The Sport & STEM Alliance Forum Meet For Virtual 2020 Spring Forum
May 8, 2020
On May 5, Beyond Sport hosted the first virtual Sport & STEM Alliance Forum, bringing together global experts, inspirational innovators and committed decision-makers to discuss how we can leverage sport to tackle the world’s most pressing STEM issues.
Current events around COVID19 have made clear the importance of inspiring people from a young age to take an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Supported by $10,000 funding, this year’s Alliance members are focused on creating strategies that use sport to better support the advocates who are best positioned to inspire passion in young people: educators.
Tuesday’s gathering, facilitated by Radha Balani, Director of Design and Facilitation for our sister company thinkBeyond, saw strong participation from a group who learned more about the Alliance’s mission and heard case studies from members who are using sport and STEM right now in support of the goal.
Speakers, Aliya Meaney, NHL Director of Youth Development and Industry Growth, and Nick Monzi, CEO and Founder of Learn Fresh discussed how they are shifting programming to assist students and parents amidst school closures.
Meaney spoke on the Future Goals program, run in collaboration with EVERFI and NHLPA that brings STEM to life through a hockey-based gaming style program. She also spoke on adjusting their approach to address the realities of students, teachers and parents today. The program had reached 30,000 schools and was originally free of charge for educators.
“As COVID19 changed things, educators and schools were looking for remote learning to keep students in pace with STEM, so we announced on April 1 to take the program outside the classroom to a custom portal available free of charge to parents at home,” Meaney said.
“We wanted to make it seamless for parents, and since we launched, we’ve seen tens of thousands utilizing the program at home.”
Monzi echoed a similar challenge and program shift while speaking on the NBA Math Hoops program and how they are also addressing the issue of access for some students. He said that they were used to executing their program in an in-person setting so they had to come up with a plan for medium and long-term value.
“With families becoming the primary source of education we opened access to our physical product which is a board game at no cost and distributed it out, aiding families who don’t have access to technology but still having the opportunity to teach their children whilst on lockdown,” Monzi said.
“We are also planning to do virtual tournaments online over zoom and trying to build a mobile app for students based off previous work from the past, so we have a holistic response to this COVID19 situation.”
Chaitali Mehta, COO of the LA Dodgers Foundation reinforced the mission of helping young people in LA thrive regardless of zip code, by sharing that they are bringing in-person sessions to life online and pushing out programs to 60k+social followers to provide access and content from a trusted source.
Rick Singer, CEO of TGR Foundation - a Tiger Woods Charity, shared how they are helping teachers and parents with online learning and its various platforms as the technology is a first for many. TGR believes in a new way of teaching that will bridge the digital divide. "Learning how technology can be used in classrooms was an inevitability, and the future looks like a combination of a hybrid model split with traditional and virtual ways of learning that will be with us forever,” said Singer.
In addition to these insights into company strategies, the forum split into hands-on discussions on learning more about the STEM challenges people are facing and how Alliance members can collaborate on solutions. One key theme that came up in breakout sessions was how to support the limited bandwidth for teachers, especially now. Members explored ideas on how to make turnkey programs with clear guidance for educators on how to incorporate programs into existing curriculum in ways that compliment what they are already doing.