Summer school has met the national pastime in Boston.

The tuition-free summer MIT Science of Baseball program teaches 30 inner-city teenage boys “baseball-related math and physics” during morning classes and then show the players how to translate those lessons to the diamond during afternoon games, reports The Boston Globe.

Among other things, the students learn how a curveball works, complete with the effects that certain pitches can have on the human body. And they learn how to measure the distance, accuracy, velocity, and hang time of their throws.

Now in it’s fifth year, the program provides “valuable lessons about teamwork and problem solving,” according to its website. “At first I thought it was going to be all work and no play,’’ said one student. “It’s two hours a day of classes and then all baseball. It’s actually pretty cool because we’re learning new things, things I’ve never done.’’

[The Boston Globe]

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