I love to bring my own personal interests and hobbies into the classroom when it fits, and last year I found a way to incorporate my hiking hobby into my Physics classroom.

I explained to my students that when I hike, I use hiking poles so that part of my weight is supported by my arms. This is added protection for my knees, which can be damaged over time by the jarring and jolting of climbing mountains. I told them that I wanted them to estimate the percent of the work done by my arms in hiking a mountain.

The equipment required for this lab was:

• One physics teacher
• Two hiking poles
• A bathroom scale

The students observed my manner of hiking, and noted that I had a 1-2-3-4 rhythm*, as follows:

1. Both poles in front of me and on the ground.
2. Both poles essentially even with my center of gravity, one foot in the air
3. Both poles behind me and on the ground.
4. Both poles in the air.

They asked me to stand on the scale, holding the poles in my hands, but not touching the ground. They measured my weight.

They then asked me to stand on the scale holding my poles on the floor in front of me (resting about as much weight on them as I thought I would when hiking). They measured my weight in this position.

Finally, they asked me to stand on the scale with the poles on the floor behind me, and measured my weight in this position.

They then averaged the four scale readings, and found that the result was 90% of my actual weight, and concluded that my arms do about 10% of the work when I'm hiking.

Several weeks later I was speaking with a friend who is a physical therapist, and he said that they always figured that if a person is walking with a single cane, his arm is supporting about 5% of his weight, so I was able to congratulate my students on an accurate estimate!

Related Topic

The following lesson plan idea is a follow-up to this, which can be used in a Pre-Calculus class (or a physics class) to tie this project to the calculus concept of finding the area under a curve: Hiking and Area Under the Curve.

* As an extra project, this year I showed my students another gait, in which the left pole moves forward while the left foot moves forward, and the right leg and pole move together as well. This gait was more challenging, as it required them to measure the weight supported by each pole separately; they had me stand with one pole on the scale, and then switch sides and put the other pole on.