Corked Bats and Distortion Goggles

In Chicago, LAS students tackle the science of sports.

When a professional pitcher hurls a 90-mile-per-hour fastball, the batter has roughly 450 milliseconds to swing, 300 of which are taken up looking at the ball, figuring out where it is heading, and deciding whether to swing.

That gives a player about 150 milliseconds to actually swing the bat, which is why some pros exploit elementary chemistry principles to speed up their swing, says Jesse Miller, an LAS chemistry teaching lab specialist. Some players will lighten their wooden bat by resorting to the banned practice of inserting cork inside of it—an example of how chemical principles, such as density, affect physical properties.

Miller took 10 University of Illinois chemistry students with him to McCormick Place last December to demonstrate the chemistry of corked bats and conduct other hands-on activities for 8- through 14-year-olds at Chicago’s Holiday Sports Festival. In addition, Barbara Hug in the College of Education brought together the U of I Neuroscience Club and the student chapter of the National Science Teacher Association to run activities at the Chicago event.

The LAS neuroscience and education students had kids shoot basketballs, kick soccer balls, and toss beanbags with and without wearing prism goggles that distort their vision. Because the goggles distort sensory information entering the brain, the object—such as a basketball hoop—appears offset, so the kids’ shots are wildly off the mark, says Donna Korol, psychology professor and outreach coordinator for the Neuroscience Program who has helped recruit club members to outreach activities.

What’s amazing, Korol says, is that the brain adjusts in such a short time, and the kids learn to shoot on target even with distorted vision. Then, when they remove the goggles, the brain must readjust back.

“The brain is actually changing in those few seconds or minutes.”

These activities “opened up conversations about the learning capacity of the human brain and the role of hand-eye coordination during sports and everyday activities,” adds Katie Dow, an LAS senior in biology who helped coordinate the neuroscience activities. “If nothing else, children and their families shared many laughs when the distortion goggles changed their ability to aim correctly.”

Chicago’s annual Sports Festival packs McCormick Place with everything from basketball and ping-pong to skateboarding and fencing. But thanks to the U of I students, the science of sports now makes an appearance. Nearly 1,000 youths came by the U of I section.

With the corked bat demo, Miller says kids took several swings through two laser beams using both a corked bat and a regular bat; and then the computer gauged the speed of their swings. Miller says the batters generally found they could speed up their swing by 2 or 3 miles per hour with a corked bat. However, many don't realize that a heavier bat will actually do more to boost the distance you hit a ball than a faster swing, he says. It’s all about density.

In addition to corked bat chemistry, Miller says the U of I students had youths create their own bouncy balls out of silicon and ethanol—a demonstration of polymers. They also did a demo on electrolytes, which are essential to the body and are replenished by various sports drinks.

Many of the chemistry students at the Sports Festival are part of the department’s REACT program (Reaching and Educating America’s Chemists of Tomorrow), an outreach to third and fourth graders and their families. With a student staff of close to 20 and an army of 400 additional U of I student volunteers, REACT reaches virtually every third grade class within a 30-mile radius of Champaign-Urbana each year. It’s one of the largest outreaches of its kind in the country.

Next on the horizon, the group will be at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry on February 13, helping junior high and high school students gear up for the Science Olympiad.

The LAS Neuroscience Club is a relatively new organization, which primarily draws students from biology and psychology. It is a very active group, doing work at such events as the Neuroscience Program’s annual Brain Awareness Day, Korol says. However, students hope to expand their outreach efforts dramatically, much the way that REACT has done over its long history.

In addition to the distortion goggles, neuroscience and education students at the Sports Festival had kids monitor their heart rates before, during, and after physical activity, Dow says. At yet another station, kids tried to draw while looking into a mirror, once again demonstrating how the brain adjusts to distorted perception.

“Engaging in outreach activities gives our undergraduate students a sense of confidence in what they’ve learned in coursework and research,” Korol says. “Explaining the excitement they have about the brain and seeing the excitement in kids’ eyes is really rewarding.”

“Our student staff gets a wealth of leadership experience in designing hands-on activities and in teaching,” Miller points out. “A lot of our students are future teachers; and if they weren’t planning to be teachers when they started in REACT, many of them decide to be.”

By Doug Peterson
February 2009