Using STEM and Sports to Help Teach Science

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Athletics and academics work together to change how students learn about STEM. Creative lessons on the field and court get students moving and thinking.

Standards-aligned curricula developed by a Phoenix-based education company have been implemented in schools, after-school programs and camps across the U.S. The lessons in STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering and Math—are applied to sports, bringing concepts taught in school to life in the real world.

Since its inception in 2016, STEM Sports has been helping students get a head start on pursuing opportunities in STEM-related careers. Separate curricula, each with physical activities and hands-on lessons for 16-plus hours of teaching, have been developed to fit grade levels or needs, with kits designed for K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and Special Education. Curricula are aligned with at least one of the following: Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards and National Standards for K-12 Physical Education.

STEM Sports Kits Provide Complete Lesson Materials

Each kit includes all sports equipment and science materials. Teachers, coaches, club leaders, and camp directors can all teach STEM Sports curricula, even those with no STEM or sports background.

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Kits are available for a dozen or so sports, including baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer, hockey, tennis, volleyball and lacrosse. A kit is designed for repeated use and can serve hundreds of students over a period of time.

The kit for the eight-module soccer program, for instance, has soccer and futsal balls (six each), a ball pump, inflation needles, tape measures, digital stopwatches and heart monitors, along with a curriculum manual and other resources.

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STEM Sports Lessons Offer Real-Life Applications

STEM Sports President & CEO Jeff Golner says, “Our double-play combination of physical activity and cognitive thinking provides a comprehensive, inquiry-based educational experience and a solution for crucial STEM literacy for students. Currently, there are not enough skilled workers to fill STEM jobs awaiting students when they leave the education system. Our award-winning curriculum will help them see the occupations available through a sports lens.”

Branching out from learning gleaned only from a textbook or working in a lab, the lessons break out of the mold by making connections with scientific concepts and real-life situations.

For example:

Gravity is taught through soaring golf balls
Forces are taught through bouncing a basketball
Engineering is taught through sports equipment design
Probability is taught in penalty kicks in soccer

Emphasizing practical applications, Golner says, “For example, if a third-grade teacher says, ‘We’re going to do division,’ there is dread from the students….But if the teacher says, ‘We’re going to grab that bag of basketballs provided by STEM Sports and go out on the basketball court and every one will walk away with a field goal percentage just like Devin Booker and Kevin Durant,’ they’re out of the classroom, it’s more fun and it’s a more sticky, tangible dimension. The teacher never has to say the dreaded “D” word to get the point across where kids actually learn how to do division playing basketball.”

Besides calculating field goal percentages, students in the STEM Sports basketball program also learn about the contents of a basketball on a molecular level and how temperature affects play, and they evaluate the changes that basketball shoes have made over time and why. Students engineer their own shooting apparatus to explain some of Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion.

Among lessons in the baseball curriculum are:

Composition of a Baseball
Engineering a Pitching Machine
Hitting Success at the Plate
Energy in Baseball
The Art of Pitching

Golner says, “Our STEM Multi-Sport that features STEM Basketball, STEM Football, STEM Soccer and STEM Volleyball is our most popular kit. After that, STEM Basketball is the most popular individual offering.”

In the words of Amy Rosengren, a 6th-grade science teacher at Alhambra Elementary School District in Arizona, “STEM Basketball fits really closely with our regular science curriculum. It covers movement and energy and connects so well with our kids. The lesson they enjoy the most is module 3, where we discuss how temperature changes the properties of a basketball. We live in Arizona and the heat makes the ball bounce higher. The students find it fascinating.”

Golner said a growing number of schools and school districts have been ordering the STEM Sports curriculum. While it is often used as a supplement, more and more schools are using the programming as a core curriculum and elective.

“Further, specific departments such as physical education are utilizing the curriculum,” he said. “And professional sports teams that care about youth and education are partnering with us in our mission to support students by purchasing the curriculum and placing it in schools.”