Football-themed lessons turn learning into fun at Monroeville elementary school
While the Steelers try to regroup after their Week 4 loss to the Cleveland Browns, a classroom of students in Monroeville is learning how to regroup numbers as part of a new math curriculum introduced by the team and influenced by the weekly results on the field.
The program is called NFeLementary and is inspired by the work of Mary Crippen, a teacher in South Florida who decided to use the results of the NFL season to teach math to her students. She soon became a popular social media content creator, and the Steelers reached out to her to become the first professional team to adopt her methods.
"I think the plan, largely, is to engage and develop the next fandom for the Steelers," said Justin Mitchell, the team's director of marketing. "The next generation of fandom and meet them where they are."
Mitchell said the Steelers reached out to every school district in the region, and so far, 130 have responded, with a potential 80,000-plus students to learn the curriculum. Teachers in 26 other states have also downloaded resources from the program's website.
But Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary School in the Gateway School District is the first to actually implement it in the classroom, led by Dr. Emily Levine and her group of third graders.
"Gateway was just one of those first hand raisers that adopted the program," said Mitchell. "A number of teachers were saying, 'Yes, I want to do this.' Getting the programming, getting the resources, and then running it with the classrooms that they have."
KDKA was invited to sit in Levine's classroom and observe how the curriculum is taught. The subject matter is strictly based on the statistics from each game, and the data set changes weekly after each game is completed.
"For instance, 'How many yards will Aaron Rodgers throw for this week, or for the season?' and then tracking that throughout the year," said Mitchell.
Kaydence Knight is one of Levine's students and said she has already learned addition, subtraction and multiplication, but ultimately hopes to learn how to count by 100s through the program. She also says her mother is among the many parents who also enjoy the program as much as the students.
"She says that's really exciting because I like to cheer for the Steelers," said Knight.
Another compelling factor for the students is that Steelers defensive back Jaquan Brisker sat in the same classroom as a third grader. A framed jersey, autographed by Brisker, sits atop one of the classroom walls.
"That makes us even more involved and engaged in the game because we're always rooting for one of our own," said Levine.
While knowing her classroom is the first of what will be many to try this program, Levine encourages other teachers to try it.
"I say, go for it," she said. "I try to embrace it because if they're excited, that's what I'm here for. If you can't make the learning exciting for them, then you're not reaching them as a student."
