Seven years ago, I stepped down as the Head Coach of the Tulsa Youth Rowing Association due to some health struggles. I thought that my coaching career was over. After only six months away, I wanted to support and help once more. However, I knew that I couldn’t do this as Head Coach.
I also knew a little about programming from early web apps. But I knew nothing about programming mobile apps, let alone any development for iOS. Some college friends invited me to the rowing club during a trip to Washington DC. There, I witnessed inner-city kids learning to row for the first time. We worked on DIB work at Holland Hall for two years before the DC trip. This got me thinking.
I needed to combine my passion for rowing with teaching STEM and programming. As a result, gROW Tulsa and RowingSTEM were born.
I saw a huge opportunity to use rowing data, such as the force curve, to teach fundamental physics concepts such as impulse in a real-world setting. However, I couldn’t find an app on the market that would allow the collection of those points.
Learning to program iOS was a huge struggle. Still, I stayed with it, and six months later, RowingSTEM for iOS was created, providing comprehensive data collection from the PM5 monitor on the Concept2 rowing machine. I started to write experiments that could be completed with or without the app because while the app is cool, we needed to make the curriculum accessible for all.
During the three years since has been released, we have been invited to speak at conferences, visit other schools, support the Union Alternative School, partner with the Opportunity Project and STEM to STERN, and help put Tulsa on the map as a place where innovation happens.
I can’t help but feel that we are just getting started. The vision is to provide a worldwide resource for coaches, teachers, and kids to learn STEM in a unique and real-world manner. My thanks to all those that have helped support me along the way. I can’t wait to see where we are in five to ten years.
If you want to learn more about the program and have a free consult, set up a free consult. I’d love to meet you and find out how we can help. #innovation #data #rowing #ios #appdeveloper #apple #opportunity #stem #outreach #concept2
