You can find more information on the NBD philosophy and mission here. 

NBD started with three sponsors in 2016 and in 2022 had 40. We are currently recruiting
sponsors for 2023. Our sponsors include many commercial entities and scientific societies.
Many of our sponsors also support other Biomechanics groups, societies, and initiatives for
which we are greatly appreciative. Our sponsors are shown on our website with their logos
linked to their own websites, Click Here For Sponsors.

Please acknowledge their NBD support when you can and share this information with your high
school participants.

Future NBD success depends on our ability to document our yearly growth. Would you
please,

1) Have all Lab members, faculty, students, and staff who contribute to the NBD event register at: NBD Registration. At ECU, we have faculty, graduate and undergraduate students participating in our event and all will register. The more people we can document contributing to NBD the greater success we will have in recruiting more sponsors and when applying for grants.

2) After your NBD event, please provide demographic data on your high school groups. At the minimum please count your high school students and teachers/parents. Better still, provide any gender count you can make and racial or ethnic counts if pertinent and reasonable. NBD has had great diversity numbers and all demographic information will help us.

3) The U.S. National Institutes of Health provide guidelines on demographic data for U.S. researchers. This spreadsheet Click Here can be used by U.S. or other NBD sites to record this information. This detailed information can be very useful in generating future support. You can also develop your own form or information gathering techniques. Please put in a site identifier to the title on any form you use. All information provided by the high school participants is voluntary.

4) If your institution has multiple NBDs, each should provide this information.

5) Please provide these data as soon as you can after your NBD by emailing them to Paul DeVita at NBD.National.Biomechanics.Day@gmail.com.

Some sites do not report their NBD events. Please communicate with us so that we can accurately measure the growth and success of National Biomechanics Day. Thank you.

High school students are our primary target audience and they typically attend NBD events in university or commercial labs off the high school campuses. It is crucial to recruit the students and a few of their teachers as soon as possible to insure attendance. While NBD is always one official day in early April, please know that you can hold your NBD event on any day that works for you and your local schools. Typically, NBDs occur from late March to early May. Please also note, some NBDs have younger and some have older students and visitors depending on the local situation.

We need to recruit groups of students and their teachers and arrange transportation. These goals have been achieved in a variety of ways. One successful method is to directly contact science teachers in local high schools and to identify the particular students and transportation means through them. Another method if available is to work through a local schoolrepresentative whose job includes arranging extra-curricular activities. We have done both here at ECU. Some NBDs have been run through university offices who specialize in outreach activities. They have made the arrangements between the high school representative and the Biomechanics Lab. Some NBDs are combined with other, existing outreach science eventswhich already have effective high school recruitment procedures. Other NBDs have an open registration on a website for local high schoolers and so ask individuals to step forward. Please use whichever means works for you.

The number of visitors depends on factors from both the Biomechanics Lab and the high schools. Some NBDs involve a single group visiting a lab for one or two hours and some involve multiple groups rotating through multiple labs for many hours and sometimes over multiple days. NBD events have been as small as eight students and as large as 400 students. We have three individual NBD events at ECU each year and each will have about 30 visitors (~25 students and a few teachers) because this number of people fits comfortably within our labs.

While we have many returning participants we also have many first-time  NBD groups each year. We will provide some guidance to everyone so that we are all prepared to make NBD 2022 a great success. All NBDs should be structured around the skills and capabilities within each lab. For example in 2021 in our lab after welcoming the high school visitors, I showed the entire group this set of slides to introduce Biomechanics and NBD to them: NBD Welcome Slides. 

They portray NBD and Biomechanics in a fun and upbeat way. I then showed them the NBD ebsite along with a short video or two from the Biomechanics in Action page. Then the fun really began as we divided the visitors into five groups and they circulated around the lab learning about various measures we make: isokinetics, 3D motion capture, EMG, ultrasound elastography, & wearable technology. Grad students directed these demos which was for the best – young high schoolers can relate to young grad students. Then we re-gathered, saw one short group-demo on eye-tracking, had a few laughs, summarized, and call it an NBD. Last year we also ate NBD cupcakes. Mmmm. Please view these photos from NBDs around the world from the past three years to get many other ideas: 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022.

Incorporating social media within the event is important and is our primary means to show that NBD is truly worldwide. We provide specific instructions about using social media below. We make sure the kids see other NBDs and post photos to their social media sites as the event proceeds.

