| Description: | Target Audience: Students Grade Level: 5-8,9-12 Event Focus : How does soccer ball design effect the aerodynamics of the ball and how it "bends" when kicked. Description: With the upcoming World Cup, NASA has studied how different soccer balls rotate in a wind tunnel. Over the last 5 years, there have been 3 different designs for soccer balls, each one is different aerodynamically. Join us as we are pair NASA's aerodynamic engineers with professional soccer players to correlate how they kick the ball with how they can make it "bend" in the air. During this program you will learn how professional soccer players kick the ball to make it go where they want, discover the physics behind the kick, and learn how to make a wind tunnel to do your own studies for under $20. |
| Dates: | June 2nd at 10:00 PDT and June 7th at 1:00 PDT |
| Sign up method: | Website http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/content/catalog/details/?cid=1680 |
| Grades: | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
| Subjects: | Career Education, Mathematics, Science (Physical), Science (Earth) |
| Outcomes: | Engage * Students will become aware of different types of research NASA is involved with. Explore * Professional soccer players will demonstrate how they can make the ball "bend". Explain * NASA aeronautics engineers will explain the physics behind how the soccer ball rotates. Elaborate * A science teacher will demonstrate how to build a wind tunnel for under $20. Evaluate * Students will engage the engineers and players with questions. |
| Responsibilities: | Please review the following links with your students before the event so they have background knowledge: World Cup 2010 Soccer Ball: http://www.soccerballworld.com/Jabulani_2010.htm NASA Aero-Physics Branch Chief: Rabi Mehta: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/bios/aero/rabi.html Dr. Mehta's research on tennis balls: http://tennisclub.gsfc.nasa.gov/tennis.windtunnelballs.html NASA Wind Tunnel Links: - How To Build Your Own Wind Tunnel http://dln.nasa.gov/media/storage/Rockets_Wind_Tunnel.pdf. - NASA Ames Research Center Wind Tunnels http://windtunnels.arc.nasa.gov/WindTunnels/index.html - The Wind Tunnel Connection http://www.worthey.net/windtunnels - NASA Glenn Research Center Wind Tunnels http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/8x6/ - NASA Langley Research Center Wind Tunnels http://wte.larc.nasa.gov/indexnoflash.cfm FC Gold Pride: Team Information: http://www.womensprosoccer.com/bayarea Christine Sinclair - http://www.womensprosoccer.com/bayarea/team/bios/christine-sinclair Rachel Buehler - http://www.womensprosoccer.com/bayarea/team/bios/rachel-buehler SJ Earthquakes: Team Information: http://www.sjearthquakes.com/ |
| Agenda: | The overview of planned events for this show are as follows: 1. Introduction of all participants. 2. Discussion with soccer players about different ways they can kick the ball to make it bend in different directions. 3. Talk with engineer about his research and video of work done on the soccer ball 4. Demonstration by soccer players on how they kick the ball we will attempt to reply each kick in slow motion to show how/ where the player struck the ball. 5. Comments from the engineer. 6. Science teacher will show how one can build a wind tunnel easily and do similar tests to how the soccer ball was tested. 7. Question and answer from participating audience. |
| Other: | You may register for either session or both. All schools will be able to connect with us, however we will restrict the Q&A session to 5 schools each session. Session 1: FC Gold Pride Players (Women Professional Soccer League) Wednesday, June 2nd 10:00 PDT (1:00 EDT) Duration: 1 hour Soccer players: Christine Sinclair 2-time Finalist for World Player of the Year; Rachael Buehler, Olympic gold medalist, and member of US National Team. Session 2: San Jose Earthquake Players (Major League Soccer) Wednesday, June 7th 1:00 PDT (4:00 EDT) Duration: 1 hour Soccer players: To be announced based on availability from the San Jose Earthquakes. Website will be updated when players are announced. Registration: Please email Greg Pitzer (gregory.e.pitzer@nasa.gov) with the following information: School Name/ address, Grade level, Contact phone #, and # of students. |
Greg Pitzer
gregory.e.pitzer@nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center