SAN FRANCISCO — Students from Lovonya DeJean Middle School in Richmond got the chance to tour Super Bowl City on Tuesday, and also learn how science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts apply in football.
At an exhibit sponsored by Chevron, students were able to speak with a representative of the San Francisco 49ers, and learn about the evolution of the shape of the football, how velocity and speed can affect the arc of a pass, and get the chance to operate a skycam in a pretend stadium.
“In school, we don’t do science and sports together, but here we do,” Aminah Jordan, 13, said. She and her classmates were trying on old football gear to see which felt the most aerodynamic.
Matthew Van Dixon, senior manager of museum education for the 49ers, said the purpose of the installation is to show real-world applications for what students learn in the classroom.
“The point of this exhibit is to share with the public how STEM is connected to the world around us,” Van Dixon said. “There’s a lot of STEM in football.”
Students also learned how a stadium is engineered, how many decibels of noise fans can make, and how many gallons of sweat a football player produces.
Former 49ers receiver Dwight Clark even made a cameo, greeting the students and saying that he was surprised at some of the ways science and math could be applied to football.
“I never thought about that before — I was just thinking of catching the football,” Clark said.
Sarah Tan covers Richmond. Contact her at 510-262-2789. Follow her at Twitter.com/sarahjtan.