Please also post various NBD posters around your event and distribute several to your high school groups before the event. Here are all the poster sets: HERE. If you can, please create various banners and visual materials highlighting NBD.

NBD becomes the synchronized, worldwide celebration through social media, specifically Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Please use these apps during your NBD to show your activities to others and to view other NBDs. Please also post and retweet and like NBD materials and information throughout the year to help grow NBD.

Please like or friend or follow the NBD account on each platform.

In my lab we will have one person photographing our activities and another assigned to social media tasks. This person will upload these photos and videos to the apps and will display activities from other NBDs on a large, widely visible monitor. Please use these tags when posting:

Standard Hashtag/ID on all social media: #NBD2023 (please use this hashtag/ID on all tweets or posts).

Twitter: @BiomechanicsDay

Instagram: @BiomechanicsDay and #biomechanicsday

Facebook: National Biomechanics Day

All Platforms: everyone and anyone can also do live feeds from these platforms. We will use Facebook at ECU using the GO LIVE button. We suggest one or two people do this at each NBD event for some time. During your NBD event, you or someone else or the students can check for live broadcasts on the NBD page on Facebook by checking Live Broadcasts.

Sharing across platforms: please remember to also share across these platforms so that you can post on one and then have this post automatically added to the others.

The visiting students can also take photos and videos and post them with these tags. Please encourage them to do so. Also, at some point during your NBD you might take a pause and instruct the students to look through these sites to view other NBDs.

We also have a gmail account to which anyone (i.e. Lab staff or high school visitor) can send photos or videos: NBD.National.Biomechanics.Day@gmail.com

You can contact your high school groups at any time prior to your NBD and tell them about our social media arrangements. Please ask them to also like and follow us on their favorite platforms.

In short, please promote social media activities during your NBDs to increase our inter-connectedness. Please have this information visibly posted at your NBD event and point this out to your visitors.

(Note: at this time we are not using Snapchat because photos are deleted after one day.)

The National Biomechanics Day website is  HERE

The website contains much information about NBD and for NBD users. The Registration page enables all Biomechanists to sign-up for this year’s event and the International NBDs header will direct users to NBD events around the world.

NBD Action and NBD Archives headers contain videos that can be shown during NBDs. The Archives header also contains posters from all NBD years. Many of them are fantastic! The current posters can be used to promote your NBD events. Actually, we hope you post them extensively around your event and also share several with your high school groups.

The Sponsors header (HERE) contains logos for all sponsors on a per year basis and these logos are linked to the sponsors’ websites. Please feel free to post about these companies and societies as NBD sponsors.

National Biomechanics Day promotes diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in Biomechanics. We have greatly enhanced our efforts in DE&I by creating grant programs to support women in Biomechanics, black Biomechanists, and members of the LatinX and disabled communities. These programs support underserved groups in biomechanics but also our in high school participants. They provide funds for the NBD events and also typically for conference registrations. Programs are often run in collaboration with some of our sponsors. For example, in 2021 the American and International Societies of Biomechanics shared funding with NBD.   Please see the available grant programs here and submit some applications. NBD has had tremendous diversity success since its inception; for example, over 50% of high school participants have been female.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our work in DE&I or if you have any ideas promoting DE&I with NBD.

1. National or International Biomechanics Day?

NBD began as a national event in the United States in 2016 because its founder, Paul DeVita, was President of the American Society of Biomechanics at this time. Creating a national event was an achievable goal in the initial year and it simply seemed a natural step for the ASB President. Immediately after NBD 2016 many international biomechanists expressed interest in joining the movement led by Sarah Shultz at Massey University in New Zealand. Under her direction, enthusiasm, energy, and vision, New Zealand become a national bastion of NBD and 1,000 high school students participated in the first NZ NBD at seven universities across the country in 2017. Felipe Carpes, President of the Brazilian Society of Biomechanics and faculty member at UNIPAMPA (Federal University of Pampa) also became an NBD leader and organized many events in Brazil in 2017 that had hundreds of participating youngsters. Sarah and Felipe, along with Laura-Anne Furlong of Loughborough University, U.K. are presently driving the international efforts and are recruiting other Biomechanists.

