STEM Sports® provides turnkey K-8 supplemental curricula that use sports as the real-life application to drive STEM-based learning in classrooms, after-school programs, and camps.
Our 5E and standards-aligned curricula and programs are currently in 49 states and growing internationally.
Learn more by viewing this VIDEO.
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Greetings! and from all of us at STEM Sports®, we hope all is well with you and your family.
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Though the pandemic is not completely behind us, we remain optimistic that we are trending towards a normal that we can all envision. This vision includes:
- All schools reopening in the Fall
- Classrooms full of emotionally strong students
- Physical activity and education required and welcomed
- Proper funding for all of the above!
- Amateur and professional sporting events with energetic and supportive fans
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Kids need sports and physical activity. We all know this and understand that this leads to healthy and productive lives. Especially in the classroom. All of us must take action to do what we can to increase physical activity offerings and to promote environments, both in schools and at home, that engage in active learning. At STEM Sports®, we are doing our part to help generalist, science, math, and physical education teachers, as well as after-school providers, by providing engaging, hands-on, experiential, plug-and-play curricula that:
- Enhances student's STEM skills
- Promotes movement, physical activity, and cognition
- Prepares young minds for future careers
This has always been our mission and it will continue to be, now more than ever.
Jeff Golner
President & CEO
STEM Sports®
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Hooray for the return of baseball and softball to the field of play! Our long-awaited and requested STEM Baseball and STEM Softball supplemental curriculum programs are officially part of our line-up and now available. |
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Our STEM Baseball program gives your students the green light to learn about the science behind the national pastime. Students will hit and run through our double-play combination of cognitive learning and physical activity as they round the bases through the eight-module supplemental program. There’s nothing foul about adding STEM Baseball to your curriculum lineup when you know we’ll be covering the bases with lessons such as:
- Learning about the composition of a baseball
- Understanding the field of play on a baseball diamond
- Hitting success at the plate using probability
- Engineering a pitching machine
All of our modules correlate to 5E lesson planning, and we even include an extra-inning, called Extend, to create a full count, bases-loaded opportunity for every student.
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Change up the way you pitch STEM learning by utilizing our STEM Softball supplemental curriculum. We’ve sacrificed nothing for teachers, after-school administrators, and camp personnel as they will windmill through the science behind this great game.
Tag up and advance through lessons such as:
- Understand the forces in softball
- Study the evolution of a softball glove
- Be a hitter and understand the offensive side of the game
- Keeping score
*Raspberries not included
In each module, we put students in scoring position to see jobs and occupations lined out to each lesson’s objective. It’s what STEM is all about. Hit and run your way to STEM Softball today!
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Scroll down for testimonials already received regarding STEM Baseball and STEM Softball, along with our other curriculum activities. |
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As was mentioned last summer, STEM Sports® is very proud of our STEM.org Accredited™ Educational Experience Trustmark! STEM.org Educational Research is the longest operating, privately-held STEM education research and credentialing organization in America, and has served over 4,500 schools, districts, and organizations in over 25 countries. In February, STEM.org Founder and CEO Andrew B. Raupp took pen to paper to explore how STEM and sports can accentuate student engagement in Newsweek Magazine.
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STEM Sports® was one of several programs featured during the NCAA Next Generation March Madness Skills Challenge specifically designed for 5th-grade teachers to use not only during the month of March but throughout the school year. Click here for more information and to sign up!
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The Moroccan Ministry of National Education and our partners TIBU are holding the inaugural Education through Sport Summit in Africa.
Happening this weekend, Casablanca, Rabat, Dakhla, Laayoune, Dakar, Lusaka, Monrovia, Niamey, and other African cities will celebrate education through sport.
And STEM Sports® is right in the middle of the action as the TIBU STEM Sports® Festival will take place each day over the weekend giving schools, teachers, and eager students wonderful STEM curriculum activities to implement.
Also, we'll be hosting a webinar on Monday, April 5th at 11:30 EST. Register today!
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We are proud to announce our new partnership with Active Schools. As we opened this newsletter, like us, Active Schools believes and knows that physical activity helps students feel better, work together as a team, reduce anxiety, and maintain focus all while helping them learn and retain academic content. In addition, movement in the classroom can be a great classroom management tool for teachers by energizing tired or distracted students and calming students to prepare for learning and testing.
Whether the learning is happening in-person or virtually, everyone wins through physical activity!
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The Counting Bee™ is a STEM competition open for K-12 students at all public, private, charter, and home schools in the United States. We look forward to celebrating the fastest and gr8est mathletes in each age group! Learn more at www.TheCountingBee.org and register today for the National Counting Bee, to be held on 9/9/21!
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In this quarter's newsletter, we wish to highlight three young, aspiring female astronauts. Remember, this isn't our news. This is news we can't ignore and felt compelled to share with all of you. |
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Alyssa Carson
Carson is a 19-year-old aspiring astronaut. She is the only person to have attended ALL NASA Space Camps and is currently preparing to go to Mars. Starting at age 5, Carson began attending NASA Space Camps and became the youngest person to graduate from the Advanced Space Academy Programme at only 16-years-old. Currently, she is working with a group of other young future astronauts to put themselves in a position to be the first people to land on Mars.
