Activity overview Years 5–8 Preparing for extreme weather · Preparing for extreme weather...

© 2008 Australian Football League �

Preparing for extreme weather

Activity overviewThis activity encourages students to consider the importance of preparing to play sports such as Australian football in different weather conditions, including extreme weather. Students identify the body changes associated with physical activity and how various weather conditions may affect the players’ performance and skill. Students develop their scientific literacy by reading and discussing relevant scientific issues.

The varying climate across Australia is demonstrated through the investigation of climate data. Students observe patterns and relate their findings to how players should prepare for the Australian Football League (AFL) pre-season and premiership season.

Time required2 sessions of 75 minutes each

Materials • Large sheet of paper for each group to develop and record ideas on their chart

• Poster paper for their five-minute presentation or other suitable materials as required

• Worksheet: Capital city climates

• Graph paper for each pair of students

• Optional: Computer for Internet access; Footy in Extreme Weather video in Resources on the AFL CD-ROM

Preparation• Provide enough graph paper for pairs of students.

• Prepare two charts for use in the sessions.

Chart1

Body change Reason

Key Learning AreaScience, English

Studies of Society and Environment

Geography

Year levelsYears 5–8

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Chart2

Weather condition

Body changes expected

What needs to be done before, during and after exercise?

Hot and humid, 34°C

Warm and sunny, 26°C

Cool and cloudy, 15°C

Cold, wet and windy, 11°C

• Photocopy Worksheet: Capital city climates, one per student.

• Photocopy the relevant articles appropriate for the students’ reading levels and scientific understanding (see Session 1, step 5), or provide access to a computer and the Internet to read the article online (providing the appropriate AFL website address).

• Optional: Source images of the Earth rotating around the sun, and images of the Earth in winter and the Earth in summer.

Activity steps

Session11. Ask students to recall a situation where they were involved in physical activity

such as playing Australian football or another sport that involved similar skills (such as short sprints to chase or evade an opponent, dodging and changing direction, passing a ball or jumping to catch a ball).

2. Encourage students to describe the body changes that they would experience during that form of exercise if it was undertaken for at least 15 minutes. You would expect students’ responses to include ideas such as feeling hot, tired and thirsty; sweating; breathing harder; and experiencing increased heart rate.

3. Ask students to give reasons for these changes. Develop a chart to record students’ ideas.

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Example

Body change Reason

Feeling hot The muscles create heat when we exercise.

Heart rate increases The heart pumps more blood around the body.

Breathing increases More oxygen is needed.

Sweating It’s the body’s way of cooling down.

Feeling thirsty It’s a sign of dehydration.

4. Provide an opportunity for students to develop their scientific literacy skills by reading relevant articles provided on the AFL website. Organise students to develop a 5-minute presentation to explain how an AFL footballer or other sportsperson should prepare for playing in extreme weather. Ensure that students share their presentation with a small group rather than a whole class as some students feel more confident in front of a smaller audience.

5. Select from the suggested list of articles those that you consider most appropriate for your students. Use the URL provided or search for the article using the article title and author. Articles include:

Drink up! (suitable for Years 5–8)5:32:10 pm Monday, 28 January 2002Mark Williamshttp://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=2406

What’s your team drinking? (suitable for Years 5–8)Friday, 2 May 2003Michelle Cort, Dietitian for the AIS–AFL Academyhttp://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=4147

Oral vs intravenous (IV) hydration (suitable for Years 7–8)11:12:25 am Friday, 18 January 2002Jeanette Fielding BSc, MHNhttp://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=1985

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http://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=2406







6. Ask students to consider the effect of performing the physical activity in different weather conditions. Introduce and discuss four different weather conditions such as ‘warm and sunny’, ‘hot and humid’, ‘cool and cloudy’, and ‘cold, wet and windy’.

7. Organise students to work in small groups using a chart to organise their ideas. Ask each group to describe what needs to be done before, during and after exercise to cope with the type of weather conditions experienced.

Example

Weather condition

Body changes expected

What needs to be done before, during and after exercise?