Various international biomechanists, including Sarah, Felipe, and Laura-Anne discussed the idea of changing the name to International Biomechanics Day. While this seemed like a natural fit, the international group recommended against changing for a single, practical reason. Many countries offer funding opportunities for national but not international events. We simply consider that every country has its National Biomechanics Day. All are happy. New Zealand and Brazil have links to their own websites on the NBD site and we invite all internationals to submit materials for their own pages we can create within the NBD website. We look forward to the day when Biomechanists in every country participate in National Biomechanics Day.

There are several competitions involving NBD events, some sponsored directly by NBD and some by other groups. As of this printing, we are currently organizing the competitions for NBD 2023. Novel will run its Loadsol competition in 2023 and we will soon announce others. All members of the worldwide Biomechanics community are eligible to participate in NBD events and NBD competitions.

We will announce the competitions once they are set through social media, our website, and other means. Stay tuned…

Our university news and media bureau will attend our event and produce a story about NBD for the university press. We will also have in attendance a reporter from a local news station. Several NBDs from the previous years have created excellent local press in this manner. Please invite your local news to enhance our presence within your local areas. If you live in a large metropolitan area, perhaps this local news is national news. Invite the NY Times, or the Times if you live in London. The Sydney Morning Herald or the Toronto Star would provide excellent media support. Also consider inviting a local Associated Press (AP) writer for larger coverage. 

Please see various links below for some of the NBD press on the internet. 

The NBD posters are designed to show the fun and cool sides of Biomechanics and NBD. Please display as many NBD posters around your Lab and other areas as you can. Also, please share some with your high school teachers and students both before and after your NBD. They can post them in their schools. The latest 2022 poster set is on our Archives page Here in jpg format. As mentioned above NBD banners make a great display also. Please share these posters with your local high schools.

Several Labs have made NBD-shirts for their people, for their high school visitors or both. Here is an original design from 2016 (left) but it is a bit expensive because of the multiple colors, and shirts designed by the University of Virginia and Stanford University:

Some NBD logos that you can use for your t-shirts and other graphics are Here. NC State and some other Labs made booklets for the students:

Educational materials that can be used prior to or after NBD events would be most beneficial for the high school teachers and students. As of this date we have several sets of Biomechanics lessons for high school teachers and students, Here. These lessons will enable teachers and students to work Biomechanics problems and issues and so strengthen the lessons learned during NBD. It is our idea that we can write lessons for each other and share them on the website. Certainly you can create your own lessons based on the content of your NBD event.

We will also gladly use and distribute educational materials from the NBD membership. Please consider submitting educational materials, videos, or lessons for everyone to share among their high school groups.

Also, we can all recommend particular websites we like to keep the high school groups in touch with Biomechanics.

In general, please consider remaining in contact with your high school groups and now and then invite them to a Biomechanics guest lecture or a thesis presentation or some other Biomechanics event.

Along with posting photos and videos on social media, we ask you to submit as many photos and videos as you can to us via Dropbox, Google Drive, mailing to NBD.National.Biomechanics.Day@gmail.com or any other mechanisms you prefer. These images are greatly useful in creating visual records of all NBDs for future presentations and for spreading the word about our success. Please also feel free to share stories about your NBDs via social media, societies’ newsletters, your institutes news bureau, or any other available and interested site. 

Please also, post NBD information, stories, anecdotes, jokes, ideas, future plans on NBD social media sites listed above, #6.

It is our every intention to continue National Biomechanics Day each year and every year. There have been discussions on changing the name to International Biomechanics Day. Many international representatives however recommended against this idea because within individual countries, funds can be raised for national events more readily than for international events. So, we consider that each country has its own National Biomechanics Day. We certainly look to increase the number of nations and of individuals participating in NBD each year. As we see it, Biomechanics would greatly benefit from outreach work by all Biomechanists simply because this work will produce more biomechanists, fundamentally, our ultimate goal. 

While NBD sponsors support NBD financially, NBD also depends on individual contributions from local sources to directly fund the local event. Many individuals have gotten either internal or external support for their events. NBD events are not too costly, but they do use some lab supplies, personnel, and time. While NBD funds have grown, the numbers of events and participants has grown at a much faster rate. Although the central office cannot yet support individual NBD events, we hope to in the future.

The NBD Organizing Committee is always interested in working with energetic people passionate about NBD and our mission. If you would like to work with us in any role, please contact Paul DeVita, NBD.National.Biomechanics.Day@gmail.com. There is always room for positive, energetic people. 

