A D.C.-based edtech company announced a new partnership with the National Hockey League and its players' association this week, proving that sports and academics can go hand-in-hand.
EverFi Inc. will now be responsible for bringing the STEM learning properties of ice hockey to around one million students by using its platform to bring interactive education opportunities to each of the 30 NHL team markets in the United States and Canada. It's one of the largest digital learning initiatives supported through a public-private partnership to be launched in the America or Canada, an endeavor that EverFi can handle given that the local startup has certified more than 7 million learners to date.
Dubbed the "Future Goals" program, EverFi will power the initiative by leveraging the game of hockey as an exciting learning vehicle students will be able to understand. EverFi will use hockey as a medium to show how STEM can translate to the real world. Whether it be by monitoring the trajectory of a puck, determining the speed a player needs to travel at in order to be able to slam said puck into the goal or figuring out what angle skates must be at in order to properly stop before colliding with a wall, ice hockey could allow students to see the connection between technology and sports.
“The NHL and NHLPA are together making a historic investment in STEM-based education and we’re excited to bring the strength of our North American network to power this initiative,” said EverFi Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Jon Chapman in a press release. “This program is going to bring much-needed digital learning tools to thousands of schools and help our teachers prepare today’s students to be college-ready, career-ready and life-ready."
The program will officially launch this fall during back-to-school season.
