In the Football project, students evaluate the efficiency of the teams of the most popular sport in America using self-generated algebraic expressions. The end goal is to use math to predict the outcome of future games.
Academic skills & content: Writing and Evaluating Algebraic Expressions, Making predictions based on statistical data. The statistics from the previous week’s games such as offensive yards and turnovers.
Final Product(s): The final product was the victory of two groups who tied or did better than the professionals. Two seventh grade students stood up at the podium in front of over 350 guest and explained the process that professionals used to make predictions and set odds for NFL games. Then they explained their own process to the audience and how they beat “Vegas”. After they spoke, it was cool to watch grown men walk up to my female students to ask them for their formulas. One of whom asked me “What does the quarterback do?” at the start of the project.
This is how we Create the Expression
This is how we Gather the data
Suggested Duration: The project should run in two stages. Four weeks collecting data, and four weeks to make predictions (8 weeks total).This project could run for the entire NFL season if students wanted to continue independently or as a whole class.
This project was created with the generous support of the Avalon Foundation.
