HADLEY — A leaf blower by itself didn’t have sufficient power to move the kick sled ridden by student Mary Styspeck on the ice skating rink outside Hopkins Academy.
“I was just expecting to go backwards, but it didn’t really work that well because it wasn’t strong enough,” Styspeck said of the lesson that was part of her Introductory Physics class one day last month.
But once Styspeck was given a push by classmates Ella Sypek and Ava Hentnick, she was able to sustain blower-propelled motion across the sheet of ice.
“Once I started moving I could keep going in motion,” Styspeck said.
For Hopkins science teacher Daniel Mason, the mini-lab for the class is taking advantage of the rink built next to the school by the town.
“A low-friction surface is a great opportunity for a physics class,” Mason said.
The mini-lab on Feb. 16 showed there was not enough thrust to the air to force the kick sled to overcome static friction. But once enough force was applied, it could keep the kick sled going across and overcome dynamic friction.
“The biggest lesson I hope my students come away with is everything is a bit of an experiment,” Mason said. “Even if it doesn’t get results, you can still learn.”
Mason worked with Karen Foster at All Out Adventures to bring the kick sled to the school.
During an earlier lab titled “Physics on Ice,” Mason offered a broader and more detailed lesson plan that included showing an example of Newton’s third law of motion, in which every action has an equal and opposite reaction, by having a skater throw an 8-pound ball away from herself.
The lesson also had examples of conservation of momentum, by having a moving skater grab the hand of a motionless skater and put them both in motion, and conservation of angular momentum, by having a skater spin with arms held in and arms held out.
Erik Sudnick, interim principal at Hopkins, said he appreciates that the town’s Park and Recreation, Public Works and Fire departments has created the community asset — he’s taken his own child out on it — and that a teacher can use it for instruction.
“It’s great to see the transition to an outdoor learning space,” Sudnick said.
Styspeck said getting out of the classroom to learn principles of physics was a good thing. “It’s cool to see a real-life example of it,” she said.