Science of Sport Starts Up
UA-Developed STEM Curriculum Hits Homerun with Science of Sport Startup
Middle School Program Started as AZ Diamondbacks Partnership Now Available to Teams and Communities World-wide
Tucson, AZ – In 2012, University of Arizona, through engineering associate professor Ricardo Valerdi, partnered with the Arizona Diamondbacks to create The Science of Baseball, an academic curriculum for middle school students that promotes real-world applications of science, technology, engineering and math principles (STEM). To date, the program has reached 100 Arizona schools and 2,000 students across the state.
Now, with the goal of rapidly expanding the reach of the innovative curriculum, the University of Arizona has licensed the rights to the innovative STEM curriculum to Science of Sport, a new company founded by Valerdi, former UA Medical Center Director of Community Relations Crystal Kasnoff, and former San Diego Padres President/CEO Ballard Smith.
Tech Launch Arizona, the unit of the UA that helps faculty members commercialize inventions arising out of their research, facilitated the formation of the new company and the licensing of the intellectual property.
While the Arizona Diamondbacks maintain the rights to distribute the curriculum within the state, the new company aims to deliver the innovative teaching and learning materials via professional sports teams across the nation, and potentially to young sports fans around the world.
“Step one is to be in 30 major league baseball cities and be in every middle school in each market,” says Smith. “Those 30 teams combined have 100 minor league teams in 100 other cities.”
Beyond the US, they have already run Science of Baseball camps in Australia and are targeting Mexico in 2015, according to Valerdi.
To pay for the program, Science of Sport – a not-for-profit company – solicits funding from major league teams, foundations, state and federal programs, corporations and school professional development funds. That money is used to put on STEM camps where students work through the curriculum. Schools and teachers also learn how to implement the program via “train-the-trainer” models. The company plans to target communities with professional sports teams, but focus specifically on those where it can most effectively reach disadvantaged student populations.
Science of Sport already has a contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, whose program will start later this month.
“We’ve had serious discussions and negotiations with the Red Sox, the Nationals and the Padres,” says Valerdi. “We just had a conference call with the Mets, and have a meeting set up with the Dodgers.”
According to Smith, “We have met numerous times with these teams and with the school districts in those markets, and everyone is enthusiastic about the program.”
The curriculum uses the principles of baseball as content for the exploration of topics in biology, mathematics and physics. It directly supports STEM initiatives by focusing on the Common Core Mathematics Standards that have been adopted by a majority of the states in the U.S.
According to UA Director of Technology Transfer Doug Hockstad, “Getting young people involved in the STEM disciplines early is one of the great challenges of education. This program, having been proven to be effective in Arizona, represents a fantastic opportunity engage many students in communities around the nation.”
While baseball will be the initial focus, over time Science of Sport plans to expand the curriculum to other sports such as football, basketball and soccer, with the goal of bringing STEM education to young sports fans everywhere.
“Long term,” says Valerdi, “we’ll move to other sports, just about any you could imagine.”
Photo credit: UA Engineering