NBD will work to increase diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in Biomechanics. We will continue to promote and/or sponsor STEM and STEAM outreach activities that also increase DE&I in Biomechanics. Our expansion to more nations is one mechanism to increase diversity in Biomechanics. We look forward to more outreach activities and we encourage everyone to contact us if you have an idea along these lines.

NBD has gotten positive and extremely helpful press in its initial years. For example, we have this exceptionally supportive article in LER (HERE). Since our goal is to expand the number of people knowledgeable about Biomechanics, future press will be greatly beneficial. We ask all NBDers to contact their local or national news organizations to write or show a story about your NBD efforts. We recommend that you have a news reporter and photographer at you NBD.  

As of this date we have these NBD stories on the internet (that we know of):

LER article: National Biomechanics Day thrills kids worldwide: http://lermagazine.com/article/national-biomechanics-day-thrills-kids-worldwide

Active Voice: National Biomechanics Day Goes International in 2017: http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/acsm/active030717.htm

Biomechanics: Making Science Fun: https://www.keloland.com/news/making-science-fun/

Happy National Biomechanics Day!: https://web.stanford.edu/group/stbl/cgi-bin/wordpress/2017/04/06/happy-national-biomechanics-day/

BME participates in National Biomechanics Day: http://www.bme.ncsu.edu/bme-participates-in-national-biomechanics-day/

National Biomechanics Day: https://cobr.boisestate.edu/nbd/

National Biomechanics Day: https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-education/news/events/2017/03/national-biomechanics-day.php 

Healthy Movements: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/National-Biomechanics-Day.cfm

National Biomechanics Day throws light on forces and effects: http://www.indiannewslink.co.nz/national-biomechanics-day-throws-light-on-forces-and-effects/

BOOM: Biomechanics On Our Minds: Episode 1: Off the beaten path: https://soundcloud.com/biomechanics-on-our-minds

Making science fun: http://www.keloland.com/news/article/news/making-science-fun

National Biomechanics Day on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user49286886

Delsys: An unforgettable year for science: https://www.delucafoundation.org/2017-an-unforgettable-year-for-science/

National Biomechanics Day 2017: http://sites.psu.edu/hmrc/nbd2017/

Armstrong Hosts Local High School Students for National Biomechanics Day: https://www.armstrong.edu/news/armstrong-hosts-local-high-school-students-for-national-biomechanics-day

National Biomechanics Day 2017: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/batlab/outreach/

Michigan Tech celebrates National Biomechanics Day: http://www.westsidepodiatrycenter.com/blog/item/131-michigan-tech-celebrates-national-biomechanics-day.html

National Biomechanics Day at Staffordshire University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H6nzYteRek

Senior PE involved in National Biomechanics Day at Otago University https://www.lphs.school.nz/home/article/48743

USARIEM opens doors to high school students during National Biomechanics Day: https://www.army.mil/article/165798/usariem_opens_doors_to_high_school_students_during_national_biomechanics_day

National Biomechanics Day throws light on forces and effects: http://www.indiannewslink.co.nz/national-biomechanics-day-throws-light-on-forces-and-effects/

Celebrating Biomechanics Day: The science of your running form: http://www.milestonepod.com/blog/national-biomechanics-day-run-really-matters/

Learning the mechanics of biomechanics: http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=7BDE7359-F9B0-615B-F731-039BCA3ABF0D

Wallenpaupack area high school students introduced to Biomechanics at the University of Scranton: http://news.scranton.edu/articles/2016/05/wallenpaupack-hs-biomechanics.shtml

NSU University School students participate in National Biomechanics Day: https://nsunews.nova.edu/nsu-university-school-students-participate-in-national-biomechanics-day/

Workshop III: Biomechanics: http://duboisscholars.org/programs/accelerated-learning-academy/workshop-tracks.html

NBD 2021 in Singapore: https://circle.myactivesg.com/circle-news/articles/national-biomechanics-day-2021-200-sec-school-students-teachers-learnt-biomechanics-principles-to-help-improve-napfa-test-results?type=all-articles

Why we participate in NBD: https://lermagazine.com/cover_story/guest-perspective-why-we-participate-in-national-biomechanics-day 

One NBD motto that we know and love is, “Science meets fun on National Biomechanics Day.” Every year, many NBD participants make great videos about their events. Please view a few HERE. They are really fantastic!!!