By Anna Mefford
Dr. Lamar is taking the on-level physics and AP Physics C students to iFly on April 3rd “to do some real-life science and see physics at work in a space where students may have actually been with their families.”
Dr. Lamar has been at Lovett for 9 years, since the fall of 2016, teaching both on-level and AP physics. Next year, she will teach a new neuroscience class as she has a PhD in neuroscience.
Unfortunately, her AP Physics students will not be joining them on the trip as the numbers did not work out logistically. However, she hopes that next year, they can find another place that can accommodate all the physics students.
The students will leave at 9:30 in the morning and will be back around 2. Throughout the day they will get a lecture from IFly workers and do some activities rotating between groups. Then, they will get to go into the wind tunnels themselves and learn how their bodies are affected by air resistance.
“Obviously, there’s nothing worse than going to a fun activity and then doing all science and then like, all right, let’s go home,” Dr. Lamar said.
Originally, Dr. Lamar was looking at Six Flags for this field trip, however, all of their available dates conflicted with Lovett events. She explained how Six Flags obviously is a huge physics application, “So we wanted something close to that because we’re talking about terminal velocity, free fall, and we’re talking about force of gravity.
Dr. Lamar added that those were things they’ve already covered, so they didn’t have to introduce it, “and now students are going to see real-life applications for these things,” she said.
Her most exciting factor going into the trip is being able to do some real-life science and see physics at work. She added the fact that, some kids have already said they’ve been to iFLY, and so it would be nice for them to make those connections and see how physics is in everyday life.
Her students had similar excitement when they heard about the trip. She explained how the news got out before we officially told some of the students, and so everyone’s been talking about it. However, when she confirmed the news ‘they were super excited about it, and their main concern was, do we get to fly?” she said.
Going into the trip she has no concerns as IFly is super safe as well as the fact that they are not doing any real skydiving. She added that they were “literally floating at most a few feet above the ground. It’s super controlled, so this is something that we don’t have to worry about at all.”
In addition, they won’t have to worry about keeping up with students. The building is only so big, and everyone’s going to be in stations, so they will have enough chaperones there to oversee students in groups.
The groups will have around 16 students, so everyone’s going to be organized throughout the whole day.
“We’re literally going from a classroom space to the wind tunnel back. And so it’s super easy, super easy cleanup, super easy day,” she said.
Dr. Lamar explained how this trip would be a perfect transition into the Rube Goldberg project as the students will “get to see some real-life examples of free fall and air resistance and terminal velocity, and then they can incorporate some of these things into their machines,” she said.
A few days after the trip, I decided to check in with Dr. Lamar on how everything went, and she said that it exceeded her expectations.
“I did not expect it to be that structured and that well prepared. I mean, you can tell that these people are used to working with teenagers, and so they knew how to make it engaging and not boring,” she said.
They started the trip by seeing how different objects react to wind tunnels, how shape matters, and what it affects. They then learned about fluid, how air is a fluid, and how things travel in air similar to water. Next, the kids got to do some force diagrams and learn how the forces and acceleration fit in with the model that they were using. They even got to see a schematic of the building and how the air flows through the entire building, which is ultimately a big air tunnel.
The students were also enthusiastic. “The trip was so much fun, and I really feel like it helped me understand terminal velocity so much better,” said junior Julia Batchelor.
After the learning portion, the students and faculty got to fly in the famous air tunnel, which “was one of the coolest experiences ever,” said senior Abby Newton.
The trip was such a huge success that Dr. Lamar plans on making 2 trips to Ifly to include all the physics students.
“This was a trial run because the Six Flags plans fell through, so we were kind of stuck because we had money to spend that we needed to use on a field trip this year. So we couldn’t just wait. We had to pick something, and Ifly it was,” Dr. Lamar said.
Ultimately, IFly surpassed all expectations and Dr. Lamar hopes that it will become the new physics field trip.
