March Madness: A Unit About Basketball and Statistics

Jeanne Munoz
Curriculum Integration Specialist

It's the time of year when everyone is thinking basketball! Bring March Madness into the classroom to meet standards for 4th-6th grade physical education, language arts, math, and technology.

After basic skills in probability, ratios, mean, mode, average, and range have been introduced in math, introduce the March Madness unit by presenting each student with a March Madness journal with an online scavenger hunt of NCAA Tournament/ Basic Facts.

Then, after Selection Sunday when playoff teams are announced and using a version of the Tournament Playoff Bracket, students select a favorite team and determine the team's probability of winning in the first, second, and third playoff rounds.

Students enter team data in a class database, conduct research about playoff venues, costs of tickets, transportation, participate in a basketball shoot-out and more.

Lesson Plan includes standards, all teacher-led activities, and 22 student-centered activities. Additional teacher instructions and sample student activities are also included.

Note: If you are using Netscape on a Macintosh, you will not be able to open the student activities that use MS Excel. Please use Internet Explorer to open these files.

March Madness Lesson Plan (MS Word)
Putting it All Together -- Additional Instructions for Teachers (MS Word)

Student Activities
NCAA Scavenger Hunt (MS Word)
How to Become a Better Dribbler (MS Word)
NCAA Team Database (MS Excel)
Personal Dribbling Data (MS Excel)

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