Scratch for Sports: Athletic Drills as a Platform for Experiencing, Understanding, and Developing AI-Driven Apps

Scratch for Sports: Athletic Drills as a Platform for Experiencing, Understanding, and Developing AI
Jared O'Leary
Download

In this episode I unpack Kumar and Worsley’s (2023) publication titled “Scratch for sports: Athletic drills as a platform for experiencing, understanding, and developing AI-driven apps,” which summarizes explorations of the intersections of computer science and physical education.

  • Quote culturally relevant and sustaining

    implementations of computing education

    are increasingly leveraging young

    learners's passion for sports as a

    platform for building interest in

    different STEM Science technology

    engineering and math concepts numerous

    disciplines spanning physics engineering

    data science and especially artificial

    intelligence AI based Computing are not

    only authentically used in professional

    sports in today's world but can also be

    productively introduced to introduce

    Young Learners to these disciplines and

    facilitate deep engagement with the same

    in the context of sports in this work we

    present a curriculum that includes a

    constellation of proprietary apps and

    tools that we show to student athletes

    learning sports like basketball and

    soccer which use AI methods like pose

    detection and imu-based gesture

    detection to track activity and provide

    feedback we also share scratch

    extensions which enable Rich access to

    sports related pose object and gesture

    detection algorithms that youth can then

    Tinker around with and develop their own

    sports drill Apple applications

    represent early findings from Pilot

    implementations of portions of these

    tools and curricula which also Foster

    discussion relating to the failings risk

    and social harms associated with many of

    these different AI methods noticeable in

    professional sports context and relevant

    to youths lives as active users of AI

    Technologies as well as potential future

    creators of the same end quote that is

    the abstract for the paper which is

    titled scratch for sports colon

    authentic drills as a platform for

    experiencing understanding and

    developing AI driven apps this was

    written by vishesh Kumar and Marcela

    warsley apologies if I mispronounce any

    names but how to summarize this paper

    into a single sentence that say that

    this paper summarizes explorations of

    the intersections of computer science

    and physical education which is not

    discussed enough and which is why I

    wanted to bring this up in this

    unpacking scholarship episode there are

    nearly 200 more episodes that are like

    this as well as some interviews and some

    professional development discussions you

    can find that at jaredoleery.com in the

    introduction of this paper the authors

    talk about how interdisciplinary areas

    can be very motivating for students

    because they're able to combine some

    interest in multiple subject areas in a

    way that is individually meaningful for

    them for example many students are

    really interested in sports or physical

    education as well as in Computing if you

    can combine the two in a meaningful way

    this might be very motivating for

    students in addition there's been some

    scholarship that has explored a concept

    known as embodied cognition or as paper

    might describe it body sentinicity which

    is like learning kinesthetically and

    learning through movement motion Etc

    students are able to explore and embody

    different Computing and physical

    education Concepts through Sport and the

    exploration of sport through technology

    and Computing that is assisted by

    artificial intelligence if you're

    interested in learning more about the

    intersections of computing and AI

    education or the intersections of AI

    education in sports There's a summary on

    that on page sixteen thousand and twelve

    so check it out if you're interested in

    that and the authors mentioned that

    there are many ways that you can explore

    these intersections of computing and

    Sports in contexts like PE and Library

    classes or programming at the park

    sessions community centers pop-ups

    through like summer camps or in like a

    computer science class so throw

    throughout the paper the authors

    mentioned here's where you might be able

    to explore this type of project or this

    type of idea in different contexts which

    is important to consider especially when

    you are doing some kind of a physical

    activity that requires larger space or

    like larger ceilings Etc which you'll

    find out why in a moment on page 16 2013

    the authors talk about a video sensing

    app called home court and scratch so the

    first section that I talk about is on

    video sensing so this is like on home

    court in scratch which is a project that

    allows students to kind of explore

    through the iPad how you might be able

    to use like body tracking movement in AI

    to kind of explore different drills for

    like moving a basketball or like even

    kicking a soccer ball Etc to be able to

    figure out how to practice your

    dribbling or practice your shots Etc

    through the use of like AI assisted

    technology to be able to look at your

    patterns and figure out areas that you

    might be able to improve these types of

    apps are frequently used by individuals

    in their Leisure or for professional

    sports or entire teams and are becoming

    increasingly more popular like think of

    like the rocky scenario where we have

    like Rocky who's training old school

    method in the cold just running doing

    pull-ups push-ups Etc and then we have

    the fighter who's got the scientist all

    around him who's hooked up the machines

    and checking heart rate Etc that's where

    we're increasingly heading with sports

    education and whatnot and sports

    training for especially the professional

    area not just like Leisure and whatnot

    but trying to find that one percent

    incremental advantage over somebody else

    over an extended period of time really

    can add up so AI assisted tools that are

    able to analyze your motion and find

    more efficient ways of moving or better

    patterns for dribbling Etc can help you

