EDUCATION GUIDE Doktor Kaboom: The Science of Santa Thursday, December 11, 2014
9:30am and 12:30pm Tickets: $5.50 per person Recommended for Grades 4 through 8 ABT Student Matinee series sponsored by Alberta Bair Theater for the Performing Arts 2801 Third Avenue North ▪ Billings, Montana 59103 406‐256‐8915 www.albertabairtheater.org About David Epley David Epley has been fortunate enough to discover two passions in his life. Science, his first, took him to studies at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. His second, performing, became his career, and for 20 years David has made his living writing, performing, and directing original interactive comedy across the US and Canada. He now brings his passions together with an explosive style that refuses to allow his audiences time to catch a breath. In this brand new holiday show The Science of Santa, Doktor Kaboom, works from the assumption that science and magic are the same thing, and declares Mr. Claus the world's greatest scientist! Following this theory, the good Doktor attempts to recreate all of Santa's wonders. He uses basic physics to demonstrate how he believes Santa gets down the chimneys of the world. He explores Bernoulli's Principle, WiFi signals, and what snow is. Doktor Kaboom also sings his brand new holiday song, "Do You Recall" during the course of the performance.” The Science of Santa was conceived in New York City in January of 2012 following a conversation between David Epley (Doktor Kaboom) and Christy Reeves, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts. Teacher Classroom Resource Guide, Adapted by William Mouat, Director of Education at ABT To prepare your students for Doktor Kaboom’s The Science of Santa, create a brainstorming session or question/answer session, exploring the following topics: 1. What is the Bernoulli Effect? Why is it needed to create lift for a heavier than air machine, ie. an airplane? 2. How can you directly apply the following Newtonian Laws to airplanes and spacecraft? For example, why does it take such tremendous thrust to launch an object out of the Earth’s gravitational well into space? How can you define “orbital velocity” and directly apply it to Newtonian physics? A. In the absence of forces, ("body") at rest will stay at rest, and a body moving at a constant velocity in a straight line continues doing so indefinitely. B. When a force is applied to an object, it accelerates. The acceleration a is in the direction of the force and proportional to its strength, and is also inversely proportional to the mass being moved. In suitable units: a = F/m or in the form usually found in textbooks F = m a More accurately, one should write F = ma with both F and a vectors in the same direction (denoted here in bold face). However, when only a single direction is understood, the simpler form can also be used. C. "The law of reaction," sometimes stated as "to every action there exists an equal and opposite reaction." In more explicit terms: Forces are always produced in pairs, with opposite directions and equal magnitudes. If body #1 acts with a force F on body #2, then body #2 acts on body #1 with a force of equal strength and opposite direction. 3. Have your class break into groups. Each group will plan and construct a model of a Santa Sled that could actually fly. The students should be aware of the following design parameters, and each group should address them in their explanations and models: A. How will the Santa Sled appear after the students re‐design it to fly? (It may be useful to provide drawings and/or schematics of flying cars from Popular Science, Science Digest or Popular Mechanics.) B. How will the sled be propelled? C. How much cargo (ie, presents) can be carried by the sled? D. What kind of instruments should the “driver” of the sled have at his or her disposal? (Have the students examine the instrumentation inside the cockpit of an aircraft, including but not limited to air surface controllers, joystick or wheel, bank and turn indicators, airspeed indicators, radar, artificial horizon, fuel gauges, throttle, landing gear controls, (or are the rails or wheels of the sled fixed?) E. OTHER FACTORS: What is the range of the sled? How does it refuel? What kind of safety precautions does the pilot have, i.e. an ejection seat or parachute, in case of engine failure? What are the sled’s limitations in foul weather? Post‐Activity Follow‐up Questions for SECTION 3: 
Were your students successful in designing practical Santa Sled models? Were they able to address each of the design parameters in SECTION 3, Items A through E? 
Did any of your student work groups take a particularly unorthodox approach to designing their sleds? For example, did some of them design lighter‐than‐air machines, like blimps or dirigibles? Did they come up with any rocket‐propelled devices? Did you come across anything that resembled a hovercraft or a helicopter? 
Were the students able to design practical models that were actually capable of flight? Please describe this process and how were you able to measure the success of the “flight‐capable” projects? 
In the larger scheme, how much weight did you put on evaluating the theoretical vs. the practical, given the fact that some of the groups may not have designed actual flying models. Were you able to successfully teach the principles of flight with the activities? Doktor Kaboom: It’s Just Rocket Science STUDENT EVALUATION NAME: TEACHER: SCHOOL: CLASS: 1. Be completely honest! Are you less afraid of math and/or physical science than you were before you saw this program? Y ☐ N ☐ No difference ☐ Why? 2. What did you learn about aircraft design compared to what you knew before the program? Are you: Less confused ☐ More confused ☐ No difference ☐ Why? 3. If you were to talk to Mr. Epley (Doktor Kaboom) face‐to‐face, what would you say to him about today’s program? 4. If there was ONE THING about the program that you will never forget, what was it and why? Doktorr Kaboom: It’s Just R
Rocket Scieence TEEACHER EV
VALUATIO
ON FORM
NAME: POSITION: SCHOOL: AREA: SUBJECT A
1. Did this prograam enhance yyour instructional objectiv es? YY ☐ N ☐ (If it did not, please state th
he reason and
d which speci fic componen
nt or compon
nents could haave been improved
d.) W
e to see this p
program return to the Albeerta Bair Theaater?
Y ☐ N ☐ 2. Would you like
If the answer is “no” please
e elaborate an
nd/or give exaamples of past or current programs thaat would serve yo
w
ou and your sstudents better. 3. Laabel the cogn
nitive function
n(s) that Mr. EEpley did or ddid not addreess and provid
de an explanaation fo
or your response: Concrete/Sequ
uential (Linear Logic) Abstract Reaso
oning (Extrapolation from known to un known intelleectual constru
ucts and/ or crreative proble
em solving) Please retu
urn this evalu
uation and yo
our student eevaluations to
o: Dr. W
William Mouaat Directo
or of the ABTT Departmentt of Educatio n and Community Outreaach P.O
O. Box 1556 ▪ Billings, Mon
ntana 59103