In my last post, I mentioned that I had another idea for actions that could promote science learning. As I mentioned in an earlier post, many students get little or no science education in elementary school, at least in the U.S.

I decided that the next best thing to increasing elementary school science instruction would be to bring that science to students’ other activities. I have been referring to this effort as the Science of Soccer.  Why start with soccer?

The science of soccer

I decided to start with soccer because I took high school Physics (and college Physics, but that’s another story). One of the hardest things I found about that class was understanding vectors. A vector has both magnitude and direction. An example of a vector is a ball moving at a certain speed (the magnitude) in a specific direction (say, straight ahead, or, mathematically, at 0 degrees). It sounds complicated even as I write it.

But soccer players think in vectors even if they don’t know the terminology. They kick the ball to get it moving and they do so in a particular direction or direction. They do so to move it down the field, dodge an opponent, or attempt a goal. Sometimes, when dribbling, they kick it at a nearly constant speed (velocity) and relatively slowly. Sometimes, when running up on a penalty kick, they accelerate (move faster) and impart that momentum to the ball to try to get the goal.

Just fifteen minutes a season

So what if, for just fifteen minutes each season in local soccer leagues, I provided a quick video. This video would introduce some ideas and suggest experimenting with different kicks, runs up to the ball, and different directions. I would explain these suggestions using the physics terminology of velocity, vector, direction, and momentum. I think even younger soccer players would make intuitive connections to what they do during the games and practices. Even if a child only spent a season or two in a soccer league, this introduction of terms related to their fun activity might help when they encounter high school physics years later.

My plan is to create such a video this summer. Hopefully, after critique and reshooting, it could be ready to bring to a local soccer league and see what they think.

And music, the arts, other sports…

It’s not just soccer. Since all of our activities involve science, so do all the many after school and weekend activities of school children. I spent about an hour, using an online mindmapping tool called Coggle (coggle.it), to brainstorm which sciences were associated with the activities that came to mind. The picture below shows the results of that effort. Science truly is everywhere.

After I get going on the soccer video, I plan on working on one for string instruments. It would not take much to introduce the concept of vibration, even to a very young child. Once a violinist understands that their strings are vibrating, they can do a lot more musically. And when they hit wave mechanics in physics class, I think they will have a better understanding right from the beginning.

It’s worth a try. What do you think? How would you introduce science into any activity your kids (or you!) do?