During a two-year visiting appointment at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH, I offered a course called Physics of Sports for the fall 2000 semester and the fall 2001 semester. While preparing the course, I faced a challenge that confronts many physics teachers: How can I make a general education physics course fun for nonscience students? With only an algebra prerequisite for the course, the typical student did not have a particularly strong mathematical background. My goal was to not only teach those students a little physics, but also show them how physicists try to understand and describe the world of sports. I also wanted to make the course sufficiently enjoyable that the students had a positive experience in what may have been the last science course some of them ever took. After discussions with the students, I feel the course succeeded in fulfilling my goals.

Topics
Education, Teaching, Physicists
1.
David F. Griffing, The Dynamics of Sports, 4th ed. (The Dalog Company, Oxford, OH, 1999).
2.
Robert K. Adair, The Physics of Baseball, 2nd ed. (HarperPerennial, New York, 1994).
3.
Kimberly Bonvissuto, “Not just Bio 101,” Crain's Cleveland Business (Oct. 15, 2001). (My course was the first of three discussed in a story of “unconventional offerings.”)
4.
Mark Sullivan, “Famous Flutie pass now in its own class,” Boston College Chronicle (Nov. 1, 2001.)
5.
D. A.
Wardle
, “
The time delay in human vision
,”
Phys. Teach.
36
,
442
–
444
(Oct.
1998
).
Google Scholar
Crossref
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6.
Ole Anton
Haugland
, “
Physics measurements for sports
,”
Phys. Teach.
39
,
350
–
353
(Sept.
2001
).
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
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© 2004 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2004
American Association of Physics Teachers
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