Friday, December 30, 2016

ARIZONA...WHERE THEY'VE GOT IT TOGETHER TO HELP KIDS LEARN THE SCIENCE OF SPORT!

This is a program I found recently, and I think it's a wonderful model.  This is my summary of highlights of the website.  Science of Sport, an Arizona nonprofit, is only a few years old.  They work with the College of  Engineering  at the University of Arizona, state and local departments of education, and various professional sports teams.

SCIENCE OF SPORT
602-525-3197
Tucson, Arizona
To date: 894 teachers trained / 44,700 students reached

BACKGROUND: Science of Sport was founded by Ricardo Valerdi, Ph.D. Initially the goal was to teach math through baseball, but it has expanded to baseball, soccer, basketball and football science with teacher workshops / lesson plans / student camps / webinars. SOS has gone beyond Arizona to the West Coast and East Coast and Australia.

NOTE:      I found information on the baseball and soccer programs but no news turned up when I clicked on basketball and football.

VIDEO: Introductory 6.5 minute video with Ricardo Valerdi and:

Darren Heaton     VP, business development, SOS / former manager, Education Initiatives, Arizona Diamondbacks

Kevin Brungardt     Middle school social studies teacher. Over 25 lesson plans include trajectory, nutrition, baseball analytics.

Ballard Smith     Former president, CEO, San Diego Padres / Executive director, SOS. They work with Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, LA Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, partner with Boys & Girls Club

Linda Wojtowicz     Former CEO, Tucson Boys & Girls Club

Daniel Miranda     Director, Boys & Girls Club

Emily Masterson and Austin Masterson     Biomedical engineering students

Dustin Payne     Arizona Diamondbacks Community Initiative. Said SOS is in its third year.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Training for 100 more teachers was announced in 2014:
In collaboration with Univ. of Arizona College of Engineering and Arizona Dept. of Education, the Diamondbacks Science of Baseball program has spread throughout Arizona.

TEDx VIDEO:
I watched a TEDx Tucson talk by Ricardo Valerdi, done, I think, in 2014. Very well done.

SPONSORS include:
Orlando Magic      Houston Astros      Colorado Rockies      San Diego Padres
LA Angels      Angels Science of Baseball
Science of Baseball Urban Youth Academy      National Youth Baseball Academy
Dept. of Defense STEM      Northrop Grumman Foundation

BASEBALL

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA
STEMBALL / The Adelaide Bite (team name)
The University of Adelaide (Australia) and Science of Sport hosted 125 Australian students to launch the STEMBALL program in Australia. The Bite have a one-day program for middle school students with eight STEM lessons on Australian baseball.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, BASEBALL
SAN DIEGO
San Diego Padres, Science of Sport, and San Diego Gas & Electric ran a professional development workshop for 40 teachers in the San Diego area. It was a one-day workshop from 9 to 2, and it introduced 12 lesson plans to math, science, and PE teachers for grades 5 to 8. It covered: geometry, trajectory of the ball flight, aerodynamics, elasticity, biomechanics, in addition to physiology, nutrition, reaction time, baseball statistics, scoring, strike zone, rules of baseball, and ballpark design.

SOCCER

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SOCCER
LOS ANGELES
The LA Galaxy Foundation funded the initial training of 25 teachers from the Newport Mesa School District, later began promoting this throughout southern California.

A video is narrated by Ricardo Valerdi, with comments from teachers Katie Holt, Kurt Suhr, and Tarym Flamson. I watched “The Science of Penalty Shootout” video on how to score 100% penalty kicks.

Besides teaching the kids pointers on how to play soccer -– players and positions / dribbling and passing / penalty kicks and goalies –- as well as character development, the science includes aerodynamics / trajectory of ball flight / momentum, plus physiology and nutrition and training.
BASEBALL AND SOCCER

Anaheim, CA – December 23, 2015
The Anaheim City School District has received a $1,050,000 STEM education grant from the California Department of Education that will be funded over a three-year period.  Additionally, the Orange County Department of Education, Angels Baseball and the LA Galaxy will provide an additional $500,000 in in-kind support for the program.

The grant and in-kind support will allow 35 teachers from the Anaheim City School District to become Master Teachers for the Angels Science of Baseball and the LA Galaxy Science of Soccer programs.

The programs teach kids how STEM subjects relate to sports through real- world examples. 

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