Pushups

Last year I sent kids out to the stairwell to collect walking and running data, so we could calculate work and power.  This year the principal vetoed the activity since things have been a little crazy around the freshman academy lately.  I really think my kids could have handled it (well, OK, I would only have sent the ones I can trust) but she's the boss.

So we collected data for pushups instead.  In 3 of my classes I had a dozen volunteers clamoring to be one of the 3 kids who got to come up and do pushups on my front lab table with the entire class watching.  And an impressive mix of boys and girls.  But in my second period class, where the kids are more academically oriented and apparently more self-conscious, I only got one volunteer.  With a bribe of extra credit points, I got another good sport.  But nobody else was willing.  So I took off my sweater and my lanyard of keys and climbed up on the table myself.  The activity required 5 good form pushups.  I managed 3 with decent form, then the fourth was weak, and I barely made it through the fifth.  The kids were rolling and I was laughing too.

And the best part was, the data in that class came out GREAT for proving the difference between work and power.  I did the most work because my weight was the biggest, and the two students had the same weight but one moved a significantly larger distance, as measured by my meterstick-brandishing volunteer, so their work values were different too, despite the identical weight.  And my power was much smaller than theirs, despite my larger work value, because it took me almost twice as long to get through the pushups.

I could not have rigged the data any better if I had tried.  I guess that's the hidden benefit to being sadly out of shape?