Red Bull Space Jump - PHENOMENON

Contributor
Red Bull
Type Category
Instructional Materials
Types
Phenomenon , Animation/Movie
Note
This resource, vetted by NSTA curators, is provided to teachers along with suggested modifications to make it more in line with the vision of the NGSS. While not considered to be "fully aligned," the resources and expert recommendations provide teachers with concrete examples and expert guidance using the EQuIP rubric to adapted existing resources. Read more here.

Reviews

Description

This is a youtube video of the highlights of the Red Bull space jump, it is 1:21 minutes long. To initiate driving questions for a unit on forces, students might ask: Why did Felix have to wear a spacesuit for the jump? How long was Felix falling? Why did Felix use a balloon instead of an airplane? How large was the force of air resistance acting on Felix? Was the force acting on Felix constant throughout the jump?

Intended Audience

Educator and learner
Educational Level
  • High School
Language
English
Access Restrictions

Free access - The right to view and/or download material without financial, registration, or excessive advertising barriers.

Performance Expectations

HS-PS2-1 Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration.

Clarification Statement: Examples of data could include tables or graphs of position or velocity as a function of time for objects subject to a net unbalanced force, such as a falling object, an object rolling down a ramp, or a moving object being pulled by a constant force.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one-dimensional motion and to macroscopic objects moving at non-relativistic speeds.

This resource was not designed to build towards this performance expectation, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Performance Expectation
This resource can be used to help students construct an understanding of Newton’s second law which relates net force to the mass and acceleration of an object. This concept is covered in one of the disciplinary core ideas linked to this performance expectation. Students can use video analysis software to collect data on the rate of descent of Felix and use his mass to calculate the forces acting on him.

Science and Engineering Practices

This resource was not designed to build towards this science and engineering practice, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Science and Engineering Practice
As students first watch this video, encourage them to ask questions that they can then answer by further analyzing the jump. These experiments could include using video analysis software to track the rate of motion of the jumper and create graphs to see trends in velocity, acceleration, and kinetic energy versus time. Students can also be directed to this article about the details of the jump: http://www.redbullstratos.com/science/scientific-data-review/ in which specific measurements about the height, fastest velocity, and time for the jump are all reported.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

This resource was not designed to build towards this disciplinary core idea, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Disciplinary Core Idea
Students could compare the actual motion in the video to motion in an ideal world without air resistance and determine what difference in acceleration there would be between those two scenarios.

Crosscutting Concepts

This resource was not designed to build towards this crosscutting concept, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Crosscutting Concept
Carefully watching the descent, students should question what they observe such as why the jumper had to wear a spacesuit, whether or not the jumper appears physically comfortable, and the position of his body. They can question what causes the change in motion of the jumper, and what forces are acting on his body. How does the force of air resistance effect his body as he falls? And even more fundamentally, what is causing him to fall back towards the earth?

Resource Quality

  • Alignment to the Dimensions of the NGSS: - none -

  • Instructional Supports: - none -

  • Monitoring Student Progress: - none -

  • Quality of Technological Interactivity: - none -