Who’s No. 1? Investigating the Mathematics of Rankings

By PATRICK HONNER and HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO

Jay Pickthorn/Associated PressThe No. 13 N.C.A.A. seed, Oakland, with Travis Bader and Coach Greg Kampe, makes a tempting pick against No. 4, Texas, in the second round.Go to related FiveThirtyEight blog post » | Go to related article »

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?

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Make my number - Choosing and using operations / Equations

Thanks to Michael Ymer for this game best suited to students from year 4 onwards.

Students can play in pairs or groups of four.

Deck of cards with Jokers included but all picture cards removed. All cards have face value with the Ace representing 1. The Joker is wild and can represent any number from 1 to 10.

Six cards are dealt face up between two or more students. The seventh card or the next card on the deck is the target number. Students are challenged to make as many equations as possible using combinations of the six cards displayed to equal the target number. They must write the equations down. Encourage students to begin using simple equations to make the target number and then extend to using more than one operation, brackets, order of operations, negative numbers, square root , decimal notation etc. A scoring system can be used earning extra points for using more cards in the eqations or using operations other than addition and subtraction. Place a time limit of perhaps 3 or 4 minutes per game. Students tally their points to see how they went. Discard these cards and play again using the next seven numbers. It may be worth modelling this activity with the whole class from the front and everybody using the same set of numbers.



Card Game: Odd or Even - Reading numbers and identifying odd and even numbers

A another great game from Michael Ymer suitable for students from Prep to Year 6.

Two students place a deck of cards in front of them face down. Kings, Jacks, Tens and Jokers  removed. The Queens represent zero and the Aces represent one. Students take it in turns taking one card at a time. Before they flip it over and read out the number they guess whether or not it is odd or even. [Children can draft a sheet with odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other side and place a counter on their guess before flipping the card. This stops arguments about what was and wasn’t said.] If the child guesses correctly he/she keeps the card. If he guessed incorrectly the card is given to his/her partner Keep playing until the cards have all been used. The student with the most cards wins that game. Cards are shuffled and a new game begins.

Teachers may wish to assess a student’s ability to read numbers by asking him/her to press a number on the calculator and read it. If successful press another and so on. This will tell you if a child can read 2, 3, or more digit numbers and can help pair students appropriately. Allow children to play game up to one digit further than they can read so that learning can be extended.

Variations

Play the game with more than one card. The focus is not identifying odd and even numbers as children read larger numbers. The focus is correctly reading and saying 2,3,4,5 etc digit numbers.



A complete list of online Math's Resources

A big thanks to Lauren for this one

Whether you are confused by multiplication, need extra practice with geometry proofs, or find yourself struggling to understand logarithms, you are sure to find a website from the following list that fits your math needs.

We have scoured the Internet in order to compile a comprehensive collection of resources for all math subjects, from the basics to calculus. This article provides helpful explanations, sample problems and tests, detailed diagrams, and even games. If you want to improve your math skills, this is an excellent place to start.  They are all free of course.

To see this list click here

Teach your students about the mathematical concept of estimation

Estimate is a great interactive site that allows students to estimate a number that an arrow is pointing to on a number line. This is great for students who are first learning about estimation. It is an easy to use site that is fairly robust and would be useful to students of all ages.  Access it here.