STEM & Winter Olympics

With the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea going on, Mrs. Bixenman’s 3^rd graders wanted to be a part of the action going on across the Pacific Ocean.  One of the events most watched during the Winter Olympics is the bobsled and luge competitions. The students viewed a short clip from the movie ‘Cool Running’ to spark their interest in the activity.  The movie centered around four male sprinters from the Bahamas who just missed making the Summer Olympics while competing in a sprint relay race.   Sad and upset after not qualifying for the Summer Olympics, they found new hope when a bobsled coach asked if they were interested in forming a Jamaican Bobsled Team.  After seeing that clip, the students’ imaginations and creative minds started churning.  Each student was giving a straw and four gummy bears to create a ‘bobsled’ to slide down the ramp built by Mr. Pytleski.  While building, the students had to take into account drag and aerodynamics to shave off every 0.1 of a second possible.  Each student had two trials to see who could build the fastest bobsled possible.  After timing both trials, each student learned how to find the average of their particular bobsled.  Another example of how to bring STEM and performance tasks into the classrooms, so students can learn by ‘doing’ and having fun while doing so. Check out the short Slide Show...  Bobsled Challenge