s sport. Of course, NSTA is providing connected lesson plans to make your STEM efforts cutting-edge as well.
The videos provide you with several “jumping off” places, and you’ll find a timeline at the beginning of each lesson plan that steps you through the action. Then, scan through the Injury & Recovery Integration Guide for suggestions of where you can tap into the video as one of your resources. Take a look at the Inquiry Guide too, for suggestions of hands-on investigations into both science and engineering design concepts.
Find the series, available cost-free, on www.NBCLearn.com and www.science360.gov. Leave a comment. We’d love to hear your reactions!
Image of Lindsey Vonn training in Vail, CO, in November 2011 courtesy of Snow Buzz.
Video
Injury & Recovery discusses the occurrence of knee injuries in downhill skiing and an innovative new technology to repair one type of knee injury: anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage.
Lesson Plans
Injury & Recovery Integration Guide spells out the STEM in the video and gives you mini-activities and ideas for research, teamwork, projects, and interdisciplinary connections.
Injury & Recovery Inquiry Guide models a science inquiry focused on the function and structure of the knee joint AND an engineering design inquiry focused on making and testing a bracing system for knee joints.
You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans: [contact-form 2 “ChemNow]