Fantasy Baseball and Mathematics
Lesson Rubric
Student Handout
Student Roster
Scoring Criteria
Daily Scoring Sheet
Total Scoring Sheet
Statistics Sample
Student Sample One
Student Sample Two
Student Sample Three
Name: Jason Gallant
Grade: 7-8 Math AIS
School: Norwood-Norfolk Central
- Title/Context Of Learning Experience
Students participating in this learning experience will be creating a fantasy team by purchasing Major League Baseball (MLB) players and will compete by earning points based on real-life statistics of these players. The purpose of this learning experience is to reinforce the previously taught concept of adding fractions. Students will be working in collaboration with others to gather data and will be adding fractions with unlike denominators. The students will need to be able to find their players statistics and compute the number of points for that player based on the provided scale. Points are accumulated throughout the playoffs, and the student with the highest cumulative points is the winner.Standards Used:
6.N.16: Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators
5.N.20: Convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and mixed numbers to improper fractions - Essential Question
How can real life statistics from Fantasy Baseball increase student participation and achievement of the concept of adding fractions? - Procedure
A lesson on Adding Fractions is taught and practiced at least 2 times prior to this learning experience.
Day 1: Draft a Team:- On the first day we took the entire 40-minute class to discuss the project including the expectations and goals for each student and teacher. All handouts were passed out and will be kept in a manila folder, which will stay in the classroom. Each student drafts a team based on the MLB Player values handout using the team roster sheet.
Day 2-4: Compute team statistics:
- Prior to each class I printed off statistics from each playoff game. These statistics were handed out to each student. I asked each student to highlight all of his or her players in each game and that players statistics for that game. I show the class how to read the statistics and how to compute the points for two of my players before they could work on their own. I then allowed them the rest of class to compute the scores for their entire team. They may work with a partner if they choose to do so or may work independently. I walk around the room and offer assistance when needed. They are doing all this work on the handouts I have provided
Day 5: Final touchups:
- This class period is used for students to make the final touchups on their project. At the end of this class they must hand in their 1) FB team roster 2) daily scoring sheets and 3) Total scoring sheet.
- Resources
- MLB Player Values- I made these up based on actual statistics from the 2006 season. Actual stats can be found at http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/stats/index.jsp
- Box scores from each playoff game. I printed these off from each teams home website (i.e. www.mets.com)
- Instructional/Environmental Modifications
I was able to offer assistance explaining how to use the box scores and clearly layout the fractions. - Time Required
- Planning: I planned for approx. 4-5 hours. This planning included making up the player values, typing ut each handout and planning each lesson and class period.
- In-class time: Adding Fractions was taught prior to this learning experience. Thus, this is a reinforcement of the concept. We spent one class period drafting our rosters or making our teams and 3-4 class periods calculating the points for our teams. Since I teach AIS all work for this project was done inside the classroom, no work was taken out.
- Reflection
This learning experience was developed to increase student performance with adding fractions. Adding fractions is an important skill used in many performance indicators in the NYS core curriculum. We also gathered data from the box scores of each game played, which is another state standard used across the k-12 curriculum. I teach Math AIS for grades 5-8 and these skills are used in each of them. One thing I did not require but will in the future is to have the students reduce fractions to lowest terms. I would also make sure I collected all student scrap paper so I can see all the work they did to come up with their final results. In doing this learning experience I learned that students have many different interests. A few students really like baseball while others talked about other sports or events they are interested in. I think this is a great way to motivate that student who never enjoys anything in math class. This will
