It started with a simple question from the Early Childhood students: How can we tell how fast things go? So Early Childhood teacher Carol Wolf sent out a call to the faculty at AFS asking if anyone had any ideas about how best to show off how fast things can go.

Upper School Science teacher Jordan Burkey had one idea.

“I have a radar gun that can detect speed pretty accurately in a fun way,” says Jordan. “It can be hard to explain the concept of speed without graphs and models, but I thought it might be fun if we have the kids run as fast as they can, and then their speed will show up in numbers they understand.” So he rolled out the big screen TV, set up the radar gun, and invited the Catbird class down to his classroom.

Each member of the Catbirds had a chance to race down the Upper School hallway and have their speed measured.

“You’re as fast as a dolphin jumping over the waves,” Jordan would announce after a run. Or, “That was as quick as an owl swooping through the forest!”

By the time everyone had run the track, the students were tired but fascinated to see how fast they had run compared to their favorite animals.

“I wanted to go fast like a cheetah,” says EC student Kingsley. “But it was fun.”