Hot and humid, 34°C

Warm and sunny, 26°C

Cool and cloudy, 15°C

Cold, wet and windy, 11°C

8. Review the information gathered. Ask students to use the ideas to develop statements about how to cope with different weather conditions when playing sports. Students’ statements may include ideas such as:

• Drinking water or sports drinks during and after physical activity is important to replace fluids lost through sweating and breathing.

• During hot and humid conditions it is important to drink fluids regularly.

• On cold days shivering is a sign that the muscles are trying to keep the body warm.

9. Discuss how the different weather conditions would affect Australian football players. Pose questions such as:

• How would the position you play be affected by the weather conditions? For example, how would the full-forward and full-back be affected compared with the running players such as the midfield and rover, who may run the equivalent of 10 to 20 kilometres during a game?

• How do coaches make sure the players are not adversely affected by the weather?

• How might the player’s skills and performance be affected in these different conditions?

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Optional10. Students investigate the effects of undertaking physical activity in a controlled

experiment. They collect data to answer the question, ‘What body changes are observable as a result of exercise?’ They could record breathing and heart rates, and observe changes in body and facial colour and evidence of increased sweating after undertaking physical exercise such as a step test or exercise-bike riding for five minutes. They could use equipment such as a stopwatch, a skin temperature strip and data-logging equipment, such as a heart rate sensor which clips to a fingertip and measures the heart rate (depending on availability).

11. Students research the body systems that are involved in cooling or warming the body. Students include information describing the role of muscles; brain and nervous system; sweat glands and pores; blood and capillaries; kidneys; and lungs and respiration.

12. Students make a poster showing the main human body systems involved in cooling the body. They could compare the cooling system of the body with that of a car, which uses a radiator filled with water to cool the engine. For further information, students could refer to the article by Deborah L Mullen at http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/article889.html.

Session21. Review the ideas covered in the previous session about how different weather

conditions impact on the way Australian football is played.

2. Explain to students that they are going to review data showing the range of climates encountered by AFL players who play the pre-season and AFL premiership season.

3. Explain that the mean temperature is a more accurate way of describing the average temperature and that only the mean daily maximum temperature has been provided.

4. Organise students into pairs. Provide each student with the worksheet and each pair with a sheet of graph paper. Explain that students should create a line graph so that all the supplied data is plotted on the one page of graph paper using a different colour to highlight the line graph for each capital city. Explain the use of a key or legend to identify each of the capital cities.

5. Discuss with each pair the patterns in the data they observed and ask them to provide reasons for these patterns. Students may suggest:

• Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth all experience lower temperatures during June, July, August and September.

• The mean maximum temperatures for Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth are high in the months between January and March; the temperatures drop across the months of April to August and begin to rise again in September to be high again in December. P

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6. Ask students to describe other interesting points that they observe. This may include responses such as:

• Melbourne has the lowest temperatures of the five capital cities during June, July, August and September.

• Darwin’s maximum temperatures remain fairly constant throughout the year and do not drop below 30°C.

7. Ask students to discuss and record their ideas about how these different climates would affect AFL players. Discuss the AFL pre-season competition which is held during February and March. Discuss the effect of playing AFL games at this time of the year in relation to the temperature and weather conditions generally experienced.

Assessment ideas• Assess students’ presentation to a small group. Do they speak clearly and

present their ideas confidently? Do they explain how extreme heat can affect people involved in physical activity? Do they describe how people can become dehydrated? Have they incorporated information from the articles?

• Assess students’ work in relation to the study of climates. Do students create accurate graphs with appropriate labelling? Do they describe patterns and give appropriate reasons? Do they make inferences about the climate in different months and how this may affect AFL footballers?

Optional extension 1. Organise students into pairs to develop some new rules to trial during the

AFL pre-season matches that take into consideration the weather conditions. Students’ suggestions may include:

• having an increased number of players on the bench

• having compulsory time limits for players in running positions such as midfield and rovers

• assigning special staff to monitor players for signs of dehydration, and provide drinks as required.

