Playing With Purpose: How Sports-Based STEM Learning Builds Lasting Impact
Explore real student stories, innovative STEM tools, and high-impact strategies that turn play into purpose and prepare learners for future careers.
In the News
Featured in the Youngstown Business Journal, STEM Playbook brought active, hands-on STEM learning to life this summer, turning reaction-time drills and Whack-a-Mole into powerful lessons in math, science, and student confidence.
Youngstown Students Make STEM Power Plays
Youngstown Community School students are learning how every game can spark a future career. Through the Power Play challenge, students tested angles, measured distance, and adjusted strategies — discovering the real science, technology, engineering, and math that drive innovation. Together, they’re building teamwork, confidence, and career-ready skills that last long after the game ends.
Cleveland Youth Summit: Healthy Hearts, Minds, & Futures
STEM Playbook joined the City of Cleveland, the Browns, and CMSD’s Humanware Division for the 3rd Annual Youth Summit — bringing hands-on STEM and sports learning to over 200 high school students. From coding robots to tracking shot accuracy, students explored how science, technology, and teamwork build confidence and leadership both on and off the field.
STEM Playbook Returns to Mahoning Valley for the School Year
STEM Playbook is back in the Mahoning Valley. In partnership with United Way, Playbook will launch hands-on after-school STEM programs at Boardman, Sebring, and Youngstown schools that inspire confidence, curiosity, and career skills through sports and technology.
When Sports Meet STEM: A Night That Changed How Students See Math
From reaction-time games to smart hoops, STEM Playbook proved that sports can spark a love of math and STEM at Sebring’s Literacy Under the Lights.
STEM Playbook Featured on Cráneo: Spanish Science Podcast for Curious Kids
STEM Playbook guest and Emmy-winning sports expert Moisés Linares shows how math and science power every pass, shot, and goal in soccer.
Why Sports Are a Testbed for the Future
AI is shaping the Olympics and giving students a chance to see how skills like coding, data, and engineering connect to the sports they love. Sports aren’t just games; they’re practice for tomorrow’s jobs.
STEM Playbook Lights Up Learning at CHN Scholar House’s Back-to-School Bash
The CHN Scholar House Back-to-School Bash was full of music, food, and community fun. STEM Playbook turned a patch of lawn into a hands-on STEM zone.
STEM Playbook Joins the City of Cleveland for Back to School Fest
STEM Playbook helps prepare local students for the 2025-2026 school year with the City of Cleveland.
How Fast-Paced Play Prepares Students for Future Careers
Summer campers build reaction time skills through hands-on games that connect physical play to real-world STEM career readiness.
Cleveland Guardians x STEM Playbook Baseball Camps
STEM Playbook teamed up with the Cleveland Guardian's RBI Baseball Camps to show young athletes how science and sports collide. From smart gear to real-time stat tracking, students gained hands-on STEM skills and career inspiration, right on the field.
STEM Playbook at the Yard: Building Future Skills Through Sports & Science
At the Northcoast Yard, STEM Playbook brought sports and science together to build real-world skills, spark curiosity, and connect movement to future STEM careers.
STEM Playbook students boost brainpower through active games like Whack-a-Mole and Connect Four using the Nex Playground. It’s hands-on STEM learning powered by motion, strategy, and fun.
Struthers and Sebring students experienced a fresh approach to summer learning with STEM Playbook, where sports, movement, and tech turn STEM into a high-energy, confidence-building experience.
A regular heart rate tracking exercise revealed elevated pulses in teens, demonstrating how hands-on learning creates dual benefits in health screening and data analytics education.
STEM Playbook and Advantage Cleveland partner to bring science education to tennis clinics, demonstrating how sports naturally integrate STEM principles.
In preparation for a four-week summer camp for youth, twenty facilitators convened to experience a hands-on STEM Playbook professional development session like no other.
STEM Playbook students in Northeast Ohio use basketball to learn complex concepts in math and physics.
Students explored science through motion - they were the game controllers. Students jumped, ran, and moved their way through the activity, watching their heart rates rise and fall as they leveled up.
On March 16, 2025, the Cleveland Cavaliers, NEOSTEM Ecosystem and STEM Playbook will team up for Score with STEM an exciting event for hundreds of families across Northeast Ohio that combines a love for basketball and STEM.
Higher education has built momentum to champion sports as an academic discipline. We know that the connection between sports and STEM is a no brainer.
STEM Playbook announces a six-week pilot program bringing hands-on STEM education through sports to four Boys & Girls Clubs across Northeast Ohio. The program launched in January 2025 at two Akron and two Cleveland locations.
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