Soccer assessment (in TE block)

6.A Apply science ideas and use evidence to construct an explanation for how the amount of peak force and energy transfer (cause) in soccer collisions result in instability in the brain (concussions, effect) due to sudden changes at the cellular level.

• Peak forces on the head and the ball are shown as the same during a header, both drawn in the diagram in question 1 and the selected answer in question 2a.
• Contact forces are applied to both objects and are always equal regardless of speed or mass in question 2b.

A player hitting a nonmoving object should experience the least amount of peak force in questions 3a and 3b due to the moving player #84 having the same amount of kinetic energy in each collision. The masses and speeds of the other objects determine their kinetic energy before the collision, and the less total kinetic energy in the collision, the less the peak forces on each object during the collision.

• Collisions with objects that are moving with a greater mass or speed in comparison with collisions that have lesser mass and speed will experience more peak force, as seen in the two potential answers for question 5.
• See Soccer Assessment Key for a more detailed analysis of what to look for in each question.

If after the lesson you find that students are struggling with equal and opposite forces with varying masses and speeds, revisit Lesson 5. First, revisit the handouts and data to make connections to a small ball and larger person from questions 1 and 2 on the assessment. Take time before lesson 7 to do this. Vary the mass and speed of different carts in collisions to simulate different collisions between the player and other objects in questions 3-4 and have students make note of their force observations as masses and speeds change on the back of the assessment. After reviewing the amount of force produced in each collision from the new demonstration, ask students to keep their observations out as they work through questions 5-6 again. You may also want to create a word bank with the key terms from Lessons 1-5 and refer students to the What We Have Discovered poster to make connections between our science ideas and the assessment questions.