The IAAF Athletics World Championships took place in Berlin this summer.

Usain Bolt dominated the men’s sprint events, setting world records in both the 100m and 200m

An analysis of the 100m shows that the fastest period of the race was from 60m – 80m, which Bolt ran in 1.61 seconds.

The fastest part of the 200m was from 50m – 100m, which he ran in 4.32 seconds.

The slowest part of each race was the first section. The first 20m of the 100m took 1.75 seconds, the first 50m of the 200m took 5.60 seconds.

Click here for the full analysis of the 100m and the 200m.

The world records for men’s track events are:

A list of all records can be found here

The biomechanical analyses for the Berlin events: 100m, 200m and 400m.

100m 9.58 (2009)

200m 19.19 (2009)

400m 43.18 (1999)

800m 1:41.11 (1997)

1000m 2:11.96 (1999)

1500m 3:26.00 (1998)

Look at the average speed for each of these events.

If you wanted to create a new event in which the fastest average speed could be achieved, what distance would you make it?

Up2d8 mathsLightning Bolt

Teacher Notes

Lightning Bolt

Introduction:

Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt is never far from the sports pages. Having already achieved legendary status for the enormity of the winning

margins at the Beijing Olympics, Bolt broke both of his own world records at the World Championships in Berlin. He says that he is aiming to run

the 100m in 9.4 seconds.

Content objectives: This context provides the opportunity for teachers and students to explore a number of objectives:• discuss and interpret graphs arising from real situations, e.g. distance–time graphs• identify the mathematical features of a context or problem; try out and compare mathematical representations; select appropriate

procedures and tools, including ICT• use logical argument to interpret the mathematics in a given context or to establish the truth of a statement; give accurate solutions

appropriate to the context or problem; evaluate the efficiency of alternative strategies and approaches.

Process objectives: These will depend on the amount of freedom you allow your class with the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver theactivity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below:

Activity: The suggested task is based around exploring the biomechanical analysis from the 100m, 200m and 400m finals in the Athletics WorldChampionships, along with world records for other distances. You might start by discussing whether Bolt’s target of 9.4 seconds is attainable – after all, he ranthe second half of the 200m in 9.27 seconds. On the PowerPoint, students are first asked to calculate the average speed for each event and are then asked

touse the analyses to decide on a distance that would give the highest average speed and to justify their decision. It might be worth exploring the task yourselfbefore sharing it with your class – maybe this could form part of a department meeting.

Differentiation: You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. To make the task easier you could consider:• adding scaffolding to the investigation, maybe suggesting the use of a speed time graph or other visual representation of the data• offering a writing frame to help them structure the justification of their decision• offering a simplified version of the biomechanical analysis data to reduce the complexity of the activityTo make the task more complex, you could consider:• insisting on more mathematical rigour when the students are justifying their decision• challenging them to refine their model to make it more realistic.

This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements.

Outcomes: You may want to consider what the outcome of the task will be and share this with students according to their ability. This task lends itself to awritten report detailing both what the group found and how they found it. This might be presented as a poster or a longer written piece. You might also ask

eachgroup to present their findings to the rest of the class.

Working in groups: This activity lends itself to paired or small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely thatyou will allow them access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually. You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used toworking in groups in mathematics, you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness andengagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Guidance for Groupwork). Youmay wish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to specific group members.

Assessment: You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developingthe assessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide thatthis activity lends itself to comment only marking or to student self-assessment. If you decide that the outcome is to be a presentation or aposter, then you may find that this lends itself to peer assessment

Probing questions: Initially students could brainstorm issues to consider. You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion, which might include:• After they have watched the video, you might ask students to sketch the shape of the speed-time graph for the race, then to compare it with the data

contained in the biomechanical analysis. Was their sketch reasonable? What were the differences? • Why is the beginning section of the race the slowest? Will it be the slowest for every distance? Why do you think this might be?• Is Bolt’s target of 9.4 seconds is attainable? After all, he ran the second half of the 200m in 9.27 seconds.• What section of the race is the fastest? Why do you think this might be?• How long would Usain Bolt take to cross the classroom? The sports hall? How long would he take to run 150m? 300m? 400m? • Could you run as fast as Usain Bolt even for two metres? 10 metres?

You will need:

The analysis of the three races (the 100m, 200m and 400m from Berlin) and the PowerPoint display which you might read through with your

class to set the scene at the beginning of the activity. There are just four slides:

The first two slides introduce the World Championships – the second slide has links to BBC coverage of both the 100m and 200m final.

The third slide introduces the data for sections of the race and has links to the full analysis.

The final slide gives the world record times for different distances and poses the question, If you wanted to create a new event in which the fastest average speed could be achieved, what

distance would you make it?