CHESHIRE SNOOKER COACHING
SnookerED
A new initiative designed not only to introduce a new generation to our sport but to help with the learning of maths, science and English whilst learning to play a fun new game!
All children love games. Teachers see it every day. A child slouching over a text book one minute - and the very next moment tearing around a play area chasing a football, all semblance of supposed fatigue suddenly shaken off. How wonderful it would be if learning could always involve a ball. Of course, we know, sadly, that it can’t. But teachers are always on the look-out for new ways to package those sometimes stodgy areas of the curriculum that just have to be taught, but can be less than appealing to a young audience. Or, ways to re-engage a student who, for various, often complex reasons has turned away from education.
Well, what about snooker? First and foremost, it’s a game enjoyed by millions of men, women, boys and girls around the world. It’s a game of skill, requiring calculation – and not simply mental arithmetic but calculation of the kind that requires forward thinking and not a little cunning. Like any other sport, it requires discipline and coordination of hand and eye – as well as an ability to focus over extended periods. It’s a sport that doesn’t require as a prerequisite an athletic physique and a talent for physical endurance like those that tend to find favour in schools. But it is a sport – a game in which those who may not covet bursting their lungs on track or field, but may otherwise have a competitive thirst that needs to be quenched with differing ideas about whether learning takes place effectively through activities like games.
There is so much distraction that your students will remember the snooker, but not the thing that you were trying to teach them by using the game. Others favour the view that they remember best what they learned in school through just such memorable events. Those arguments aside, just think of the goodwill you may reap as a teacher if the reward is a game of snooker. Used properly it has the potential to engage – and also to teach. The learning will be on different levels – some may learn discipline, some may learn a new passion they may never have encountered, some may learn physics … but most will take something from the opportunity.
KEY STAGE ONE: In Years 1, 2 & 3 - in line with the requirement of the school science national curriculum - children can learn about the materials a snooker ball and a snooker cue are made of. (Hard or soft? Shiny or dull? Rough or smooth? Opaque or transparent?)
They can speculate on which materials would work for the game of snooker - and which wouldn’t. (They have to last, they must be chip resistant and they must retain a polished finish.)
Pupils can discuss, too, the nature of the material on the surface of the table and the cushioning around the edges of the table. (A fun game is to see how many cushions can be hit with one shot.)
They could measure the dimensions of the table and discuss whether these dimensions could be changed to improve the game.
In Year 3, pupils consider light. A professional snooker table is lit from above specifically to avoid the casting of long shadows. But it is an excellent platform on which to study how shadows are formed using a roving light source and opaque objects such as snooker balls. What happens when the light source moves or the distance between ball and torchlight changes? This would be an excellent exercise for collecting data scientifically.
A further excellent opportunity for collecting and recording data is rolling a ball on different surfaces, finding how far they travel for a certain amount of force and noting how different materials give contrasting results.
In Year 4, snooker balls in a confined area, such as a small square, can model particles. If the square is full, allowing little or no movement on vibration, you have a model of a solid. If the square is mostly filled, where the snooker balls can move past each other, then you have the model of a liquid. If you have only a few balls in the square, allowing much greater movement when vibrated, then you a model of a gas.
Sound is also learned about in Year 4. The sound of a collision of snooker balls can be used. By what process do we hear the collision? The pitch of the sound of the collision might be compared with the pitch of the sound between other colliding solids.
A further excellent opportunity for collecting and recording data is rolling a ball on different surfaces, finding how far they travel for a certain amount of force and noting how different materials give contrasting results.
In Year 4, snooker balls in a confined area, such as a small square, can model particles. If the square is full, allowing little or no movement on vibration, you have a model of a solid. If the square is mostly filled, where the snooker balls can move past each other, then you have the model of a liquid. If you have only a few balls in the square, allowing much greater movement when vibrated, then you a model of a gas.
Sound is also learned about in Year 4. The sound of a collision of snooker balls can be used. By what process do we hear the collision? The pitch of the sound of the collision might be compared with the pitch of the sound between other colliding solids. Patterns can be found between the strength of the collision and the volume of the sound produced. How does the distance from the collision affect its volume to the listener – and discuss why there is an affect. A snooker table – and snooker balls of precisely the same size and material - provide a measurable environment for young scientists.
All in all, snooker provides a great two dimensional platform for showcasing some of the most important laws that govern our physical universe. And, what’s more, it is great fun to play.
