It was Spring of 2019 and Alyssa Briggs was part of a team that had organized a STEM Day with the Cleveland Cavaliers. She was nervous whether people would embrace the idea, but when the doors opened and the concourse was flooded with children and families, all deeply engaged in everything from measuring basketball angles to coding small robots, she knew that they were onto something.
That STEM Day and similar events that she and others led with the Cleveland Guardians showed Alyssa and the team the incredible power and allure that sports has to engage students.
The question became: How could you turn these one-day events into sustained learning that changes trajectories?
After years of incubating that question, the team ran with the idea and founded STEM Playbook.
Many members of the STEM Playbook team and the leaders from the previous STEM events that led to its inception are former athletes, coaches, and educators who have seen firsthand the impact sports and physical activities have on the engagement and development of children. This experience, paired with the growing opportunity of lucrative STEM fields in the modern workforce, made for an easy pairing when determining the focus of their work.
"Sports make kids feel capable, even if they're not keeping score," Alyssa explains. "When we saw thousands of students and families choosing to spend their day with us because of the allure of sports, we realized we had found the engagement vehicle education has been searching for. The question wasn't whether students had what it takes for STEM careers—it was whether we were meeting them where they already felt strong."
Through mutual connections at the polymer manufacturing company Synthomer, Alyssa and her team contacted Bounce and applied as a Programming Client. STEM Playbook was partnered up with Bounce Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) Austin Kettner and Elijah Stambaugh, both veteran entrepreneurs with experience vital to founders in navigating their journey and providing support when needed. Meetings began between the STEM Playbook team and their EIRs on how best to move forward in all aspects of their business: software design, technology used, fundraising strategies, and more.
Initially, their plan was to lean more heavily into proprietary sporting equipment with technology to be used in their learning models, but necessary conversations and deliberations with Austin and Elijah led them to refocus their strategy into a more accessible and intuitive software platform intended for instructor use. By switching from equipment to software, the scope of their production costs became more manageable and scalable.
“When we first started STEM Playbook, we had very lofty visions of developing our own equipment with smart technology and sensors,” said Alyssa. "With the help of our EIRs, it became pretty clear to us in a short amount of time that developing that tech was probably not the best way to start; but instead, we should develop our platform that will enable us to train others to implement our program.”
This re-tooling of STEM Playbook’s offerings allowed them to explore more opportunities and grow their business faster than before they were Bounce programming clients. Through the experienced mentorship and support from Bounce and its EIRs, STEM Playbook was able to hit key milestones such as providing benefits and increased pay to its full-time staff, allowing them to devote more of their time and energy to the business and expanding its reach beyond Northeast Ohio.
“I am so proud of this team we are working with and their ability to get us to a position where we are able to provide everyone with a living wage and healthcare benefits,” said Alyssa. “To use a sports analogy: they leave everything on the field day-in and day-out.”
What started as an idea to revolutionize the way we educate has grown into a company that is rapidly expanding its reach across the region and beyond. With a dedicated team of educators and athletes and supported by the trusted mentorship provided by Bounce, STEM Playbook is changing the game and introducing STEM to tomorrow’s workforce in an exciting, engaging, and effective way.
You can find out more about STEM Playbook on their website.