WHERE HOCKEY AND STEM COLLIDE: For many kids of yesteryear, sports cards offered one way to learn about their favorite players--as well as statistics and percentages. A number of companies--like Mathalicious and Khan Academy--have since leveraged sports to make academics more engaging. The latest is EverFi, a company that gets business sponsors to make its digital STEM and 21st century skills resources free for schools. Today the DC-based company has finalized a multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL) and the NHL Players Association for Future Goals, an effort to bring STEM programs to schools across the U.S. and Canada.
The premise is simple: use hockey games and themes as a context to teach STEM skills (for instance, learning about force and velocity from a slap shot). "Not only do we want kids to get excited about Patrick Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin," EverFi co-founder Jon Chapman tells EdSurge, "but also about the folks who work behind the scenes and the technical jobs that go into making a hockey game happen."
The content, to be designed for students in grades 4-8, is still in progress. The company will borrow some of its content from its existing Radius program.
