The games we play and the venues in which we play them are incredibly compelling teaching tools, especially with respect to science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM). Increasingly, students and educators are seeking ways to connect the things they learn or teach in classrooms to the real world. Sports, stadiums, and the technologies that support them can be opportunities to make that link.
Myriad organizations—museums, NGOs, colleges, tech companies—have begun to realize that contributing to the educational growth and trajectory of young people is not only a community responsibility and opportunity, but is also a tremendous way to build a broader base of support. Further, that is a viable way to support the ecosystems in which these organizations exist, benefitting everything from quality of life to workforce development.
I am the director of 49ers EDU, the San Francisco 49ers STEAM education program. In this new series, I will be examining the intersection of STEAM, sports, and tech, for SportTechie by looking at some of the biggest and most interesting global programs, projects, and platforms.
The NHL has jumped to the fore as casual fans tune in to watch the season come to a close. A major part of the bump in attention this year is due to the Golden Knights’ fairytale run to the Stanley Cup Finals—when the NHL drew up its expansion to Las Vegas, no one would have predicted the new team’s first campaign would still be going by now—but the league has been working to engage with communities in other ways, too.
As the sports world embraces its role in empowering the educational ecosystem, hockey has become a great example of how to do things that move the STEAM needle. Hockey is seizing on a larger opportunity, capitalizing on a young person’s love for the games they play as a way to engage them in learning.
One good illustration of hockey’s foray into and its dedication to the educational world is the league’s online engagement platform Future Goals – Hockey Scholar. The platform, developed through a partnership with education technology company EverFi, introduces STEM concepts through a hockey lens.
“Many students enjoy sports and associate sports with fun—so when you utilize sports like hockey to help them understand the challenging STEM/STEAM concepts they’re learning in school, it makes learning fun,” wrote Ira Frankel, SVP of global sports and entertainment for EverFi, via email. “For the students who don’t necessarily like sports, the real-world examples that sports gives them context as to how the concepts apply to their world and exist all around them.”
The program focuses on a number of different topics to stoke the interest of young learners, including force and friction, angles, and numerous other math and science topics that lend themselves well to being viewed through hockey. Since its launch in 2014, the initiative has engaged more than two million students across the U.S. and Canada.
“The Future Goals initiative—which reaches hundreds of thousands of children in schools across North America—helps us demonstrate to today’s youth that there are many different ways to participate in sports,” explained Bill Daly, NHL Deputy Commissioner, via email. “The free Hockey Scholar online course is a great way to engage and educate youth, pairing the excitement of hockey with the importance of STEM skills.”
The NHL and NHLPA have big goals for the program as it evolves in both the short- and long-term. There will be enhancements to the extended experience for students such as field trips to the arena, virtual visits from STEM professionals, and STEM activity days on the ice. Each of these opportunities will extend the learning from the program and allow students to continue to practice key concepts and skills.
“This program will continue to serve as a foundational element to STEM Classroom learning in thousands of schools across the US and Canada,” wrote Frankel.
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Aside from that global, league-wide initiative, there are also individual efforts organized by clubs. The Ducks, for example, have created their own approach called First Flight down in sunny Southern California.
“We recognize our opportunity to utilize the platform of sport, which provides such an emotional and personal connection for fans, to drive home learning concepts in a way that classroom teachers may not be able to, due to how people feel about the teams, sports and games kids play,” said Jason Cooper, manager of fan development marketing with the Ducks. “Kids find science where they see it; for us, it’s a matter of knowing that, and developing our platform for a mutually beneficial and reciprocal outcome.”
First Flight centers around a massive field trip to the Honda Center, where more than 10,000 students and teachers engage in a day of exploration and inspiration. Participants engage with community learning partners, take part in on-site activities and contests, and see an on-ice presentation of a core lesson concept involving Anaheim’s players and coaches.
Cooper explains that one of the Ducks’ most popular lessons focuses on one of the most important—and likely relatable—elements of hockey: the sheet of ice on which the game is played.
“Everyone loves and can connect with the science of ice,” Cooper said. “Explaining what’s actually lying on top of Honda Center floor, the exploration of how it got there, the engineering process, the study of thermodynamics, the design and architecture concepts at play—take something that seems so basic and perhaps foreign and makes kids understand it’s the same as making ice cream or ice cubes. It’s incredible to see kids really get it and engage with it.”
Educators, parents, and school administrators will tell you that last concept is the one that matters: taking something sport uniquely provides and relating it back to everyday life. That is what lights a fire in young people. That’s where the magic happens and true engagement lives. And that’s what sport has the opportunity to do, whether through innovative hockey-forward platforms, or, perhaps, simply the lesson taught to us by the Knights this past year: If you work hard, anything is possible.