MIT's learning curve

Inside an MIT engineering classroom, pitchers in Red Sox shirts and sports jerseys fix their eyes on the strike zone, a white square on the blackboard. With all the eighth-grade muscle they can muster, they take turns hurling a styrofoam ball at the target.

Moments later, in a postgame analysis from their desks, the 24 boys and their camp instructors compare the flight patterns of the balls, offering theories to explain why smooth and rough balls follow different paths.

Some of the boys have never played baseball. Others have barely mastered basic algebra. But for four weeks this summer, the Boston-area middle-school students are learning physics through sport in an experiment that educators hope will hook boys on math and science.

The camp, which debuted this summer, was created as a way of channeling the excitement of the Red Sox's World Series victory in 2004, particularly among boys, into enthusiasm for academic pursuits, said Karl W. Reid, associate dean and director of MIT's Office of Minority Education, who dreamed up the program.

While baseball is often used to teach math and physics in classrooms around the country, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology program is unique in its length and intense focus, according to the camp's leaders and educators from national math and physics groups. Next summer, organizers plan to double the number of participants in the program, and they eventually hope to see it replicated across the nation.

"The goal really is to try to touch as many young lives as we can and get them thinking that math and science is something they should be excited about," said Dedric A. Carter, who oversees engineering-outreach programs at MIT.

In the mornings, students spend their time in the classroom, graphing batting statistics, watching videos about baseball history, or tackling hands-on experiments. Their instructors are recent college graduates and current students from MIT and other schools. In the afternoons, they migrate to the MIT baseball diamond with their instructors to put theory into practice.

The curriculum pairs topics in baseball pitching and running, for instance, with math and science concepts like parabolas and air resistance. In the styrofoam ball lesson, students discussed the flaws in the experiment and concluded that using a pitching machine instead of humans could improve its precision.

Javon Gates, 13, a seasoned outfielder who attends Boston Latin School, said the program, which concludes this week, has refined his skills on the field and allowed him to pursue his interest in science more deeply.

"There's more than what you see, there's more than meets the eye," he said. "Now that I know all of this stuff, it can help me advance as a player."

Gbenga Olukoga, 13, a student at Roxbury Preparatory School, never played baseball on a team before he came to the MIT camp. Like many of his classmates, he said the best part was being out on the field, though he enjoys the classroom lessons. He said he learned that standing on tiptoes while waiting to catch a ball makes it easier to jump high.

"I think everything we learn is important. You can use it," he said.

For many of the students, making time for baseball is difficult, said the camp's coordinator, Jason Larocque, 28, a sixth-grade teacher at Boston Preparatory Charter Public School. Inner-city Boston is home to relatively few youth leagues, and many of the students' parents are juggling jobs and have difficulty bringing their children to practices, Larocque said.

"Baseball has fallen into a forgotten realm. We're in an age where kids are playing PlayStation all the time and texting each other on cellphones ," he said. "This is almost a nostalgic type of baseball experience."

Larocque sees the camp as an opportunity to pique the students' interest in playing baseball. The day camp is free to the students. The estimated $1,000-per-student-cost is paid for by several entities, including MIT and the Red Sox Foundation. Organizers said it was difficult to recruit participants because it was hard to get families to make a monthlong commitment to so much time inside, even though baseball was included.

Gates, the player from Boston Latin, said the classroom lessons are not always practical on the field. Players rarely have time, for instance, to calculate batting angles on the spot, he said.

"If you're really smart and you know a lot about physics," he said, "you can be one of the best players in history."

Javier Hernandez can be reached at jhernandez@globe.com.