My learners love sports - so I have been on the hunt for some great ideas for incorporating math into my classes. Here are a few:
- Tickets for the Super Bowl are hard to come by, but if you have big bucks you can still get them through one of the ticket resellers such as Stub Hub or TicketMaster. Challenge students to find the best game ticket available and then use travel Web sites to plan their trip to this year's Super Bowl. They will need to book a round-trip airline fare and two nights in a hotel. Which students will use their searching and math skills to find the best deal for what will be a very expensive trip? - See more at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson096.shtml#sthash.foUV2m2F.dpuf
- Students can turn this list of Super Bowl Winners into a graph that shows each team and how many times it has won. (Students might use the free online Create a Graph tool to build their graphs.) You can simplify this activity by having them graph only the teams that have won on more than one occasion. To expand this activity, have your students also graph the number of losses each team has had, or the number of losses of the teams that have been defeated more than once. A comparison of the graphs will reveal some connections. Using the two graphs, your students can identify the teams that have had the most Super Bowl appearances and even graph that information. It's graphing upon graphing from the gridiron.
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How do the two teams in this year's Super Bowl look on paper? Review the rosters of the two teams on the NFL Teams Web page. Students might work in groups to determine what can be learned about a team from its roster. Some possible questions might include.
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How many quarterbacks are on the team?
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Which player weighs the most?
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Which player weighs the least?
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Who is the tallest player?
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Who is the shortest player?
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Who has the most experience? (0 indicates a "rookie" player)
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How many rookies are on the team?
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Who is the oldest player on the team?
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What is the average age of players on the team?
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How many injured players are on the team?
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Who is the kicker on the team?
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Who punts for the team?
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Once students have determined their questions, they will want to create a chart that compares the answers to those questions for each of the competing teams. Is how a team "looks on paper" an indicator of just how good they will be on the field?
- On the Teachers Pay Teachers website, this free Super Bowl Math Challenge looks interesting, too.
Do you have another other ideas? I need to start hunting for lessons for the Final Four in March, too. Please share with others ideas you may have to help make learning math fun!
Brooke