Educators, take a look at these teachable ideas for lessons that use basketball as your
theme.
What is March Madness?
Take a look at this site for lots of resources and athlete profiles. Find out the "Who's
Who" of college basketball. A terrific source for great writing ideas, such as "What does
it take to make it to this level?"
How do
you calculate basketball field goal and free throw percentages?
Field goals and free throw percentages help you compare an athlete's performance from
game to game. Use the example data to calculate stats for actual athletes, or collect stats
from your school teams.
Do high-tech court shoes make a
difference in your basketball skills?
This "slam dunk" science project started in a middle school. It challenges kids to put their
understanding of sports science to the test by designing a multifunctional shoe. Make
sure you take time to look at the glossary, references, and lab tools and check out these
interesting activities:
- Flexibility – What
difference does a shoe's flexibility make?
- Traction – What happens
when a player lands?
- Design – What goes into a
well-designed shoe?
Do sports drinks make a difference in
performance?
During a tough game of hops, your body needs to replace the water it loses. Are sports
drinks as good as water? Do sports drinks improve performance? Take a tour of
Gatorade's site to see if you can find the answers.
We
all know that our bodies grow and develop over time. How does this growth affect sports
performance?
The "Bodies in Motion" project gives students experience in working with statistics,
biomechanics, sports, growth and development, and kinematics, the study of how the
human body moves in space.
How can you use the Hall
of Fame to teach technology?
Have your class prepare a spreadsheet on a group of Basketball Hall of Famer's to
determine if their stats have improved over the years.
How can I use math to figure
out which NBA teams average the most wins?
(Click Go to see results.) What is the
average number of field goals in the NBA? Which of the NBA teams has the best
winning percentage? As a sports-related math activity, have your class look at the stats
and calculate the mean and median, average the numbers, or complete other math
functions.
