Today, much of the new scientific knowledge is first reported to the scientific community at a national or international conference. Usually, in order to present new knowledge at such a conference, scientists must first submit a short abstract describing the findings of their scientific study. This semester you will be asked to work with two other classmates in researching a topic that involves biomechanics. Your group will be required to prepare an abstract that you could submit for presentation at a scientific meeting.

Step One

The first step is to identify your group. You need to decide which classmates you will work with by January 17. You will need to turn in a paper with the names of your group members on that day.

Step Two

The second step is to identify a research topic. Approved topics are due on January 17. You will need to turn in a piece of paper with the names of your group members and proposed topic on it. Consider the following information when choosing your topic: 1) the topic must consider biomechanics, and 2) the topic must be relevant enough for you to find five research articles regarding the topic. Some suggested topics are:

• skills within sports that have been commonly studied: baseball, football, volleyball, track and field, gymnastics, tennis, basketball, golf, and others
• commonly studied exercises: running, walking, resistance training, and others
• mechanisms relating to the cause of or rehabilitation of common physical impairments: ACL rupture, patellar tracking dysfunction, various ankle issues, and others

If you have trouble deciding on a topic, see me as soon as possible.

Step Three

Once the topic is selected your research group will need to identify, obtain, and read five scientific research articles rlated to your topic; each member of your group is expected to read each article. Each article must concern your chosen topic and come from an academic, peer-reviewed journal. Some examples of academic journals regarding biomechanics are: 1) Journal of Biomechanics; 2) Journal of Applied Biomechanics; 3) Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise; 4) American Journal of Sports Medicine; 5) British Journal of Sports Medicine; 6) Gait and Posture; 7) Physical Therapy; 8) Journal of Athletic Training; or 9) Sports Biomechanics.

On January 17, we will learn the basics on how to obtain the aforementioned articles. It will be helpful to have your proposed topic in mind prior to that day.

Step Four

After reading the articles, you will need to write an abstract (a brief summary; < 2 pages) to summarize your research articles. Summarizing an extensive amount of information into a small space is a difficult task. The abstract must be completed using the abstract format required for the Annual National Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB). Four abstracts from the last two ASB Annual Meetings are given below to introduce you to the expected format:

Bear Bone Research (2006)

A third abstract (Tennis Abstract) is another, more specific example abstract for this project:

Also included are two high-quality, student-produced abstract from the previous semester

Football Concussions (2007)

Soccer Free Kick (2007)

You should send me an e-mail, with an attached copy of your group abstract (Word format), before midnight on the evening of April 3. Also, within the same e-mail, provide me information regarding: 1) which of your group members read each of the five cited articles from your abstract. This information will only affect your individual grade, rather than your group grade.

To see exactly how the abstract will be graded, see the linked grading rubric.