The problem with education is that is it is often abstract and does not relate directly to the lives of the students that it aims to help. This results in a lack of engagement from students because they do not see the relationship to the content that is being taught and how it applies to their own experience.
As a result, we are passionate about connecting concepts and developing experiences using rowing data that provide students with the chance to develop life-long competencies in a context that also provides health and wellness benefits. For this reason, we created the gROW Tulsa RowingSTEM program.
To view the full curriculum visit this link.
We have spent the last couple of years developing an app that functions with the PM5 monitor on the Concept2 rowing machine. Rowing STEM is currently available for free on the iOS app store. It contains all of the curriculum used in the gROW Tulsa outreach program and data collection functionality when the rowing machine is being used. Consequently, it provides a sandbox that allows middle school and high school students the chance to experience what data means and subsequently analyze it using extensive graphing functionality.
All of the experiments in the above PDF can be accomplished by using Rowing STEM by choosing the Collect Data button and pairing the machine monitor with the app via Bluetooth.
Each experiment has a protocol and then the data can be analyzed using the Access Data From Labs option and choosing the data that the student has created.
Included in each experiment in the Data Analysis section are Instructions for processing the data on the data analysis screen with the scatter plot.
Ensure that the students are well warmed up before each experiment.
We would love to hear from you about your experiences with these activities if you try them. We would also be interested in partnering with you if you have an interest in integrating Rowing STEM activities into your school or organization. Please contact us at neil@okrowing.org and we can begin the discussion.