Huge sports contracts! We often hear about big player contracts. Who makes the most per year? Per game? What sports?
Big bucks 2023
Category: Sports
Before the holidays (16 activities)
We have tons (well, 16) of activities to bring to your class in this last week before the holiday break. Movies, science, art, cooking, economics, weather and the logic of calendars. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving, shopping, football and giving
How should I cook my turkey? – Students judge timing, cost, tastiness, and quantity necessary as they plan for the feast. 4.MD.1, 5.NBT.7, 4.MD2, 6.RP.3, 6.NS.3, 7.NS.3 Great video on a deep frying fire with William Shatner. Shopping season already! – Students will…
World Cup 2022 – Qatar (2 activities)
The World Cup of Soccer begins November 20, 2022. We have two different activities involving the logic of setting up a fair draw and the number of matches that each team may have to play.
Do teams that spend a lot win a lot?
In this activity students compare team wins with team salaries in the four major North American sports … the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL. Students use data from recent seasons to create scatter plots comparing wins and salaries for each sport
Why isn’t the World Cup happening now?
The World Cup Finals is only played every 4 years but isn’t it always in June? The World Cup Finals 2022 will be played in Qatar from November 21 until December 18m 2022. Why is that?
NBA Finals 2022
A little sports history and data analysis through the context of NBA Finals math! In this activity students consider scatter plots, circle graphs, bar graphs, Venn Diagrams and the concept of mean.
The odds of horse race betting
Rich Strike surprised everyone at the Kentucky Derby horse race in early May by moving from 18th place at the half-way mark (out of 20 horses) to winning the race. Churchill Downs, the track in Kentucky where the race took place, paid out $81 for every dollar that was bet for Rich Strike to win. How do they figure that?
Shooting for Three
The NBA court has a 3-point line that separates how many points a player will earn for his team by making a basket from outside of that line. Teams have been shooting more and more three’s, but should they be and why?
April 15th happenings
We have 6 April 15th activities. The Boston Marathon, Where your tax money goes, Jackie Robinson, and Paul Revere’s ride.
Who has the greatest Men’s March Madness program?
The Kansas Jayhawks just won the finals of this year’s March Madness tournament. Which NCAA teams have had the best basketball programs over the years. Students decide which stats count towards the “Greatest March Madness Program”.
Spring is here (5 activities)
To celebrate spring, we’ve shown our fractal tree coming to leaf and created in Python to see what students can figure out about the instructions of the computer language. More March Madness activities are included. An Excel activity on counting backwards to figure out planting dates. And, a reminder of tick time and the growth of Lyme disease.
Picking the perfect bracket 2022
What are your chances of picking every game? How does the change from 64 to 65 to now, 68 teams in the field complicate things? How many brackets would you need to fill out to pick every possibility? How many reams of paper would you need to print all of those brackets? Let’s do the math! Also, check out the video below that explores your odds of picking all games in the tournament perfectly.
Iditarod 2022 – The Last Great Race on Earth
Students do some rate, distance, and hardship comparisons to decide if they agree that the Iditarod is really the Last Great Race on Earth.
Winter Olympic Activities (7 activities)
Curling – Friction, score-keeping, trajectory and weirdness are the main concepts in this activity. Curling is not a well-understood sport but the science and strategy are easily understood and enjoyed. Big Air Snowboarding – Some of your students may be officianados…