How-To-Do-It Analysis as a Means of Motion Exploration & Inquiry

From pets and pigeons to people, animals move around us every day. But many animal motions are too fast for us to fully appreciate. A useful method for bringing technology and inquiry into the laboratory (as recom-mended by BSCS 1993, NRC 1997) is the use of video, as well as motion and still cameras, to slow motions for easy and repeated viewing, and for motion analysis, or kinematics. Kinematic studies have been an important tool in understanding the relationship between an animal’s design and its motion, and the way in which different animals move in order to achieve the same goal (e.g. feeding or fleeing). A kinematic study may consist of collecting footage of an animal in motion, slowing the motion, and then following the movements of the animal or its body parts to quantify factors such as velocity, frequency of oscillation, joint angle, or foot place-ment. Such studies provide excellent opportunities for students to sharpen their observation skills, develop ques-tions, and test hypotheses that relate animal motions to the design, size, age, behavior and ecology of an ani-mal. With the appropriate equipment, motion analysis can be applied to sub-jects ranging from the amoeba to the athlete. Furthermore, kinematics may provide one alternative to dissection by allowing students to explore animal design through the noninvasive study of animal locomotion (e.g. Balcomb