Concord Christian fifth-grader Caden Goedecke had never picked up a pool cue before. He took some words of advice from Capital City Billiards’s Jeff Burnham, looked down the tip of the cue and aimed for the cushion to get the right bounce into the side pocket.
Fifth-grade teacher Megan Arey is always trying to give her students experiential learning opportunities. After meeting an ambitious fundraising goal, her class won a field trip to Capital City Billiards to learn about geometry, angles and some physics on premier pool tables.
The fifth-grade class contributed around $9,000 out of the $20,000 grand total the school raised for the Servant’s Heart Sidewalk Soldiers 5K Walkathon. To mark their fundraising success, the class earned a party and a very unique field trip.
“I learned how to hit the ball more straight. I liked it,” Goedecke said.
Jeff Burnham and Kathy Miller, the owners of Capital City Billiards, started inviting middle school students to use billiards as a tool for teaching math and geometry.
Burnham explained that using billiards or pool as a tool for tangible learning is common in many countries, like the Philippines, Taiwan, Finland, Netherlands and Germany. He has printed out worksheets, adjusted for simplicity and for a short lesson, to grow the sport and to help teachers with their own math curricula.
“I wanted to dumb it down and make it easier without overcomplicating. These aren’t actual school classes, but my goal is to make them creditable,” Burnham said.
Arey was ecstatic that her students had a chance to have fun while learning. The class has already explored the solar system through crafts and hopes to take another field trip to the Seacoast to learn more about tides and coastal ecosystems.
“I think this is pretty great. I didn’t even know it existed until I came here,” Arey said. “They have something very innovative using pool so that it can hit many age levels and so that it does have science and it does have math.”
Grounding learning in something tangible, like billiards, that is also familiar and social is important for learning, she added.
Despite phones making information so accessible, it can be easy for students to disconnect from their learning. This field trip connected their math material to something very real.
Concord Christian fifth-graders Cora Nesbitt, Caden Goedecke and Wyatt Charbono test out hitting the ball off the cushion and into the opposite pocket. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor 
Concord Christian’s Isaak Depelteau prepares his next shot while Jeff Burnham tests him with a new angle. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor 
Concord Christian’s Gavin Nault tries to hit the ball straight through using a mirror on the table. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
The students tried out different angles on the tables and played a few games to improve their aim and understand the basics.
Using lasers and mirrors, Burnham and Miller set up different challenges on each table and personally guided students on how to properly hit the cue ball.
Capital City Billiards hosts youth pool lessons and has already had a few school classes come in to learn. The next billiards prodigy could be any child who comes through the door, just waiting for an opportunity to pick up a cue, and Burnham said the talent pool just keeps growing.
