My second Genius Hour presentation was about footballs (soccer balls) and the physics that affect them.
(Jarmoluk) I chose this topic because I am a big fan of football (like many Europeans) and I was really interested to know everything that affected the physics behind the ball like flight path and knuckleballs. When I played football I often wondered “What causes the ball to go this way” which is why I took my Genius Hour project as an opportunity to learn about the topic.
I learned many things through my research. All the different factors that affected how a ball behaves like the building method for example (gluing vs stitching). I found out that even the texture of the ball (smooth vs hard) can affect ball behavior drastically. I never knew there were so much different factors that played a role in how the ball flies or rolls and I was able to learn all these different factors through my research. I also learned different terms like knuckleballs, flight path, et cetera and what actually causes these. (Hall) All this research helped me grow as a person in many different ways. First of all, it helped my time management skills. In my first Genius Hour, I already talked about how Genius Hour helps my time management skills and I noticed they are now getting even better. Because I know this is a big assignment, I take precautions and finish everything on time which then helps me put it in practice with other assignments. It also helped me grow in the aspect of physics. I currently have physics as my science class and I learned a lot of different physics terms like momentum, terminal velocity and many more. This gave me a better understanding of physics helping me grow as a person and I hope will also help me in physics.
In the aspect of how my project has helped the community or the world around me, I would say my project was not very useful. But, in terms of myself, it has been very useful. When I practice shots for example, and I see the ball take a certain flight path I know say to myself “Oh, this must be caused by that”. (Ives) This is very useful because thanks to the information I have collected through my research, I can now analyze a shot and know what to do to give it a certain flight path or a certain effect like spin. My football skills have gotten better thanks to this project, as well as my knowledge about football and physics.
I do not know what I want to do for my next Genius Hour yet but to be able to impact the people around me more than the project I just finished I could do a more sensitizing project where I present information and have an actual impact, even if it just on the people in the class. A project more in the direction of my first Genius Hour would be better. My first Genius Hour was about media piracy, online especially, and I ended my presentation by telling people “Now you know the effects of media piracy, I can’t tell you to stop but next time, maybe think twice before”. This project had a greater impact on the people around me as I actually delivered a message, and my message was heard by people. (Krebs) This is why I think my third project should be directed more toward that path.