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Hayley Arceneaux
Arceneaux is a 29-year-old pediatric cancer survivor. Now, almost two decades later, she has become a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She is now pushing herself further and is set to become the youngest American and first prosthesis to travel to space! Arceneaux is set to be one of four civilians who will travel to space at the end of 2021.
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Kaitlyn Ludlam
Ludlam, a freshman in college, hosted a ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’ webinar in February of 2021. She said that she wants to inspire more young girls to engage in science, technology, engineering, and math like she did. Her passion for robotics and aerospace began at a young age and she wants to help spark that passion in other young girls. She created and runs the AstroBot STEM non-profit that provides resources to girls in STEM, including scholarships and role models in the field. This inclusive environment is being used to create interest and confidence in girls as they begin to explore STEM concepts.
What do all three of these young women have in common?
Yes, they are all aspiring to go to space. However, it goes deeper than that. Each of these females can be seen as role models for young kids, more specifically girls, who are interested in STEM. Despite age, race, gender, or health barriers, these women have all excelled in STEM and now can be seen as a success story of where your child could one day be with hard work and dedication.
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Skyhawks® Sports Academy, powered by Stack Sports, the leading provider of youth sports programs for children 4 to 14 years old, is our valued partner offering STEM Sports® programs across the country. Skyhawks’ STEM Sports® programs are currently offered in 40 states across 220 locations, schools, or franchises through in-person and virtual classrooms.
"Integrating STEM Sports® with Skyhawks programs has taken our camps to another level,” says Jason Frazier, President of Skyhawks Sports Academy. “We have received overwhelmingly positive responses not only from customers and coaches but also from our partnering organizations. There is a huge demand for STEM-based education programs, and we are excited to offer our Skyhawks families a dynamic sports camp experience that will have a lifelong impact on our participants.”
This March, Skyhawks saw record-breaking registrations for all of their camps and we would encourage those interested to inquire today as they expect the trend to continue.
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Rachel Kissner is a STEM Sports® Curriculum Writer and Developer. Currently, Rachel is teaching 7th and 8th grade Science and coaching Volleyball and Basketball at Timberline PK – 8 in Longmont, Colorado.
Rachel started her educational career in Minnesota, where she was trained in Urban Education with an emphasis on Science and Biology. She relocated to Phoenix, Arizona in 2012 to teach science at Copper King Elementary School. During her teaching at Copper King, she pursued a Masters of Art in Education at the University of Arizona as part of the Teachers In Industry program; Rachel’s thesis research was on strategies to engage young women in physics and engineering. She spent her final two years at Copper King designing and teaching a specialized STEM academy on Water and Environmental Engineering; most notably, she designed an engineering curriculum for students.
In addition to her classroom accomplishments, Rachel taught professional development for teachers of the Pendergast School District (AZ), as well as supporting curriculum development for Arizona State University’s Engineering Outreach Professional Development and EPICS (Engineering Practices in Community Service) program.
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What do you enjoy most about teaching?
There are so many moments and snapshots that I love in the classroom. There are few days when I don't walk away with joy from the interactions with my students. Some of my favorites are:
- Watching a student undergo conceptual processing and seeing it click
- Hearing the kids talk about complex science issues related to real-world problems
- And, it's hard to believe but those perfect, sassy comments from students, at the worst times .... it normally ends up with me breaking into a smile.
Do you have a favorite STEM concept? Or do you feel each concept is interrelated?
I'm a scientist at heart and always will be but you can't do science without data (mathematics). And science is meaningless without engineers to solve problems. And honestly, scientists could not do their jobs, communicate or run data analysis without technology. So yes, all of them!
Is there one particular STEM Sports® curriculum you enjoyed writing and developing more than others? If so, why?
One that sticks with me is Weather and Climate in Golf (Module 8). Another one of my favorites is Adaptive Technology (Volleyball Module 8.1) because I love thinking about and teaching about inclusive ideas and values in the middle school grades.
Thanks, Rachel! Your students are lucky to have you...and so are we!!!
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We enjoy reading testimonials from teachers, school administrators, after-school personnel, and the like. Here's what some of these heroes had to say recently...
"Love, love, love the concept of STEM Baseball and STEM Softball's Field of Play lesson. My students really enjoyed this lesson -- they liked being able to learn the positions and what types of skills each position requires. My inexperienced sports students were mind blown at the fact that first base the object and first basemen the person are two different things! So it was fun. The students were eager to solve the Pythagorean Theorem problems - I didn’t even have to fight them on completing 6 problems. I had a few students say “that was fun, and easy”. WOW… because if I gave them those Pythag problems without the baseball/softball context they would NEVER have said that. So this lesson did a great job getting them invested in the learning.”
Haley Mercy
Mesquite Junior High School
"STEM Sports is amazing. It is a very cool way to introduce STEM to the world of Sports in a very kid's friendly and exciting way. Thank you!"
Tom Neri
"STEM Sports® uses sports for real-world application, strengthens 21st-century skills, and integrates the engineering design process with its curriculum. This STEM.org Accredited Educational Experience accomplishment will serve as an inspiration to others who aspire to be the best and reaffirms your ability to captivate those who value STEM in their communities.”
Andrew Raupp
Founder and Executive Director of STEM.org
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From all of us at STEM Sports®, thank you for your continued interest and support.
We hope that you remain safe, healthy and optimistic during these trying times.
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