At one station, Barton Malow Co. gave the Richmond Public Schools students a chance to check out virtual reality goggles, such as the Oculus Rift, along with augmented reality headsets, such as the Microsoft HoloLens. (Julia Rendleman, VCU University Marketing)
About 400 elementary and middle school children from Richmond Public Schools went to the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University for “STEM in Sports Day” to test out, first-hand, Blast Motion technology, soccer balls with internal chips that track the velocity and spin, the Oculus Rift, Microsoft HoloLens and a litany of other modern sports technologies.
The event last week, put on in partnership with VCU Athletics and the VCU School of Education, was meant to garner student interest in STEM through its implementation in sports, according to Stefanie Ramsey, an instructional specialist at Richmond Public Schools.
Stations throughout the facility gave students and instructors alike the opportunity to use a wide variety of wearable and tracking technologies.
One station allowed students to utilize technology that measured the metrics of a participant’s swing of a bat — the angle, speed and trajectory of their drive through a tee’d up softball.
Another station allowed students to conduct activities while wearing virtual reality goggles such as the Oculus Rift and augmented reality headsets like the Microsoft HoloLens.
A third station utilized Blast Motion technology, which analyzes a subject’s motions and provides data on a myriad of metrics, by using motion sensors to measure a student’s vertical leaps, long jumps and sprints.
To Tim Lampe, the senior associate athletic director for athletic facilities at VCU, the experience was, in large part, put on to give the Richmond Public Schools children an opportunity to actualize the math and science that they are learning in class. Sports were, to Lampe, the vessel, not the priority, in organizing the event.
“It’s not about the sports,” Lampe told VCU News. “We’re using sports as the bait. They’re interested in basketball, baseball and soccer and the other sports we have here today. But we want them to make the connection and look at the force, speed, spin and trajectory of the ball, and the other components they learn about in math and science class, and actually see it, touch it and understand it. If they think they’re not good at math and science, they’re wrong. They’re good at it, they just maybe don’t know how to identify it. That’s what we’re trying to achieve today.”
