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Seventh-graders learn Newton's laws through real-life demonstrations

Robert C. Reed

River Bend Middle School Resource Officer Trent Davis squares off against teacher Chris Knighton to demostrate Sir Isaac Newton's laws pertaining to motion to students . FMA is program sponsored bv NASA and Honeywell to inspire students to go into the fields of science and math.

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FMA Live! Web site

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 28, 2009

CLAREMONT - Seventh-graders across the county got a lesson on Newton's three laws Tuesday morning using song-and-dance routines, video clips and hands-on demonstrations.

FMA Live! came to River Bend Middle School, and every seventh-grader in Catawba County Schools got to see one of the two shows.

The name is taken from Isaac Newton's second law, force equals mass times acceleration. Students learn Newton's three laws using fun science demonstrations and other methods to make an impression on them.

"We're hoping kids learn science and see that it can be fun and educational," said Eric Olson, one of the co-hosts of FMA Live! "Science and math is all around them, in every day things."

FMA Live!, sponsored by NASA and Honeywell, tell Newton's story of how he discovered his three laws, revamping VH1's "Behind the Music," calling it "Behind the Motion."

The group demonstrated Newton's first law that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force using students Cameron Chapman and Peter Shepherd from River Bend. Wearing Velcro suits, they took a running leap onto a springboard and landed on a Velcro wall, sticking.

The group also had one of the presenters on top of a large road case on wheels moving toward three crouched people. When the case hit the people, it stopped, but the presenter on top flew over the people.

To demonstrate Newton's second law, student Rebecca Moffett kicked soccer balls of three different sizes into a goal. Moffett said she was given a brief explanation of what she would do, but wasn't sure what, exactly, would happen when she was on stage.

The first soccer ball was regulation size. By the third ball, which was taller than Moffett and needed assistants to bring it out, Moffett's kick didn't budge the ball.

"Rebecca's force stayed the same, but the mass changed," said Katie Adler, one of the presenters. "She would need to be the size of the Statue of Liberty to knock the soccer ball."

Two teachers also got into sumo wrestling outfits to demonstrate how acceleration — the two men running into each other, trying to push one another down — can affect things.

To demonstrate the third law, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, students Jasmine Jacobs and Alexus Owens competed in carbon dioxide-powered cars to see who went the fastest. By releasing the compressed air in the car — action — the car went forward — reaction.

Owens said she was excited about being selected to be a part of the show.

"I was a little nervous, but it was fun," she said.

The participants in the show were selected because they had the highest grades in their science classes.

"The science you learn today will take you far, whether you're kicking soccer balls or going to Mars," Olson told the students.

FMA Live!, which is in its sixth year and has taught more than 218,000 students in the U.S. and Canada, is designed to encourage students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

After participating in the show, seventh-graders Jacobs and Owens said they would be interested in pursuing a degree in something related to science.

"I like science because it's fun," Jacobs said.