Speaker
Description
In a given physics classroom, the odds are good that at least one student has had a concussion or has a friend who did. Many students participate in sports or activities with a risk of head injury. This problem-based lesson tackles concussion prevention in football and bridges the disciplines of physics and engineering.
Students are challenged to design their own helmet padding using upcycled packing materials. The test rig is currently a foam head-form with an embedded accelerometer. Students must complete a set of blueprints, construct the designs, and then test for efficiency.
I will walk you through the phases of the project, providing insight from missteps and successes, and share adjustments I will try in the next iteration. We will step through a dry run of the data collection with old designs.
