This year Garrett chose his science project to be a baseball related one. Which bat performs better, wood or aluminum? So we bought wood bats of equivalent lengths to the boys usual aluminum bats and we began to record data: where did the ball hit the bat (above/within/below the sweet spot) determined by chalk marks from the ball on the bat, what was the sting factor of the hit, and how far did the ball travel. One of the benefits to this was getting the boys some swings before their baseball tryouts in early January. We had to go out three times to collect all the data we needed.
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| My 30 inch wood and 30 inch aluminum bat with the sweet spot marked between tape lines. |
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| It is a little cold, but 47-52 degrees isn't bad for December. |
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| Griffin shows the 28 inch versions of bats, also marked, that he and Bryce would use. |
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| Preparing the flags to mark the hits, labelled 1-5 aluminum and 1-5 wood. |
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| Up to bat with Dad pitching to me with a chalked ball. |
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| Using the tape measure from the back corner of the plate to measure how far the balls were hit. |
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| Noting the chalk marks on the bat. |
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| The chalk bin for the pitched balls. |
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| Bryce prepares the flags. |
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| Griffin up to bat. |
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| Garrett recording data. |
