Discus Dilemma

Discus Dilemma Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children designing and making a discus Startown Primary School’s caretaker thinks, he’s seen a UFO. When Miss Terry comes to investigate she sees it’s actually a discus. Through this activity you will support your group to: • Design and make a model discus • Test and compare their discus models • Record and present their results. Kit list • Single discus to investigate if available or photographs • Modelling equipment including a selection of paper, plastic, polystyrene plates plus card and tape • Stuffing materials to add weight such as bubble wrap, cotton wool, thick card, modelling material, tightly sealed bags of water • Something to mark a throwing line, tape measure plus cones or similar to mark where each discus lands (optional) What to do 1. Introduce the activity using the story. Ask them if they know what a discus is. You could show a real discus of photos or a video of one being thrown. 2. Give out activity cards and equipment to the children. 3. Explain that they will be designing and making their own discus, and testing them to see which model works best. 4. Support children to design and build their model. When making their discuses, encourage the children to think about size, shape, weight and if the material is safe to use. 5. Support the children to design and carry out a test and to make their own records of their results. Involve the children in deciding how to carry out safe tests. You are likely to need a starting line to throw from and a way to mark each throw. Encourage children to talk about how each discus performed. Why did some fly further than others? Give children the opportunity to think of safe ways to alter their designs and test again. Have they improved? 6. Ask the children to present their findings to the rest of the group, they can be as creative in their presentation as they want.

Things to think about Talk to the children about how to make fair comparisons between their discuses. How many throws is each person allowed with their discus? Could they work out the length of an average throw? Paper plate discuses are light and will not throw very far. It is useful to let children find this out for themselves. Using the stuffing materials suggested will help to add weight. Keywords • Discus • Weight • Shapes • Sport Watch out A discus can be heavy. Make sure everyone stands well behind the throwing line and care is taken when throwing. Encourage children to think about safe designs, including not using dangerous items such as stone and metal to add weight and avoiding sharp edges. Futher info The discus first emerged as a competitive sport in ancient Greece around 700 BC. Traditionally discuses were made from lead, bronze, iron or stone. Now discuses are made from metal or rubber. Men use discuses that weigh 2kg. Women use discuses that weigh 1kg. A discus is shaped like an aeroplane wing. This means it travels further if you throw it into the wind, unlike a ball or javelin. The shape of a discus makes it spin as it is thrown. When a discus spins quickly it flies smoothly through the air and travels further. The world record for the Men’s Discus is over 74 metres. The female world record is over 76. Mark this out so that children can see how far this is and compare their throws. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236