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It’s Saturday morning, and you know what that means. All your friends are gathering at the park for a game of hoops. The sides have chosen their teammates. Once again, you are the last one chosen. It is little surprise since you are the youngest and shortest person out here this Saturday. No worries, your older brother will make sure you get a little court time. Besides, you don’t mind sitting on the bench and watching the game. You love watching your brother play ball. He is an amazing player. He may even get a scholarship next year to a nearby college. One day, you may be as tall as your brother. You may never be as good an athlete. Your brother practices constantly. You, on the other hand, would rather study Science. You may never get a basketball scholarship, but you are very confident you will get a scholarship to study Science.

As you watch the game, you are amazed at how good your brother is. When he jumps, it looks like he may never come back down. Slam dunks are no problem for him. He hangs on the rim proudly after he makes the shot. At 4’ 8” tall, you can’t get near the rim. Maybe you can figure out a way to use your Science knowledge to your advantage. Maybe that will help you become a better basketball player. It would be cool to pass the ball to your brother at just the right moment. You could set him up to make his incredible shots. It would also be fun to feel what it is like to slam dunk a basketball just once.

This week in Science you are learning about the astronauts who went to the Moon. At first, you are not quite sure how anything about this topic would help you in basketball. Then, you remember a video you watched on Thursday. You recall the video of Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever walk on the Moon. He and the other astronauts didn’t really walk. Rather, they hopped around like kangaroos across the Moon’s dusty surface. Walking in the bulky spacesuits must have been tough. Fortunately, being on the Moon helped because the astronauts weighed less.