Simple addition methods can be taught through sports
statistics. For example, in order to figure out the number of point a team has,
you must calculate the number of wins and ties in relation to how many points
are allotted for both these factors. If each win counts as two points and each
tie is worth one, these numbers can be calculated to determine the number of
points. Thus, the number of wins and ties has a direct relation to a number of
points a team has.
The steps to this problem can
be followed like so: If a team has 30 wins and 0 ties and each win is worth two
points, the number of wins would be multiplied by 2 in order to get the number
of points earned (30x2=60). Another example which can be used as a next step
would be to add in the number of ties to the equation. If a team has 30 wins
and 15 ties (ties = 1 point), how many points do they have? (30x2 + 15x1 = 75
points). In this equation, the number of wins are multiplied by two while the
number of ties are multiplied by 1. After this step is completed, both values
are added together to calculate the number of points the team has.
I believe this is an
excellent lessons to teach students how to use their multiplication and
addition skills. I also think that relating this lesson to sports will create a
higher interest in the students. While doing this lesson, a number of sports
pictures and statistical sport standings can be used to keep the lesson
interesting. I also believe this will help students who actually play sports by
giving them the tools needed to understand how to calculate statistics.
I really agree that this will help students who actually play sports. I always found that when teachers used examples that I could relate to I found the concepts a lot easier to understand. I try to do that in my class rooms as well. I think that when you get to know your students you can cater to their needs and interests and optimize their learning
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ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts with us Rob! I like that you went beyond using stats for mean, median and mode; not that these should be overlooked when relating sports to math. This definitely brings the sports connection to younger grades, and serves as a fun intro lesson to practice these skills. One thing that I've seen in the past as well, is the incorporation of integers with sports stats. This could be related to wins vs. losses, or other types of sports such as golf, i.e. a score based on whether or not you are + or - par. At the school that I'm at, we set a Friday aside and had students play a lawn dart style game (throwing a Nurf dart at a hula hoop suspended from a garden sign frame), and they recorded their scores based on a par. Afterwards, we had them tally up and double check their scores, and released the stats to the entire intermediate grade. It was a fun morning outside, and it allowed our students to use integers in a real and fun way.
ReplyDeleteThere have been many good ideas for incorporating sports into mathematics. I think that students can easily relate to the topic of sports, and it would be a good way to engage more kinesthetic learners who may naturally gravitate more closely to sports in general. I could see the applications of using sport to create a mini end of year reviewing unit, as you can connect many math topics to sports applications. One further idea might be to even have an end of year math tournament where students could represent their favourite teams in the matches; this may particularly be useful to implement when the Olympics or other large sporting events are taking place; you could even implement current footage of events into the race, I am sure (ie. what are the odds so-and-so will win the race, calculating the running/skating speed during a race).
ReplyDeleteI think relating to students and incorporating themes or interests are key ways to engage students in the classroom; showing them the direct links to math is key!
This is an excellent use of differentiated instruction. By this I mean that teachers find the interests of the students and use it to further develop their learning. If they are interested in what they learn, they will actually enjoy it rather than treat it like another 'dreaded math class.' Not only would this be interesting to them, but it would be relevant and they would understand why they are doing it. I cannot believe how much statistics kids know about sports, it is really astounding! I know some students that could recite me every stat possible from the NHL. I can tell you right now that they would love using that in their learning. Great post!
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