To win in Olympic swimming, contestants have to be incredibly fit and have marvelous endurance and technique. Do they also need to consider the science of their motions and their equipment? Could your swimsuit, swim cap and goggles be holding…
We are very excited to see skateboarding as an event in the Tokyo Olympics. Skateboarding is athletic, artistic and difficult to master. Why has it taken so long to become an Olympic sport? What events will you be able to…
Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held each July 4th since 1972.
What do you wonder about this event?
What questions do you have from looking at all of this historical data?
How have the records changed?
Why do you think that is?
How many hot dogs can a human possibly eat in 10 minutes?
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?
Students interpret the graph relating draft pick number and contract value. They consider how much being selected earlier or later, either by a few picks or rounds effects a player’s earnings and if players should really be concerned with where in the order they are selected.
Gonzaga just won the finals of this year’s March Madness tournament. Still, which NCAA teams have had the best basketball programs over the years. Students decide which stats count towards the “Greatest March Madness Program”. Once students decide their “best program ever,” challenge them use a different criteria than they originally used.
Engage your students in percents as they get excited about March Madness. Is getting a higher seed really an advantage? Use 30 years of data to help determine for which seeds it makes sense to pick an upset. Finally, students determine a general strategy for picking games in the first round.
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.
We have two Iditarod activities for you and your classes to choose from. Appreciate the “Greatest Race on Earth”!
In this activity, students can learn about this mathematician and retired pro football player as they read to create a timeline of his life and accomplishments. They compare his milestone to the milestones that are usually met in schools.
As the Super Bowl approaches, engage your students with any or many of our football activities.
Just updated! 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…
Introduce Roman numerals to your class. In this activity students learn the rules for evaluating Roman numerals, decipher copyright dates, see how Roman numerals are used today, and do some strange looking arithmetic and surprisingly easy computation.
Wow! Look at that score! There were some scoreboard malfunctions in this December 15, 2020, pre-season game. What might have been the final score if this game progressed at this rate? The activity: Celtics&76ers.pdf
Do I have enough wrapping paper? – Students estimate the size of a gift and decide if the given wrapping paper is going to be enough. Finally they try to create a rule for determining enough wrapping paper from the dimensions of…