STEM IN ACTION ON THE POOL TABLE
Yep, that’s right. Pool, Billiards and Snooker are not only a great way to get kids away from the small screen and physically active; cue sports are also a great way for kids to experience STEM in action.
Your students won’t just get the recreational benefit of positive physical and social interaction when you bring them along to CUE CLUB; they will also benefit from being hooked in to the magic of motion and friction, vectors and trajectories, angles and estimates.
Moving from the white board to the pool table
Cue sports will entice even the most reluctant of your students into STEM without them realising. A game involves the subconscious calculation of distances, power, speed and angles to ascertain exact points and directions. Cue/ball/cushion/pocket – Now that’s fundamental geometry, classical mechanics and material science all rolled into one!
Why not take your classroom to your local pool room, and get your students into a little recreational STEM. Sharpening minds, developing skills and having fun is what it’s all about.
Check out some of these websites for lesson ideas:
The Elliptical Pool Table: A Mathematician’s Dream
Pool Table Geometry
sigmaa.maa.org/mcst/PosterActivitySessions/documents/BilliardsPoster.pdf
