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Backbeat

Olympic opportunities

All schoolchildren, whatever their interests, can be engaged by preparations for London 2012, says Olympic gold medal winner and trained teacher James Cracknell.

As the country gears up to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, schools are looking at how the buzz and excitement around the games can inspire pupils. Obviously, I’m delighted to see many capitalising on the opportunity to encourage young people to take part in more sports.

Hosting and running the Olympic and Paralympic Games, however, is about much more than sporting excellence. A whole host of skills are required to make sure they are a success. Even if sport isn’t their strong suit, all children and young people can find areas of interest to feel engaged and involved.

As well as inspiring sports classes, the 2012 games can be used to engage pupils in science, maths, design and technology lessons by showing them how expertise in these areas is essential. Without scientists, engineers and architects we wouldn’t be able to build the Olympic park in east London. We wouldn’t have the training and medical programmes that ensure our athletes are in peak physical condition, and we wouldn’t have the advanced equipment they need to perform at their best.

Science has been instrumental in some of the most amazing sporting achievements, such as the development of the Hawk-Eye officiating system used in snooker, tennis and football, which has allowed more accurate refereeing. Science was responsible for putting the dimples on golf balls, which reduce drag as the ball flies through the air. At the Beijing Olympics, technological improvements in design led to some swimming costumes being banned because they gave too much of an advantage.

I have always been intrigued by how the body works and my knowledge of science has definitely helped me achieve success in my sporting career. While natural talent and dedication are key to an athlete’s performance, it can be greatly enhanced by other factors. Technicians, engineers, nutritionists, chemists and more are all involved in helping maximise potential. By demonstrating the wide variety of roles involved in creating a champion sportsperson and delivering a successful event, we can get as many pupils and talents as possible excited about the games and see the potential within their preferred subjects.

Earlier this year I was privileged to launch the second of ten Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Challenges for schools. Teams of 11- to 14-year-olds are invited to tackle challenges focusing on different aspects of the preparations for the London Olympics and Paralympics. Each has been designed to enable young people to use the skills learnt in science, design and technology and maths lessons to create something interesting, useful and potentially spectacular. They are coordinated by the Stem Network (Stemnet), in association with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) and funded by the Department for Education.

The first Stem Challenge required students to consider the steps involved in designing and siting a National Handball Centre for London 2012. The second invited teams to design gloves for rowing, canoeing or sailing. In Olympic events, every one-hundredth of a second counts, so pupils had to take into account rowing technique, aerodynamics, grip and durability. They also had to think about how to make the gloves waterproof without enveloping the hands in sweat and how to protect against painful calluses and blisters typically experienced by seasoned rowers – a tough assignment! The winning glove design could make it to the prototype stage with adidas, the official sportswear partner to London 2012.

The third Stem Challenge is now open and is being supported by GlaxoSmithKline. It focuses on laboratory techniques to address anti-doping. The fourth Challenge, to be launched in September, will focus on sustainability and transport, with schools asked to look at the logistics of how athletes get from the village to the venues.

I for one know that if any budding scientists can come up with a suitable glove design, many rowers – and their hands – will be indebted to them!

• www.stemchallenges.net

James Cracknell is a British rowing champion, double Olympic gold medallist and trained geography teacher. He donated his fee for writing this article to the Steve Sinnott Foundation – www.stevesinnottfoundation.co.uk.