Comments on: Home Run Kings – Activity Analysis

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 04:48:53 +0000

As a baseball fan, I love it!! But do agree with @mathnerdjet if students don’t like baseball it will be a tough buy-in. I like the idea of a different context for the extension.

I was also going to add that with the Extension, Rodriguez isn’t playing anymore so that would need a little update already! So many places to go with the predictions and trends.

What does it say Kris Bryant can do!!?? He already is performing better than Harper as far as HR and BA in his 2 years.

By: Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 22:09:28 +0000

@mathnerdjet: You’ve touched on one of my lingering concerns about the activity: It’s pretty deep in a context lots of students probably don’t know or care about. I like the idea of a new graph in a different context. I’ll explore that. Thanks for the pushback about the “busy” screen. My instincts are often off. It’s helpful to get a second opinion on these things. 🙂

@scott: Thanks for stopping by, and offering all these great suggestions. You sparked a couple of ideas for how else I could use this context and data set. I’ll tinker and see where things go. Thanks again!

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 02:30:42 +0000

I think Screen 2 could be improved by using a table instead. On Screen 5 consider adding labels to each of the 5 HR hitters and the era that they hit the homeruns. Have the students pick an argument to make (WILL or WILL NOT). Instead of the reveal being on Screen 6, have students predict how many HRs Harper will have to hit per year by certain ages to break Bonds record using a graph with Bonds & Harper data. Another question to pose with using the 5 HR hitters data is “What four factors do you think contribute to the number of homeruns hit from age 38 on?” One possible extension would be to include a table of players that have the five highest number of HRs hit per year from age 38 to the end their careers. This could add to the prediction of likelihood of breaking the record. I like the idea of the previous comment of an extension on a completely different context.

By: mathnerdjet

mathnerdjet — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 01:07:45 +0000

I don’t like the extension screen. It is too much of the same thing, and, if a kid isn’t interested in baseball to start with, the extension would not be compelling. What about using a similar problem but with an entirely different context?

As for the screen that you thought was too busy, that one was my favorite, because it gave lots of opportunity for students to argue one way or the other.

In response to the previous comment, instead of having students write their arguments, this could be done as a Think-Pair-Share or small group activity and then different students or groups could be called on to present their arguments.

By: Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 16:23:44 +0000

Hi Katrin,

Thanks for stopping by and weighing in! I especially like your suggestion to explore (even if only briefly) the differences (and rationale for using) frequency vs cumulative frequency.

By: Katrin

Katrin — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 06:45:25 +0000

It’s a great activity, but I don’t like writing sentences in Maths classes. In a one-to-one setting, e.g. home educators, this could of course be done orally and be finished really quickly.
I didn’t like the question in screen 2. There’s not much to say. Perhaps it is better to start with a graph showing the number of home runs each year, and then explain why you prefer cumulative data.
I don’t think screen 5 has too much information.
You could add some questions about the relation between a frequency bar chart and a cumulative frequency graph.