The Science of Sport: Bringing Sport & STEM Together
Our Sports Lab, sponsored by Racelogic, is a deliberate step towards building a stronger link between the sports and science curricula.
The Racelogic Sports Lab takes up the whole of the bottom floor of the Sports Campus. Inspired by visits to professional sports facilities such as the Arsenal training centre, who helped the school to formulate their plans, a large, open plan teaching space leads through a glass partition wall which will house a suite of high tech sports analysis and virtual reality equipment. This area is designed to enable key elements of the sports science curriculum to be put into practice for the very first time. With access straight from the pitch, the school also plans to video activity on the pitch (and eventually in other outdoor and indoor sports areas) and instantly watch playback on large screens to analyse performance, using an IdeaPaint wall for collaborative learning. There are plans to go a step further too, and teach students how to code the activity on pitch and use the data to learn better techniques and improve play.
The Sports Lab is designed to proactively motivate everyone to understand the role of technology in helping us to move more, and how to move well, and will encourage the setting of goals and measurement of performance. Importantly, it will also teach young people that there are many careers in sport off the pitch, and hopes to inspire the next generation of sports technologists. The school hopes that the facility will encourage young people who don’t consider themselves fit or sporty, to take an interest in the science and technology behind sport, and encourage them to be more active as well.
“The new sports facilities we now have at the Royal latin are amazing. After so long wanting to improve upon what we already had, I can hardly believe we’ve finally got them! The Sports Campus is transforming what we’re able to offer students and the community, and will bring so many more exciting opportunities to inspire everyone to try new activities. It’s come at such a critical time, when we need to work extra hard to help everyone to rebuild fitness and confidence after the pandemic. The Sports Campus will allow us to enhance both provision and equality in outstanding facilities. It adds a new energy to the school, and will change lives for the better. My department is really proud to be a part of that.”
Ian Gould, Head of PE, The Royal Latin School
“The Racelogic Sports Lab in the Sports Campus brings two of my passions together: sport and technology. I’m very excited about the prospect of helping students to use technology to better measure and analyse human movement, in order to understand and improve performance. It’s such a pleasure to be able to support my old school in this way, and I feel very proud of everything the Royal Latin is achieving for young people and our local community.”
Julian Thomas, Founder, Racelogic
