The combination of sports and analytics has transformed the way professional basketball is played, coached, and managed; it also has given us the new way to engage and educate the next generation of youth. Sports analytics provides an accurate, and clear-cut application of math and statistics in which youth perform data gathering and analysis directly linked to their own improved on-court performance. This allows students who are not traditionally engaged in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to be intrinsically motivated to use STEM concepts as a tool for basketball training. Once the STEM has shown youth a connection towards improving their own basketball skills, it would also become more attractive as a career path.

The GAME READY STEM PROGRAM will increase youth’s perception of, knowledge of, and interest in STEM curriculum and fields. We believe This approach can be integrated within the sports organization’s existing youth programs to promote STEM education as a public good and can be replicated in other educational communities, both formal and informal.