Students at Eliot-Hine Middle School in Northeast D.C. got a special lesson from Olympian Katie Ledecky Monday.
The swimmer from Bethesda, Maryland, has racked up 10 Olympic medals over the years, but Monday she traded in the swimsuit for a lab coat to help kids appreciate science and math.
She helped found a program called STEM Forward, which gives students online resources for learning.
“I think every field uses technology, uses science, uses all of these things,” Ledecky said.
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That includes swimming. Ledecky said when she’s in the pool she’s doing things like measuring her stroke angle and calculating the water pressure.
“Because I’m at this level, I have to look for every small detail that I can to try to get just a little bit better, because that can be the difference between first and second,” she said.
That incredible drive that made an impression on students like eighth grader Maiya Silver.
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“She talked a lot about persistence and being persistent in her goals and how you can push yourself to make yourself better in whatever you wanted to do,” Maiya said.
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