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Skating Meets Science
Grade 11 student Wendy H. combined her passion for figure skating and her interest in science to create an award-winning project for the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair hosted by the University of Victoria last month.
Wendy’s self-guided research project, "Biomechanical Analysis of the Sit Spin in Figure Skating: Assessing Movement Load and Injury Risk” studied the mechanics of the sit spin, a commonly used element of figure skating, with a focus on the physics and forces at work. She entered it in the science fair at UVic in April, with some impressive results.
“I did the research project, and I wanted to present it somewhere,” Wendy explained. “Publishing takes a lot of effort, and I wanted professional advice before I tried publishing.”
A member of the figure skating 360 (arts and activities) group and a competitive figure skater outside of school, Wendy noticed that she was sustaining different injuries – “nothing significant” – when she started skating in Canada, where the training systems are different. She considered that the sit spin might be connected to her injuries somehow.
“It doesn’t look as hard as other elements, but I thought it would be interesting to study,” Wendy said. “Not a lot of people have approached this element before.”
Wendy estimated her results by taking screenshots from video of Olympic figure skaters, then confirmed them by modelling with the MATLAB coding platform, using cylinders to represent the skaters’ bodies and legs. She concluded that there is correlation between injuries and the sit spin – but that doesn’t mean the sit spin is responsible for the injuries.
“It can be a factor,” she emphasized.
For her efforts and presentation, Wendy took first place in the Senior Division (Grades 10-12), and received both the Science Fair Alumni and Nature Victoria awards. She didn’t qualify for nationals, however, because the judges felt her project didn’t have as much potential for research as some of the other projects.
“Placing first based on my presentation and content was a good achievement,” Wendy said.
Coding was one of the biggest challenges for Wendy, who had coded in Python years ago, but not MATLAB. A professor from the University of Hong Kong helped her get through that. Wendy was also grateful to Head of Science Mr. Tim Stephens for his support, and to Ms. Peggy Ransom for all her work with the figure skating program.
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