NEWARK- Branch Brook Park Roller Skating Center, which has been providing fun, safe, and exciting recreational experiences for children for years, has added a new dimension to their business model education.
According to **Alexsandra Lorenzo, Sales Manager at Branch Brook Park Roller Skating Center**, The United Skates relates science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) with roller skating to help children learn and experience STEM concepts firsthand. This STEM field trip program is in its 6th year and educated 400,000 students nationwide last year!
Officials say in 2019, the program educated nearly 600,000 students nationwide.
"The STEM field trip programs are designed by experts across the country, including Ph.D. candidates and certified teachers, and use enthusiastic and qualified educators to show that STEM is not only found in everyday experiences but even FUN experiences like roller skating," Sales Manager Alexsandra Lorenzo said.
Officials say the hands-on activities that relate roller skating to STEM capture the student's attention and help explain difficult-to-teach concepts and make students less fearful of STEM learning.
Some examples of the lessons available to teachers are the following:
**Lesson #1**: Science of Roller Skating: Students will learn the different parts of a roller skate and their functions. Our educator will explain the various surfaces in the roller rink and how that affects the motion of a roller skate.
**Lesson #2:** Motion and Rink Design: Students will get an introduction to the physics of roller skating by discussing the four parameters of motion.
**Lesson #3:** Music, Math, and Roller Skating: Students will learn how to count the beats per minute in music. They will also learn how the type of music affects the speed of a roller skater.
**Lesson #4:** Acoustics & Roller-Skating Design: Students will learn how different sound waves look and how they travel through various mediums.
**Lesson #5:** Science of Lighting: Students will learn about the speed of light and how light travels.
**Lesson #6:** Heart, Health, and Fitness: Students will focus on heart-related anatomy, nutrition, and exercise. Students
will participate in fun heart-healthy activities such as finding and calculating their heart rate.
**Lesson #7:** Formulas, Fractions, and Fun: The Relationship Between Math and Roller Skating: Students will measure and calculate a skater's speed and use mean, median, and mode with different skate sizes.
**Lesson #8:** Newton's Law of Motion: Students will learn Newton's three laws of motion and how they relate to real-world experiences and roller skating.
**Lesson #9:** The Science Behind Roller & Ice Hockey: Students will learn how STEM plays a large part in sports. They will learn how three types of motion can make a difference in the outcome of a game.
**Lesson #10:** Arcade Game Design and STEM: Students will learn how math, science, and engineering of arcade games at the rink. They will learn how to measure their reaction time, calculate the probability of a simple game, and create an electric circuit.
STEM In Sports:
Lesson 1: The physics behind baseball/volleyball, roller derby/roller skating: Students will get an introduction into the physics of sports by discussing concepts such as The Law of Conservation, how energy converts. At the same time, the ball is moving, calculating averages and velocity.
**Lesson 2:** The physics behind football/soccer, roller derby/roller skating: Students will learn how STEM is everywhere, even in sports they love! They will study concepts such as force, motion, gravity, speed, and velocity.
**Lesson 3:** The physics behind skateboarding/skiing, roller derby/roller skating: Students will learn about the center of mass and angular momentum and how these concepts apply to the sports they love! They will test ice cubes on a ramp and determine how friction affects different surface areas.
Since embarking on this STEM journey, Branch Brook Park has used its passion for the initiative to raise awareness on the growing need for STEM in the education of our youth.
**Alexsandra Lorenzo, Sales Manager at Branch Brook Park Roller Skating Center**, released the following:
"Our program gets children excited about STEM and motivates them to become involved in STEM topics in the future. Roller skating is such a natural fit when it comes to explaining STEM concepts, and the students are always completely amazed by the connection."