Statistics of sports

Using Statistics of Sports to Integrate Good and Innovative Mathematics into Your Classroom

(For GRADES 7-12, Intervention Specialists, or Any Interested Party)
presented by Duane Bollenbacher

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Aug. 6-8, 2013
 

Description

This 3-day course is designed for the mathematics teacher, or ANY INTERESTED PARTY, who wishes to capitalize on the interest of students in sports to arouse interest, to encourage participation, to motivate, to engage in the statistics and to focus on the tasks in any mathematics class. Mathematics at all levels (from basic arithmetic to higher computational skills) will be used to examine the statistics, look at the trends, determine the figures and indicators, and make predictions of the future. We will look at all the well-known sports and also look at lesser-known statistics of some less-popular sports.

NOTE: This will be more valuable, interesting and engaging if you already ARE a huge sports fan, or WISH TO BECOME ONE.

This course, along with one other course, may be used by an INTERVENTION SPECIALIST to become a HIGHLY QUALIFIED             TEACHER (HQT) in mathematics CONTENT.

Content

• Statistics of some common sports:
  • BASEBALL: Batting average; on-base percentage; slugging percentage; ERA; distance from home to second; Games behind in the standings; Wild Card teams;
  • BASKETBALL: FG Pct., FT Pct., probability of making both ends of 1-and-1; how many ways to score 10 points (with 3-pointer, 2-pointer, FT), etc.
  • FOOTBALL: What is a 'DOWN'? What does 1st & 10 mean? "Half-the distance"; on your own 47, gain 7, where are you now? Overtime in HS? College? Pros?
  • BOWLING—Do you (still) know how to keep score? Did you ever?
  • CROSS COUNTRY—Scoring a dual meet; scoring a HUGE meet; what does that 6th and 7th runner do to the scoring?
  • VOLLEYBALL—When did winning score go from 15 to 25? What changes have that caused—in strategy? In winning? What happened to side-out?
  • Soccer? Hockey? Wrestling? Tennis? Golf? Other sports?
• Making a schedule for a league—how many games?
• Tournament drawings and seeds

 

Course Expectations

Attendance at all sessions
Participation in all activities
Sharing teaching ideas that have worked for you

Problems to Ponder for the Workshop

• How many ways are there to score 10 points in a basketball game? (order does not matter)
• Your football team is on the other team's 20 yard line. The opponent is penalized 15 yards or in this case "half the distance to the goal". Before the next play, then YOU are penalized 15 yards. Then THEY are penalized 15 yards or in this case "half the distance to the goal". Then YOU are penalized 15 yards. Suppose this happens an infinite number of times. Where does the ball end up?
• You are a 60% free throw shooter. Your team is 1 point BEHIND when you are fouled just as time expires. You are awarded a "1-and-1" free throw opportunity. What is the probability that you will send the game into overtime?
• Fill in the question marks in the Won-Loss Standings
  W               L                  PCT                 GB            STRK              L10

  97            65               .599                 --                   L 1                    5-5
  88           74                ???                9                 W1                    7-3
  ??          79               .512                  ?                  L1                    4-6
  79           83               ???                18                 L1                    4-6
  61           ??               .377                  ?                 W1                  2-8
  55         107               ???                 ?                 L1                    5-5