Who’s No. 1? Investigating the Mathematics of Rankings
Monday, March 28, 2011 at 4:04PM By PATRICK HONNER and HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO
Overview | Rankings and ratings can have considerable, and serious, implications. How do we determine that a student, team, school, teacher or policy is better than another? And what does “better” mean? In this lesson, students explore the use of quantitative ratings by examining how Division I college basketball teams are ranked, and how specific mathematical decisions can have significant consequences. Materials | Computers with Internet access; Simple Spreadsheet software (optional) Warm-up | Tell students to pair up and work with their partners to answer the following questions: How can we determine the top student in school? Would you use a single variable, like grade point average? Or would you create a ranking system based on multiple variables, like G.P.A. and standardized test scores, activity participation and perhaps other factors? How might you begin to create a fair composite ranking system using quantifiable measures?
