Football - Themed Math Lessons

Football Math Activities for this Week

​It is an exciting time of year for our football-loving students!  With the big game coming up, football is the focus of many students’ conversations.  I feel the most proud and confident about a lesson when it is relevant to my students’ lives.  I’ve rounded up some ideas to bring that game-time excitement to your classroom!

​Financial Football – Free online game
 
Kids can play this interactive, video-based online football game to explore financial literacy.  There are options for one player, or head-to-head play. 
 
Lesson plan PDFs to accompany the game are available as well, with options for age 11-14 (rookie), age 14-18 (pro), and even an option for 18 years and older (Hall of Fame). 
 
It’s really well done, and students think it is pretty cool.  You’ll need an active flash player on the classroom computers to use this.
 
​
Creating a Graph
 
Have students review the history here showing all winners, and determine the best way to represent the data on a graph.  They can show all years by creating a graph that best displays the information. 
 
This is a great opportunity to incorporate technology as well.  They can do paper or poster graphs to plot it, or use tech tools to create the graph.  Try having students work in pairs.
 
 
Linear Equations Football Game
 
 Your students are sure to love this fun, football-inspired game for Algebra! With this game, there are so many easy ways to differentiate.  You get two sets of “football play” cards. Set A has basic linear equations in slope-intercept form, and Set B has y-intercepts that are not integers (Students must use Point-Slope Form on these cards.)  

​You also get two different worksheets.  Worksheet 1 has students only write equations in Slope-Intercept Form.  Worksheet 2 has students finding and recording Slope-Intercept Form and Point-Slope Form.
 
Students pair up and play the game with their partner. Each turn a new "football play" card is drawn. The offensive player decides which of two points on the coordinate plane to pass the ball to. The defensive player decides which of two defenders will attempt a tackle. A player scores by writing the equation for the line of the pass correctly....as long as the defender did not accurately make a tackle at the same point.
 
Check out this video to see how the game works!

 
The Science of NFL football
 
NBC Learn teamed up with the National Science Foundation to create a 10-part video series centering on the Science of NFL football It covers everything from spheres to health and hydration to the Pythagorean Theorem. 
 
This page is more geared towards a science class, but some videos definitely belong in your math teaching.  These videos are perfect for getting your students’ attention!
 
I especially love this video on Geometric Shapes: Spheres, Ellipses, & Prolate Spheroids!
 
 
Mean, Median, Mode, and Range
 
Use this tweet map to explore the number of times each word was tweeted in each region during the 2009 game.
 
By hovering over areas and scrolling across the time bar, kids can see the totals.  Just give a few question prompts that help them review measures of central tendency.  The possibilities are endless!
 
 
STEM Lesson with #DeflateGate
 
This STEM-based football lesson is great for older students.  It would work well for high school math, Chemistry, or Physics class.  Students explore links between pressure and temperature.  They’ll convert units to metric, watch a video, and use the expression P1/ T1 =  P2/T2   to determine whether a cold game may have affected the inflation of the ball.
 
This lesson on the Ideal Gas Law can be just a quick reading of the article in the last few minutes of a class period, or you can go beyond, and try it out with a football and a freezer!

Dollars and Cents at the Concession Stands
 
Something I’m pretty sure everyone loves at football games are the concession stands! Bring this delicious aspect into your classroom with this creative game from Scholastic. 
 
Scholastic shares a great idea for younger learners.  Pass out poster board to small groups and have them build concession stands, drawing and pricing their menu items; using play money and a “register” have students pay for items and make change accurately.
 
For middle school students, consider printing out the statistics of the two teams in the superbowl, the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.  Using these numbers, have students work in pairs to find the mean, median, and mode, etc.  You can also have graph the stats and compare the two teams.
 
If you teach a subject other than math, Scholastic offers a ton of other ideas to integrate football in your lessons!
 
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