Fantasy Baseball

Brief Description: Students do math activities in the context of creating baseball teams and competing in a fantasy baseball tournament.

STEM Subject: Math
Other Subject: N/A
Grades: Elementary/Middle (Gr. 5-8)
Student participants: Up to 35
Format: Curriculum kit with materials

Description: From the website: “This program uses baseball as a context for teaching important mathematical concepts as students become co-managers of their very own Fantasy Baseball teams. They learn to analyze players' statistical data, draft players, make trades, arrange lineups, and play simulated baseball games. With some careful planning and a little luck, they might even lead their team to the Fantasy Baseball World Series.

In this program, students use fictional baseball cards to gather statistical data about Fantasy Baseball players. They analyze the data on the cards in order to determine players' offensive strengths and weaknesses. Students then take the helm of their own team, drafting and trading players in order to complete a final Fantasy Baseball team.

Once teams and rosters have been decided, students complete a more detailed analysis for each player. This analysis provides the information needed to create individual Player Wheels-proportionally accurate geometric representations of players' offensive statistics for a given year. Students then use these Player Wheels to play simulated games against other teams in the classroom. Throughout the program, player statistics are continually gathered, analyzed, compared, and displayed by the student managers. A regular season schedule is created and carried out by the various teams.”

The curriculum is flexible and can be divided roughly into 42 one-hour sessions, for approximately 42 hours total. One kit includes a teacher guide, manuals for up to 36 students, and other materials needed for implementation. One kit is $435 and additional refill kits can be purchased for multiple use.

http://www.actionmathgroup.com/what_is_fantasy_baseball.html