Super Bowl Activities (10 activities)

Typical Super Bowl scores - Just updated for 2023  Students reflect on the mean, median, and mode losing scores, winning scores, and range of scores from past Super Bowls as they try to predict this year's scores. They decide how the next pair of scores will affect those central measurements.  6.SP.2, 6.SP.5, 6th, 7.SP.4, S-ID.2

Super Bowl cost of ads still increasing - Updated for 2022 - The cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad has continued to rise.  Is the rise linear, exponential, something else?  Students graph and examine an exponential function, decide on the growth factor, and predict the future. 8.F.3, 8.F.5, 8.SP.1, HSS.ID.B.6a, HSF.LE.A.1, HSF.IF.C.8b

Super Bowl Numerals - Always updated - Roman Numerals, how they are used and surprisingly easy numerals arithmetic. 5.NBT, 6.NS, 7.NS

Super Bowl ads and scientific notation   On Monday, when the Super Bowl is over and all of the ads have been seen, use this scientific notation activity to involve math students in the talk of the day.  Students practice using scientific notation as they calculate the cost of Super Bowl commercials. After working with these incredible costs, students get to express their opinions about the ads and decide who the marketing was geared towards. 5.NBT.1, 5.NBT.2,  6.EE.2, 8.EE.1, 8.EE.3, 8.EE.4, HSA.SSE.A.1

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Sweetheart candies

Revised

NECCO went bankrupt in 2018 and Sweetheart candies weren't the same after that.  They are back now and made better (?) in Ohio instead of Boston.

How many dollars worth of sweetheart candies used to be sold each Valentine's season? Student learn about the pain of this new manufacturer.  They practice problem solving, critical thinking, number sense reasoning, and lots of ratio work.  Maybe serve a candy treat to your class for this one.  Enjoy!

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Typical Super Bowl scores

Updated for 2023!

Super Bowl LVII Kansas City Chiefs vs Philadelphia Eagles

In this activity students study historical Super Bowl data to reflect on average (mean, median, and mode), losing scores, winning scores, and range of scores. They are asked to judge which of these central measurements seem the most meaningful and explain their reasoning.  

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Ground Hog day

Will he see it or will he not?   He saw his shadow. 6 more weeks of winter.  Ach!

February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil will again, with great ceremony, come out of his burrow and look for his shadow.  Let your students check out the relative frequency of his accurate predictions in this activity.  Are his chances of getting it right better than a coin toss?

The activity: groundhog-day2023.pdf

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Powerball, Mega Millions, and probability

Updated!

Powerball and Mega Million jackpots are growing all the time.  Having a chance of winning 1.6 BILLION dollars might be a good context that engages your students.  

Recently the Mega Millions' jackpot was won in Maine at 1.35 billion dollars.  Last year, someone won 2.04 billion dollars in Powerball.   Students examine compound probability and decide whether playing Powerball or Mega Millions is worth it.

Students can also try this Lottery Simulator to check out the ease of winning. This could be a powerful way to show kids the reality of the lottery. Here is a Mega Millions simulator as well. Our activity on Powerball, Mega Millions and probability is below.

This week the Mega Millions prize was ONLY 31 million dollars.

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Throwing Up 2023

Greatly improved!

This year, Buffalo, New York, has had more than 100 inches of snow this winter. We imagine that the height of the tunnel to people's homes is getting pretty high. It's hard to shovel new snow when you have to get your shovel-full over those previous snow banks. You have to throw the snow practically straight up to get the snow well into the surrounding snowbanks.

In this activity students experiment with the parabolic path of that shovel full of snow. They estimate the toss and practice graphing parabolas. Then they manipulate the initial formula to refine an optimum snow throw flight path. Finally they decide how far someone will have to Throw Up.

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