    get that one percent Edge over other

    people so students will explore this

    kind of an app like on their iPad and

    then engage in a discussion on how it

    might help them or talking about like

    the motivation that can come with local

    and Global leaderboards in apps like

    this and then the students explore a

    like a watered-down version of how you

    might be able to create something

    similar in scratch using some extensions

    that they developed which this is

    fascinating to see that like this is

    where we are headed with scratch

    thinking about where scratch was even I

    don't know five years ago I can't wait

    to see what kind of tools and whatnot

    are going to be implemented in scratch

    way but the authors mentioned that

    students are not only exploring like the

    applications of an app but they're also

    then learning how might you create

    something similar Brandon it's going to

    be a watered down version of this but

    allows you to explore and kind of

    simulate the thought processes and

    design thinking that is involved in

    creating something similar which I think

    is very helpful for students here's a

    quote from page 16

    in discussing the ability of video based

    AI systems in helping Sports practice

    which often also opens the door to

    discussing the usage of similar systems

    in their surroundings seen on face

    identifying systems on smartphones and

    home security systems and the underlying

    ethics of regarding data access and

    surveillance enabled these systems end

    quote which is a really important thing

    to consider now the next set of projects

    that the authors kind of describe in

    here is on wearables so this is on smart

    watches and microbes so in this space

    the authors recommend having some kind

    of an open space like a track or like a

    gym or whatever so they have the

    students take like a lap around the

    space and then kind of guess how many

    steps did that take for you to get

    around that lap and then that leads to a

    discussion on like how would you be able

    to get a more precise answer with that

    very quickly so that can lead to

    discussions about like wearables like

    smart watches Etc which will kind of

    like keep track of how many steps you're

    taking and then the authors recommend

    like okay you could have a discussion

    where you compare what was your estimate

    versus what actually happened and then

    have students create their own step

    counters using something like a micro

    bit and then you can have a discussion

    about the three different approaches how

    did the micro bit compare from the

    Smartwatch compare from my initial

    estimate without technology what about a

    discussion around the false positives

    that can come with micro bits because

    they're not going to be as accurate as a

    device that is like a few hundred

    dollars for context micro bits are very

    affordable relatively speaking very

    cheap especially for the amount of like

    features you get out of it I highly

    recommend them so in this discussion the

    authors are also recommending students

    to try and main trick basically like to

    be able to get your steps in like I can

    sit here and like move my arms around

    and the steps counter is going up but

    I'm just still sitting in my chair not

    actually stepping same thing with the

    micro bit you can kind of trick the

    system to have some false positives the

    authors then kind of unpack a little

    activity that you can do with like

    pattern detection algorithms being able

    to detect different like patterns with

    movements so like for example if you're

    boxing those different types of punches

    that you can do whether you're gonna do

    like a jab a cross a hook etc those are

    all very different types of movements a

    pair you might get registered as a punch

    even though it's just a Parry so if

    you're interested in learning more about

    that pattern detection algorithms check

    out page 1614 but the last section that

    the authors talk about is ball sensors

    so this is on play impossible in siq and

    the micro bits so play impossible is

    like a game and so like one of the games

    that it talks about is like how high can

    you throw a ball or like how fast can

    you shake a ball in a given amount of

    time and kind of like talks about these

    in some different contests that you can

    do with different groups or classes Etc

    now obviously if you're gonna throw a

    ball that really high or as high as

    possible you want to make sure you're in

    a space where you don't have a ceiling

    because students might surprise you at

    how high they can throw a ball even if

    you're in a like a large gym or whatever

    it might hit the ceiling or get stuck in

    a light or whatever just look up next

    time you're in the gym and you just

    might see a ball that is stuck in the

    roof these types of games can also be

    replicated or reproduced using a micro

    bit whether you're doing like scratch or

    doing something like make code or

    whatever so the authors talk about how

    you can use these different gesture

    types of detections to create some

    different projects and whatnot in your

    classes in the discussion of future work

    the authors talk about how this is kind

    of like the beginning of some potential

    applications and explorations of the

    intersections of computing and physical

    education or Sports if you have ideas on

    how you've explored these intersections

    in your classes please feel free to

    share them in the comments on YouTube or

    on any of the social media platforms

    that I'm on which you can quickly just

    find on jaredelary.com under the socials

    tab but as always with these unpacking

    scholarship episodes I want to share

    some of my lingering questions or

    thoughts so one of them is how do we

    incorporate physical Computing in an

    individualized or rhizomatic way there's

    a big difference between general

    interest and individual interests among

    kids so kids might generally be

    interested in video games and generally

    interested in anime or sports but not

    every student is going to be interested

    in video games anime and sports and like

