Category: Sports

Souvenirs and concessions

This activity is an introduction to systems of equations with easy, motivating problems that deal with the cost of stadium purchases for food and souvenirs. These can be done by any puzzle solving students.

Triple Crown hopefuls at the Preakness

Saturday, May 20th, will be the running of the Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race in Baltimore, Maryland. The Preakness is the second major race for 3-year old thoroughbreds to run in their effort to claim the Triple Crown of horse…

How hard it is to pick the perfect bracket?

If you try to predict how the games will play out by filling out a bracket, 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?

Iditarod 2023 – The Last Great Race on Earth

The Iditarod Dogsled Race will begin this year on Saturday, March 4th in Anchorage, Alaska. It is often called The Last Great Race on Earth because it is so long and grueling. Students do some rate, distance, and hardship comparisons to decide if…

Typical Super Bowl scores

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.  

Big bucks 2023

Huge sports contracts! We often hear about big player contracts. Who makes the most per year? Per game? What 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…

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