Sports Equipment
This activity is structured as a Web Quest, enabling students to use web-based resources and information to investigate and discover the evolution of different kinds of equipment used in Track and Field events from their invention to the present day. In addition to the research element, students will produce a multimedia presentation explaining their design and rationale for a new piece of equipment. Their ideas will be based on their research on the evolution and trends of the equipment used in a chosen event.

Student Web Quest
Learning Activity Overview (includes Notes for the Instructor)

Product Prototype

A media literacy activity, "On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!" transports participants to some of the most exhilarating Track and Field events in recorded history. Microphone in hand, museum visitors provide oratory captions to the moving images, and in the process acquire a greater understanding of the Track and Field event, the athletes participating, and the social context in which the particular race was run (i.e. Jesse Owens in Hitler's Germany). Each broadcaster is supplied with producer notes highlighting important information connected to the event. In preparation for the production phase of the workshop, the team of commentators generates a script and solidifies the commentator personalities. Through prerecorded video clips, professional commentators provide the rookies with insight, and keys to the trade. Participants are given one rehearsal to iron out the kinks, after which it is "Lights, Camera, and Action!"

Learning Activity Overview (includes Notes for the Instructor)

After exploring the Power Systems Interactive exhibit and the Biomechanics Graphic Panel, students will participate in a workshop that examines the science and mechanics of human movement. Through guided discussion and engaging visual aids, participants will be introduced to the role our nervous, muscular and skeletal systems play in generating movement. Participants will then explore the mechanics of human movement (walking) by creating a fifteen frame digital animation of their bodies in motion.

Learning Activity Overview (Includes Notes for the Instructor)

After completing the first two discrete activities students will create a personalized brochure that highlights tips for healthy eating and fitness, as well as includes their own personal nutrition and fitness goals.

Curriculum Narrative

Introductory Online Curriculum (for students w/ culminating activity)

Activity #1
Healthy Eating Online Learning Activity (for students)
Healthy Eating Lesson Plan (for instructors)

Activity #2
Heart Rate Online Learning Activity (for students)
Heart Rate Lesson Plan (for instructors)

Based on a graphic wall panel outlining the various aspects of biomechanics in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, this interactive multi-media educational game will focus on the forces and effects of running on athletes, including injury and its prevention.
The animated game will be based on an interactive process in which the user selects an athlete who has specified characteristics and athletic goals, and then creates the athlete’s training schedule. The game may be created with Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, or a similar type of software. These applications are suitable for CD-ROMs and the web, and are able to be design games that use animation and databases.

Each athlete has an established goal, such as placing in their high school track meet or qualifying for the Olympics, and the user must create a training schedule and overcome obstacles for their athlete to succeed at their challenge. In order to individualize the player’s experience and recreate the everyday randomness of life, a database will need to be created that provides random outputs that correlate to the choices a player makes for the athlete.

Throughout the game, the user gets advice and guidance from a coach and other important people in the athlete’s life (teacher, teammates, friends, parents, siblings, etc…). These people will either appear in animation or as an icon accompanied by text. The user can also click on the icon to hear the text read aloud. At various points in the game the user can click on icons to open pop-up windows to see videos of athletes and experts giving advice, or to view real-life experiences related to the obstacles and choices faced by the user.

Depending on the choices the player makes for the athlete, the athlete’s ultimate goal will be accomplished to a degree along a continuum, ranging from being highly successful in a race to becoming injured, and therefore forfeiting their opportunity to participate. At the end of the game (after all obstacles have occurred and it is time for the race), the player will view an animated outcome of their athlete’s accomplishments – running in a race, sitting on the bleachers with a pulled hamstring, etc...[If the game is created for the web, daily scores of players may be posted on the game’s web site.]

Learning Activity Narrative

Storyboard for Proposed Game