Student Resource Officer Jason Young from the Jackson Township Police oversees a group of eighth-graders using ENRADD technology to track speed Monday for a special science project.

Seneca Valley Middle School students combined science and police work this week with the help of some Jackson Township Police officers.

Student Resource Officer Jason Young and Officer Chris McGee helped more than 100 eighth-graders to explore speed as a scientific concept.

“We're always looking for real-life applications,” said Valerie McGee, a middle school science teacher and Officer McGee's wife.

Valerie McGee said her eighth-grade integrated science classes have been studying force and motion and learning about speed as an equation of distance divided by time.

One way speed calculations are used in real life is in police work, although officers have technology to do the math for them.

For the test Monday, Officer McGee drove a police cruiser down a closed 200-foot course at the back of the school's secondary campus four times at different speeds. It was up to the students to figure out how fast or slow he was going each time using four different methods of calculating speed.

One group used ENRADD, a non-radar device that tracks speed across a certain distance with infrared beams. The speed is automatically transmitted to a receiver in the police car or, in this case, at the student's observation table.

Another group used AccuTrak, a digital watch that automatically calculates speed based on when the watch is started and stopped. Students started it when McGee passed one traffic cone and stopped it when he passed a second.

The third group used a regular stop watch and did the calculations by hand to figure out speed.

And the last group estimated speed just based on observation without any calculations or technology other than their eyes.

Valerie McGee said the students will next compare their data and see which method was the most accurate.

This was the first time the police officers had been involved in such a project, but they said it was great to interact with the students and give them some insight into police work.

“It's good for them to be around cops,” Officer McGee said.

Valerie McGee said it was also good for her students, who are only a couple of years away from driving age, to learn about reaction time and speed and how speed limits change with road and weather conditions.