Title - Basketball Probabilities
By - Kevin Laws
Primary Subject - Math
Grade Level - 6th grade
Topics: Mean, Median, Mode and Range
Standards Addressed: NCTM Goal 4, 6th Grade
General Goals: Students will be able to collect accurate data, and from the data, be able to find measures of central tendency.
Specific Objective: Students will be able to find the mean, median, mode and range from any given set of data.
Required Materials: Basketball gym with 6 goals, 6 basketballs, paper and pencil.
Anticipatory Set: Discuss with the students prior to the activity how high school, college, or NBA teams may use the measures of central tendency to help them determine average height, weight, scoring average, assist, and rebounds. Teams may also use these measures to determine number of free throws, 2 point field goals and 3 point field goals made or missed for a game and the season.
Step by Step Procedure: Pair students into groups of 3 or 4 depending on the size of the class. Each member of the group has a responsibility.
1) shooter
2) rebounder
3) recorder
Each member of the group will shoot 10 free throws; responsibilities should rotate each time a shooter rotates. Total time should be about 10 minutes for each group to finish shooting. The groups should report back to the teacher with their results. Teacher will make a master of the class of the number of free throws each student made on an overhead transparency. Students should report back to the classroom to discuss the data that was collected.
Go over with the class each measure of central tendency. Using the data collected, have the students find each of the measures of central tendency. Allow students time to finish and let them report to you what they have found.
Independent Practice: Give the students a similar set of data and let them find the measures of central tendency.
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