Introduction: Are we faster, stronger, better than we used to be? Compare the records of gold medal Olympic winners for the last 100 years and decide.
Prior Knowledge: You will need to have beginning graphing skills.
Grade Level: 4-7
Task: Produce a graph/chart which shows performance in a particular event over time. If possible, find an equation which describes the trend in performance. Write/discuss the possible causes for the change.
Resources:
Olympics Results <http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/data/olympics/olymindx.htm>
Olympic records <http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olympix.shtml>
The Olympic Sports <http://abc.net.au/olympics_1996/sportspg.htm>
USA Swimming Olympics <http://www.usswim.org/olympics/olymedme.htm>
Student Worksheet (html) / (pdf)
Process: First, go to above URL and choose an event. Second, make a table/graph of year and record (time, distance, speed, what's appropriate depends on the event). Third, make note of any trends in performance. Lastly, discuss/write about the trend and speculate on its cause. Can you make an equation that describes the trend? Remember, staying the same is also a trend (y = c).
Learning Advice: I recommend a chart/graph with the year on the horizontal axis and the record(time, distance, etc.) on the vertical. Will you start at zero? Choose a scale appropriate to your data.
Evaluation: Two items will be evaluated. First, data plot/graph (accuracy). Second, essay/discussion of trends and causes. (quality of work--rubric)
Extensions: Some sports give a time and a distance. It would be good to give each student 1 year and have them compute a per unit rate so that different years could be compared. This way the whole class does one sport rather than letting each student choose their own event. The teacher could print out one set of medalists at home and have the class all do the same one if Internet access is limited.
Conclusion: You have had practice organizing and analyzing data. You may have had practice creating equations of lines. You will have done critical thinking in speculating at the causes of the results you observed.
Source: http://score.kings.k12.ca.us/lessons/olympic.htm