Problem Description Sheet:       Who is Going to Win?             

Introduction: The newspaper often has a table showing the number of wins, losses, ties, points, and other information (usually called Standings) about different sports leagues. In this problem you will be asked to answer a few questions about this table.

Problem: Choose any sport that you can find Standings for in the newspaper. Answer the following questions.

  1. What is the name of the team in third place? How many wins does this team have?
     

  2. How far behind first place is the team that is in second place?
     
  3. Draw a graph to show the number of wins each team has?
     
  4. For three of the next games (they may be listed in the newspaper), predict who will win each game. Explain why you made those predictions.
     
  5. Check with a few classmates that made predictions about the same games. Did they predict the same winners? Ask them why they made their predictions. Explain why some of your predictions might be different from their predictions. Check the paper to see who was correct after the games have been played.

Materials: pencil, paper, graph paper, calculator, Standings information (from the newspaper or the Internet)

Topic(s):

Numbers and operations,
data management
(D-1e,6,10b),
critical and creative thinking, communication

Activity Type:

  Group  Individual 

Assessment:

  Scale:      Levels 1-5        

  Self  Peer  Teacher 

  Include in your portfolio?
  Yes  No  Optional 

  Toward your marks?
  Yes  No  Optional 

       

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