Compare ideas with those already in force in the current pre-season competition. Discuss the reasons the games are mostly played at night.

2. Discuss the technological innovations such as ice vests to cool players before a match and during quarter-time, half-time and three-quarter time breaks, and the use of intravenous drips to rehydrate players. Discuss the effect of playing in a stadium with a covered roof such as the Telstra Dome in Melbourne.

3. For students at Years 7–8 pose the question, Why do we have seasons? Introduce the Earth’s tilt as a major factor that influences the seasons. Discuss why Darwin does not seem to have seasons similar to Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Explain that cities such as Darwin and Cairns have a wet season and dry season. Students could research why this occurs.

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Use relevant images showing the Earth’s rotation around the sun during the cycle of a year. Show the relative position of Australia in winter (when the southern states receive the Sun’s light at a much increased angle) and in summer (when the southern states receive the Sun’s light at an angle that is closer to the perpendicular). Explain that northern States and Territories are closer to the Equator and their climates are less affected by the tilt of the Earth.

Conclude the session by reviewing how Australian football players need to prepare for games throughout the year.

4. Use the think-pair-share strategy to enable students to develop a concept map showing how different weather conditions affect AFL players. To assist students, brainstorm a list of relevant words such as extreme heat, performance, fluids, dehydrate, humidity, wind, thirst, weather conditions, physical activity, physical changes, heat stroke, sweating, cooling and shivering.

Students individually start their concept map as they think for themselves about what they know about the topic. After 5–10 minutes, students pair up to combine their ideas. After 15 minutes ask pairs to combine to share their ideas and develop a group concept map that makes use of each person’s idea. Alternatively, students draw up a plan to show how they would prepare to play their particular sport in an extreme weather condition.

Assess students’ concept maps. Do they identify accurate relationships between the concepts highlighted? Does the concept map accurately show how different weather conditions may affect AFL football players?

Figure �: Example of a partially completed concept map

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physicalactivity

AFL Football

players

dehydrate

fluid extreme heat

Hot and humid

Warm and sunny

Cold, wet and windy

Cool and cloudy

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AFL football


Worksheet: Capital city climates

Name: ____________________________________________________

The mean daily maximum temperatures are provided for five Australian capital cities for each month of the year.

1. Use the data to develop a line graph of the mean daily maximum temperatures for each capital city. Create the graph on one sheet of graph paper. Use a key or legend to show the line graph for each capital city in a different colour.

Brisbane Regional Office

Month J�N FEB M�R �PR M�Y JUN JUL �UG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Temp (deg C)

29.4 29.0 28.0 26.1 23.2 20.9 20.4 21.8 24.0 26.1 27.8 29.1

Melbourne Regional Office


Temp (deg C)

25.8 25.8 23.8 20.2 16.6 14.0 13.4 14.9 17.2 19.6 21.8 24.1 Pre

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Darwin

Perth

Adelaide

Melbourne

Brisbane

Sydney

© 2008 Australian Football League B

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Temp (deg C)

27.8 28.1 25.3 22.1 18.5 15.9 14.9 15.8 18.0 20.8 23.6 25.5

Darwin Post Office


Temp (deg C)

32.4 32.2 32.7 33.5 32.6 31.2 30.6 31.7 33.0 34.0 34.2 33.6

Perth Regional Office


Temp (deg C)

29.7 30.0 28.0 24.6 20.9 18.3 17.4 18.0 19.5 21.4 24.6 27.4

Climate data provided by the Bureau of Meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au/

2. Describe any patterns you found in the data and give the reasons you think they occur. Describe any other interesting observations of the data.

3. Compare Darwin’s mean daily maximum temperatures with those of the four other cities. What do you observe? Give the reasons you think this may occur.

4. The AFL pre-season is played during February and March. Often games are scheduled to include cities such as Darwin and Cairns. What special considerations should be given to the players playing football during these months?

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Activity overview Years 5–8 Preparing for extreme weather · Preparing for extreme weather...

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