It’s time for football again

4th down – It’s 4th down.  Should you go for it?  Punt?  Kick a field goal?  Instead of using your gut, use research, data and math to make the right call .   7.NS.1 , 7.NS.2 , 7.NS.3 , 7.SP.C.7 , HSS.MD.A.2 , HSS.MD.B.5 , HSS.MD.B.6 , HSS.MD.B.7

Home team advantage – In this activity students use an infographic to compare NFL team home and away wins. Students consider the best home team, the best away team and consider if NFL teams really do seem to have a home field advantage. 6.RP.1, 6.RP.2, 6.RP.3, 7.SP.4

Watson saves – Benjamin Watson stopped a touchdown in the last instant of a game by running diagonally across the entire field.  How far did he run? Teddy Braschi said that he must have run 120 yards.  Did he? Pythagorean Theorem or scale. 8.G.7, G-SRT.8

Extra point or 2-point conversion? – The NFL changed the extra point kick distance to 33 yards and now teams have a tough decision to make, go for one or two points?  The one point extra point is no longer a given with a success rate of about 94%.  Teams can go for two by trying to get the ball in the end zone from the two yard line. Teams have been successful at two-point conversions in the past about 50% of the time and 53% of the time after the first two weeks of the NFL season.  So we ask students, which does it make more sense to do? 7.SP.6, 7.SP.7, HSS.MD.B.5, HSS.MD.B.6, HSS.MD.B.7

Rush or Pass – Are teams better off if they have a great passing game or a great rushing game? We have four scatter plots to be made and analyzed in this activity.  8.SP.1, HSS.ID.B.6, HSS.ID.C.8, HSS.ID.C.9, HSS.IC.A.1, HSS.IC.B.6

Clean close shave In this lesson students compare NFL QB rating of quarterbacks with and without facial hair.  This task can be used to explore a number of math ideas such as sampling, causation versus correlation, misleading data, measures of central tendency, variability and data visualization. 6.SP.1, 6.SP.3, 6.SP.4, 7.SP.1, 7.SP.2, 7.SP.3, 7.SP.4, HSS.ID.A.2, HSS.ID.C.9

Fantasy football In the midst of another NFL season, we introduce students to Fantasy Football. Students first calculate football points given touchdowns, yardage gains and interceptions. They are then challenged to generalize an equation for that gives a player’s total fantasy points. Students solve equations as they try to find the number of passes, touchdowns, or interceptions that yield given point totals. 6.EE.1, 6.EE.2, 7.NS.1, 7.NS.2, 7.EE.3, 7.EE.4, HSA.SSE.A.1, HSA.CED.A.4, HSA.CED.A.2, HSA.REI.B.3

Deflate-gate The deflated ball controversy makes an interesting segue into negative number line understanding.6.NS.5, 6.NS.6, 6.NS.7, 6.EE.5, 7.NS.1,HSA.CED.A.1, HSA.CED.A.3

from Yummy Math https://www.yummymath.com/2018/its-time-for-football-again/