Students use the Pythagorean Theorem with Ben Watson’s incredible tackle to figure out how far he must have run. Truly phenomenal play!
Watson saves
Category: Sports
Steepness and fall hiking
Combine colorful and cool fall hiking with a little mathematics about percent grade change. What is a steep grade? Why is it in percent? How does grade change relate to slope?
Just ONE hot dog
A newly released nutritional and environmentally sustainable study shows that eating just one hot dog can take 36 minutes off your total healthy lifespan. How many would you have to eat to lose a whole year of your lifetime? How much did Joey Chestnut loose in the 10 minutes of Nathan’s annual contest?
How many athletes brought home no medal?
Probably most of the athletes that went to Tokyo didn’t win a Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal. We couldn’t find any numbers about these people. Can you figure it out from what we could find?
The drag in swimming – 5 Olympics activities
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…
Olympic Skateboarding + more
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 Hot Dog eating contest will return this year
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?
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?
Does an NFL player’s draft order mean a lot for the player?
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.
Greatest March Madness program
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.
Does seeding really matter?
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.
The Perfect 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? 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.
The Iditarod race will be different this year
We have two Iditarod activities for you and your classes to choose from. Appreciate the “Greatest Race on Earth”!
John Urschel, retired Baltimore Raven and Black mathematician
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.
9 Super Bowl activities
As the Super Bowl approaches, engage your students with any or many of our football activities.