Calculating the Scores

by Rdfrdmom2

Background
Ruminations about a career that went into unexpected directions

“Why do you call the kicker a dude, Sally?”

          “Because everybody knows the dude can’t do anything else but kick so the rest of the team is always saying they have to protect him because he might make the difference between the team winning or losing.”

          “Got it. Let’s move on. I want everyone to write P-A-T in their notebook and put a 1 beside it. P-A-T means point after touchdown, by the way, as Sally was saying. Now, how else can a team score?”

          Shouts of field goals and touchdowns rang out across the room.

          “Okay, okay. How many points does a team receive for field…”

          “3,” they roared, “and 6 for touchdowns.”

          “I’m going to draw a table on the board that I want you to copy into your notebook. We are going to determine all the different ways our team and Southeastern could have earned the number of points they made this past Friday night.”

# TD	# PAT	# FG	TOTAL	CALCULATION
4	2	1	29	4x6 + 2x1 + 1x3 = 24 + 2 + 3 = 29
3	2	3	29	3x6 + 2x1 + 3x3 = 18 + 2 + 9 = 29
2	2	5	29	2x6 + 2x1 + 5x3 = 12 + 2 + 15 = 29
1	1	7	28	1x6 + 1x1 + 7x3 = 6 + 1 + 21 + 28
0	0	9	27	0x6 + 0x1 + 9x3 = 0 + 0 + 27 = 27

          My students gave me the information in the first four columns above, then we did the calculations together. For some, we had to stop first and add four sixes to get to twenty-four which reinforced the concept of four times six equals twenty-four. The last two rows were done to convince a couple of the students that a team could not receive twenty-nine points with the information they provided me.

          Since the Southeastern team only scored six points, it did not take long for the class to figure out that they could have either scored one touchdown and missed the P-A-T or have kicked two field goals. Since this was a math lesson and not so much a football lesson, I did not spend any time discussing two-point plays after touchdowns nor the concept of safeties. I decided to leave that to the physical education teachers.

          The students’ homework that night was to find the score of any football game (at any level) that occurred the weekend before and make a chart as to how the team scored their points. I told them I would collect them and make worksheets for them to determine all the different ways the teams could have scored the number of points they earned.

          It was time for the kids to pack up to go to their next class. They left excited about their homework for the first time all year. I could hardly wait for the next day.

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Teachers sometimes have to pull straws to get students excited about learning. A special thanks to V Marguarite for the use of "Football Time" to enhance this work.

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Real-World Math

A chapter in the book Ruminations from a Winding Career

Calculating the Scores

by Rdfrdmom2

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