The 2014 Winter Olympics officially kicked off last week in Sochi, Russia, with much fanfare. For the next two weeks, more than 2,800 athletes from 88 countries (per CNN.com) will compete in 98 events to declare their athletic supremacy.
The Games present an excellent opportunity for educators to blend current events and athletics in their classrooms. Here are a few ways to do so:
- Last month, NBC Learn, the National Science Foundation, and NBC Olympics (a division of NBC Sports Group) launched a free online video series called “Science and Engineering of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.” The videos, available to the public for free online, tackle subjects such as stability and vibration in alpine skiing, engineering the half pipe, the science of snow and ice, and, as seen below, the physics of slopestyle skiing.