Excel students see how scientists determine the speed of dinosaurs from their trackways. They take walking and running data on themselves to show the data will fall on a universal curve with other animals.

Measuring the course.

Taping down the finish mark.

Ready, set, go.

Initial analysis of the data in the field is a good idea. If anything is wrong it can be checked and repeated right now.

Final analysis back in the classroom.

When all is said and done the Excel students fell on the same normalized curve as other animals for walking and running. None of them could beat my cocker spaniel's normalized speed!

Now if you know any animal's normalized stride, which you can get from the tracks and hip heights, you can be pretty confident of its normalized speed given the universality of the relationship above. Then from the normalized speed and hip height, you can calculate the speed. So dinosaurs can be clocked.