Knowledge of science and math can make you the next Olympian. At least that’s what I would tell any 12-year-old with dreams of bringing home the gold in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

You, young Sidney Crosby: See why slamming the ice with your stick an instant before you strike the puck adds speed to your slap shot.

Hey, aspiring Kim Yu-na: Study the law of conservation of angular momentum and centripetal force to make you a whirling dervish with a triple toe loop.

Shaun White wanna-be: Learn the physics of angular momentum, drag and torque before you even think about imitating that gravity- and death-defying Double McTwist 1260.

And you, their teachers: Inspire them by going  to Lessonopoly to watch videos on the physics behind Olympic sports and download some hands-on experiments to reinforce what students are watching.

In a partnership that brings together TV sports and pedagogy, NBC Learn and the Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s Lessonopoly have teamed up to make the Winter Olympics an educational moment.

NBC Learn has produced Science of the Winter Olympic Games, 15 five-minute videos that explore the science behind feats of athleticism: aerial acrobats, cross-over turns in short-track racing, ski jumping, downhill skiing, ice skating leaps. The National Science Foundation has provided physicists and sports scientists who explain the scientific principles – force, torque, kinetic energy, drag – behind the achievements. They’re geared to middle and high-schools, but anyone can learn a lot watching them.

Lessonopoly, a free open-source tool offering teachers the ability to search for and swap lesson plans,  in turn has contracted with an Arizona-based education group to create classroom activities tied to California math and science standards, as follow-ups to the videos. Some examples:

• Spinning in an office chair, moving your arms in and out while holding a lightweight barbell, to change the rate of the spin.

• Designing a bobsled, using popsicle sticks, small weights, toilet paper tubes, wax paper and aluminum foil  to run over  a six-foot track of cardboard or pvc tubes to explain the effects of drag and kinetic energy.

Last week, I observed Eli Segura’s seventh grade math class at the Luther Burbank Elementary School in San Jose study the surface resistance of two Styrofoam “ski jumps”  – one smooth and one rough – using marbles as skiers. While simple, the experiment engaged the students in geometry (angle of the descent) and algebra (measuring the rate of acceleration) in a way their textbook alone couldn’t.

Javier Bravo, left, and Jose Pina, seventh graders at Luther Burbank, record the distance of the marble skier on the jump.

As for me, I’m boning up on coefficients of friction for the last horizon of my Olympic ambitions: curling. Thanks to NBC Learn, I finally understand why “sweepers” frantically scrub the ice in front of the curling stone gliding down the lane. They’re creating a meltwater layer that reduces friction to produce the path of least resistance. And I thought it was a weird Druid ritual.

Hey, I’m good with a broom, and certainly can yell as loud as any Canadian. See me in Sochi.

By John Fensterwald on February 22nd, 2010