    even within those different categories

    there's going to be some students who

    are interested in some areas and not

    others I love some animes and don't

    really have an interest in others I love

    some video games and not interested

    others same thing with sports I'll do a

    Muay Thai any day but I'm not gonna go

    join a football team so there's a

    tendency that some curriculum developers

    have when they're creating some lessons

    where they essentialize that because

    generally speaking kids are interested

    in things then all kids will be

    interested in this very specific thing

    within that category and that is just

    simply not true so we as Educators need

    to think about not just the general

    areas that students are interested in

    but how they might explore the specifics

    within that general area in an

    individualized way we talk about that in

    some of the rhizomatic learning episodes

    which I will link to in the show notes

    so you can explore more about that

    concept so I won't rant about that here

    and the next question I have is when do

    you use physical Computing in your

    classroom whether it's like an unplugged

    or like using a device like a micro bit

    to be able to create some kind of like a

    sports game or whatever when do you use

    it do you use it to introduce a concept

    to reinforce a concept or is this like a

    separate unit or activity or do you not

    engage with it at all if you do engage

    with physical Computing how do you

    prevent the novelty from wearing off I

    often see kids who get very interested

    in some kind of a physical device and if

    it does not have like a low floors High

    ceilings and wide walls like a micro bit

    might have then students eventually get

    bored with it with some kind of even if

    students are like super excited about

    this like robot or whatever you give it

    a week or two of them using it and

    they'll be like yeah this isn't as

    interesting as being able to like code

    something in scratch which has low

    floors High ceilings wide walls which

    means that there's a low barrier of

    Entry there's a high ceiling for

    complexity that can be explored and

    there's a wide range of projects or

    activities or whatever that can be

    created through that particular platform

    or device Etc to reiterate this I have

    speaking with some like heads of

    computer science in districts across the

    country and many of them have said yeah

    we bought this particular robot or

    device or tool for physical Computing it

    was interesting students may have used

    it for a week maybe for a month and then

    it just sits on the shelf and collects

    dust for the rest of the year if you

    think those experiences are so valuable

    that it's worth that initial investment

    costs which generally speaking is very

    high you'll get classroom sets or

    District sets Etc and you think that's

    worthwhile great but if you are not

    aware of that phenomenon and you have

    not experienced buying devices only to

    see it being put on the Shelf after a

    month maybe experiment with a small

    subset of devices and see how that goes

    instead of buying a bunch of different

    devices or one approach that you could

    do is like if this is really interesting

    for like two weeks get like a school set

    that can be used by a classroom educator

    and then rotate over to another school

    like for the remaining weeks and just

    keep doing that throughout the year so

    then eventually it'll come back and

    it'll be novel again because students

    aren't working on it every single day

    but those are just my experiences and

    opinions you enjoyed this episode or any

    of the nearly 200 episodes that are

    available on my website at

    jaredeliry.com please consider sharing

    with somebody else stay tuned for an

    episode next week until then I hope

    you're all staying safe and are having a

    wonderful week

Article

Kumar, V., & Worsley, M. (2023). Scratch for Sports: Athletic Drills as a Platform for Experiencing, Understanding, and Developing AI-Driven Apps. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 37(13), 16011-16016.

Abstract

“Culturally relevant and sustaining implementations of computing education are increasingly leveraging young learners' passion for sports as a platform for building interest in different STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) concepts. Numerous disciplines spanning physics, engineering, data science, and especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) based computing are not only authentically used in professional sports in today's world but can also be productively introduced to introduce young learners to these disciplines and facilitate deep engagement with the same in the context of sports. In this work, we present a curriculum that includes a constellation of proprietary apps and tools that we show to student athletes learning sports like basketball and soccer which use AI methods like pose detection and IMU-based gesture detection to track activity and provide feedback. We also share Scratch extensions which enable rich access to sports related pose, object, and gesture detection algorithms that youth can then tinker around with and develop their own sports drill applications. We present early findings from pilot implementations of portions of these tools and curricula, which also fostered discussion relating to the failings, risks, and social harms associated with many of these different AI methods – noticeable in professional sports contexts, and relevant to youths' lives as active users of AI technologies as well as potential future creators of the same.”

Author Keywords

Sports, Physical Computing, Gesture Detection, K-12 Education, Object Detection, Scratch, Soccer, Basketball

My One Sentence Summary

This paper summarizes explorations of the intersections of computer science and physical education.

Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • How do we incorporate physical computing in an individualized or rhizomatic way?

  • When do you use physical computing in your classroom?

    • If you use engage with physical computing, how do you prevent the novelty from wearing off?

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

More Content

Unpacking ScholarshipJared O'Learymicro:bit, Physical computing, Rhizomatic learning, IntegrationComment