Text neck

Short description

New research suggests that smart phone use is seriously damaging our necks. Looking down at an angle places great strain on the spine, and can result in serious harm. In this activity students learn about the forces acting on the spine. They then devise a plan to investigate the causes of text neck, before solving a dilemma: will they use their phone less to prevent neck damage?

Learning objective

• Forces: identify forces on objects
• Hypothesise: define a problem and devise a plan to investigate it

Blueprint curriculum link

• Unit: Moving & turning
• Concept: Moments: The turning effect of a force varies with force and distance. Objects are in equilibrium if the moments are equal and opposite
• Skills: Variables: Choose variables to answer a scientific question
• Learning stage: Analyse

Activity contents

• Teachers guide
• PowerPoint file

The activity is delivered as a zip file. After you checkout, you will be sent an email with the link to download it.

Weblinks

Text neck - how smartphones are damaging our spines

A newspaper article describing the research

Have YOU got text neck?

A second newspaper article describing the research

Scientific research

The scientific paper in Surgical Technology International

Forces in muscles and joints

Forces acting on the neck (see figure 8)