CITY SCIENCE STARS: Be A Sport!

WHAT IS A SPORT? Is football a sport? Is gymnastics a sport? Is chess a sport? Are eSports sports? The word ‘sport’ comes from the Old French word 'desport' meaning leisure, with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining". The ‘What is a sport?’ debate has changed over the years and is still going. On your tables, in groups of 4 or 5, discuss your thoughts and ideas on what makes a sport a sport. Use the paper in front of your to make note of your ideas. …require you to move around and be physically fit? …be a competition between 1 or more opponents? …have a clear set of rules set by a governing body? …have a high level of skill or ability involved? …be officially recognised by the Olympic Committee?

KEY SCIENCE SKILL – CLASSIFICATION What is classification?

KEY SCIENCE SKILL – CLASSIFICATION What is classification? grouping animals, plants, rocks, planets, materials, movies, sports, anything!

KEY SCIENCE SKILL – CLASSIFICATION What is classification? grouping animals, plants, rocks, planets, materials, movies, sports, anything! Important for understanding how things are related to each other

GROUP, SORT AND CLASSIFY A key is a series of questions about the characteristics of an object (or living thing) that helps you decide how to classify or group it. Keys are a useful way for scientists to identify objects with a great deal of certainty or find out whether a particular organism has ever been described or identified before.

DECISION TREES AND CLASSIFICATION KEYS DOES IT HAVE BONES? NO YES DOES IT LIVE ON LAND? NO YES DOES IT EAT MEAT? NO YES Now we’re going to take it a step further. We’re going to make decision trees. These are also often called classification keys and scientists use them all the time to work out what something belongs to. For example, (demonstrate a quick one with animals, 3 species with 2 questions). Then add in another one (FOX) with help of students. What yes/no questions can we ask to split these sports into 2 groups? Once you’ve done that, keep going until you’ve split all the sports apart. If they finish early, get them to add another sport. You could even try and classify where your sport would fit in the decision tree!

CREATE YOUR OWN DECISION TREE

DESIGN YOUR OWN SPORT! Using the equipment on your table, you have 10 minutes to design a new sport. Discuss your ideas Use evidence for support Write down a brief set of rules Practice and refine the game Work as a team Selecting the best material for a particular purpose involves considering the properties of the material and the circumstances in which it is used.

WHAT SCIENTIFIC SKILLS HAVE WE USED? Discussion and justification of opinions Working together to share and develop ideas Testing and evaluating those ideas Grouping by different criteria Creating classification keys

Primary Science Specialist sarah.eames@pstt.org.uk Alex Evans LCFC STEM Coach alex.evans@lcfc.co.uk Sarah Eames Primary Science Specialist sarah.eames@pstt.org.uk